Garlic planting and sowing Winter crops

I have been busy sowing seeds for my perennial flowers and bulbs that I haven't been paying nearly enough attention to the vegie patch. While the Autumn harvest vegetables are coming to their natural end with the fast approaching frosty weather, it is time to Winter plan the garden.

My children, and some kids from over the back fence, have started me out with sowing brassicas. A few weeks ago the kids were all playing together in our back yard when the youngest (almost 4) wanted to go inside and "do craft". Keen to keep them outside in the beautiful weather and away from messing up the house, I managed to sell the idea of doing 'garden craft' with enough enthusiasm that the children were excited about selecting seeds to sow, writing labels for their pots and sowing their seeds. My choices of seeds were somewhat limited in terms of vegetables so they all sowed different brassicas - broccoli, romanesco broccoli, cauliflower or purple cauliflower.

The children were excited to be taking their flower and vegetable seeds pots home and I made a start on sowing my brassicas.

Over the next few days I will be also be planting out the garlic. We use a lot of garlic in our cooking, so it is a must plant in our garden. Planting garlic is quite easy if you haven't done it before. You need some 'seed garlic', which can be bought from your local garden centre or supermarket, but you'll need to look for locally produced, preferably organic garlic.

To plant, break the cloves apart but do not remove the papery covering. Plant in organic rich soil around 5-10 cm apart with the pointy end pointing up and just below the surface. Water in well, adding seaweed solution if desired. I cover the beds with a chopped pea straw or sugar cane mulch for water retention, keeping the weeds at bay and a little extra soil warmth.

I'll be sowing out a few beds of green manure as well. Green manure enriches the soil as it grows as well as when slashed and dug into the soil a few weeks before planting out in Spring. I usually sow a green manure crop after a tomato, capsicum, eggplant or potato crop as they tend to draw out a lot of nutrients from the soil which needs to be replaced before expecting another vegetable crop to grow.

Happy gardening!