Planting Guides - month by month - follow these proven tips  

 

DECEMBER

 

Nurture your soil

Fertilise summer vegetables and perennials.

Thickly mulch around plants with straw.

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Plant care

Direct sow: 

Allium - leeks, shallots

Cucurbits - cucumber

Legumes - beans

Root – beetroot, carrots, parsnip

Other – corn

 

Plant seedlings:

Leaf - lettuce

Solanaceous – aubergine, capsicum, chilli, tomatoes

Herbs – basil

Maintenance

Water well all veggies and fruit trees best early morning or late afternoon.

Tie tomato plants to stakes

Thin seedlings of beetroot, carrots, leeks, lettuce, parsnip

Watch for cabbage and white butterfly on all brassicas

Remove strawberry runners unless needed for new plants

Pinch out tips of climbing beans and cucurbits.

Pinch out side shoots on tomatoes.

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Harvest

Artichokes, aubergine, beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, capsicum, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers, garlic, lettuce, melons, potatoes, rhubarb, shallots, snow peas, squash, tomatoes, zucchini.

Pull and dry garlic.

Pick strawberries regularly.

Harvest tomatoes when firm to ripen indoors and to minimise pest damage.

Herbs:

Leaves can be harvested all year – curry tree, kaffir lime, lemon myrtle.

 

TIPS   Some Summer lettuces

Butternut type

-  Butternut

- Green Mignonette

- Little Gem

- Red Mignonette

- Sucrine

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Crisphead

- Great Lakes

- Iceberg

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Loose Leaf

- Darwin

- Oakleaf Purple

- Salad Bowl Green