One of the things I like about planting advanced seedlings is the instant gratification of it. This is the garden bed I planted out today – advanced seedlings of lettuce, raddichio, parsley, chinese cabbages, cauliflowers, leeks, silver beet, spinach, celery, red cabbage, broccoli, kailan, plus some parsnips, broad beans, peas, and snow peas.
In just a couple of days it will be Halloween in the southern hemisphere – the traditional festival marking the point when the day length levels out again, and we start the 3 month period of short days. The days will slowly shorten now until the shortest day of the midwinter solstice, then slowly lengthen again until the beginning of August.
I have Oceans Eleven being enacted in my garden. I’ve got just nineteen pea seeds up so far this year! I thought it might be birds getting them before they germinated, so I put some net over the boxes in the shadehouse. But they still got got. So I moved the boxes out into one of my fortress fenced garden beds. But they still got got. So I planted all…
If I can keep the routine going, I can harvest a dozen or so carrots pretty well most weeks of the year.
These days I plant even carrots out as advanced seedlings.
This time of year is perfect for leafy greens in my frost free garden. The various kinds of cabbage moths and web moths have all disappeared and my predator population can keep up with everything else. The days are still shortening as we head towards the winter solstice so they are not in too much of a rush to bolt to seed. The cooler weather makes it much easier to…