Some veggies for planting January/February – Northern Beaches & Sydney (Australia Temperate Zone)
Suitable for plots
- Capsicum ‘California Wonder’, Cabbage ‘Bok Choy’, Bush Tomato ‘ Cherry Camp Joy’, Basil ‘Sweet Genovese’, Bush Bean ‘Provider‘ or dwarf bean, Cucumber ‘Muncher’, Lettuce Mix – (Mignonette, Oak leaf, Coral), Eggplant , Zucchini ‘Black Beauty’, Radish ‘Pink Beauty’; Endive, Soya Bean
The following plants need a large space (more suitable in the community garden area & back of garden):
- Rockmelon, Pumpkin ‘Butternut’, Watermelon ‘Allsweet’, Choko, Sweet potato.
Edible flowers (not florist or nursery bought unless organic):
- Pansies, Johnny-John-ups (Heartsease) Violas, Pinks, Portulaca (Sun Dews) Borage, Camomile, some marigolds, brocollini/broccoli flowers, society garlic, violets, basil, coriander, chive flowers . These are only a small selection. Please see fact sheet on edible flowers (workshop later on Edible Flowers -growing, eating: making sweets & decorating with edible flowers).
Please note: not all flowers in the garden are edible but you might like to try some of the above to start. Seeds need to be organic, as some seeds/seedlings are treated with chemicals.
Seed Saving:
- Some plants we will save for sprouting e.g. brocollini, butter beans
- Sunflower seeds we are harvesting now for eating & seed saving (before the cockatoos get the lot).
- Some plants such as beans, tomatoes, capsicums, & eggplants we keep some for seed harvesting.
- We may also sun dry tomatoes.
- Some plants we let flower and go to seed e.g. brocollini/broccoli, bok Choy, coriander. Others we will harvest the flowers for eating.
- The camomile we are harvesting the flowers now as they are ready. These will be used either fresh for tea or dried & then used for tea as needed in the community garden.
The community garden now has many fruit, berry and citrus trees. A list will be available soon on all the fruit trees in the garden.
We have also planted a number of ‘Bush tucker foods’ and this will be followed up by a workshop in due course. A fact sheet will be available in the near future so that you can identify where these foods are and how they can be used.
A. McArdle 2011
Leave a comment