Fruiting Planting Days in Late Winter

It is still late winter isn’t it?  I really wanted to name this “Early Spring” – the weather has turned the corner here, and the soil is warm enough now to reliably plant capsicums and eggplants and things that won’t germinate if the soil temperature is too low.  So this planting break I have planted seeds of:

Capsicums – three kinds: my own saved “Supermarket flats“, Liz’s gift of seeds of her “Mini Capsicums” (thanks Liz!), and my old favourite Hungarian wax (particularly for stuffing)

Tomatoes – four kinds: so hard to choose, but I’m determined not to overdo the planting again, so I’ve chosen yellow cherries, Roma, Principe Borghese, and Brandywine.

Eggplants – I have trouble with a virus spread by flea beetles. I’ve been cycling through varieties looking for resistance. This year I’m trying Thai Green.

Beans: four  kinds – Rattlesnake – a gift from Deb, that I tried very late in the season last year, so these are now second generation saved seed.  And my old favourites – Brown seeded snake beans, Blue Lake climbers, and Purple King climbers.

Cucumbers: Continental this time

Squash: Yellow bush

Zucchini: Tromboncino are going to be my main variety this year, because they use space so efficiently by climbing.  But I’ve put in a couple of seeds of Fordhook as well, just in case.

Pumpkin: I have several varieties that self seed, but I’ve put in some Potkins this year too for stuffing.

Sweet Corn: Balinese

I looked at the seeds of melons, luffa, sunflowers, tomatillos and okra too, but they didn’t make the cut this time.  The garden will be very full by the time I get this lot planted out so I might wait for next month for them.

The small seeds are all in a seed raising box. I shall transplant them into individual pots when they have their first true leaves, choosing just a few more than I plan to plant out.  That way, they will already be a month or more old before they are planted out, and I have another month to move the chooks through a couple of beds so as to get enough space well prepared for them all.

The big seeds like beans and cucumbers I’ve planted directly into pots.  I plant the beans three to a pot and choose the strongest two, and the cucumbers two to a pot and choose the stronger one to plant out.  The pots are filled with a very rich mix of compost, worm castings, some creek sand for drainage, and a little sprinkle of wood ash to raise the pH, all watered in with dilute seaweed brew.  So they will be planted out with their own little fertilizer stash. I’ve scored a lovely set of old concrete laundry tubs recently and they make a great potting mix making station – one tub filled with mix and one with dilute seaweed brew for soaking the pots as I fill them.  it makes the task so easy that I got it all done yesterday in a couple of hours.