Autumn & Winter Rewards in your garden 🥦🥕

Hello & warmest welcome to our Birch Eco Friends & Community!

Now Summer is officially over & the calendar says it's Autumn (however these extended hot days in Queensland suggest otherwise) it's time to get our gardens into gear for our winter & spring veggies and flowers.

Autumn is bulb planting time for fabulous Spring displays of daffodils, tulips, gladdies, iris & more. If you follow the amazing Claus Dalby you'll be endlessly inspired to create an amphitheatre of stacked blooms on your back porch or entryway.   

In the veggie patch it's time to start thinking of all that emotionally satisfying & tummy filling comfort food we crave in winter. Rich, thick Pumpkin or Potato & leek soups, roasted root veg drizzled with honey & good old fashioned hearty stews like the Grandparents used to make. On that note does anyone still eat Kohl Rabi or Chokos or even know how to cook them anymore? 

So friends, there's no time to waste for a good harvest! Start with a refresh of your soil adding a cover crop of green manure or if you're impatient like me, add layers of compost, manure & sugar cane mulch. Water in & let sit for a week or two while your seedlings mature in their trays ready for planting. *Disclaimer - I don't claim to be a horticulture expert in any way, this is just what has worked for me as a home gardener over the past 7 years or so. By all means, please get out the gardening books for the expert advice on getting your soil perfected. There are also terrific tips in the 1-Minute gardener for no dig gardening & The Good Life for designing & creating your permaculture garden. Don't have these titles? You can grab yourself a copy while you're here 😉

Now for the fun part ! Here's your list of Seeds to sow for all zones in Aus in Autumn. Plenty to get started with even for the beginner gardeners.

Asian greens, Beans, Beetroot, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celeriac, Celery, Herbs, Kale, Kohl Rabi, Leek, Lettuce, Onion, Parsnip, Peas, Radish, Silverbeet, Spinach, Swede & Turnips.

If you're in a warmer tropical or subtropical zone you can also continue to plant :

Capsicum, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Melons, Okra, Pumpkin, Sunflowers, Squash, Tomato & Zucchini.

Once in the ground don't forget to give a feed with seaweed solution every couple of weeks to ease transplant shock and build strong healthy plants with assisted disease resistance. Likewise companion plant in & around your new veg with some edible flowers like nasturtium & marigold to deter pests. I have found that nasturtiums are great for deterring the grasshoppers from eating my kale. For ages I had no idea why my kale look so chewed & hadn't spotted the culprits until finally the ah ha day when I found long horned grasshoppers invading my patch. Quite by a happy mistake or some might claim intuitive gardening... haha, my nasturtiums took off in & around the kale & voila like magic the chewing had stopped & an incredible big healthy bunch of kale dominated the veggie bed. Definitely a game changer there!

Plus who doesn't love having additional things to harvest. Why not include some Viola's, Zinnia, Snapdragons & Cosmos to pretty up the patch, bring in the pollinators, produce cut flowers for the home & decorate your cakes or cocktails. Bonus! 

I hope this has been of some help to get you started on your Autumn veggie beds. If you need a little more inspiration or some seeds to get you started, check out our collection of books, veggie & flower seeds. We have Free standard shipping for orders over $100 & Free Express shipping over $200 😃

Be sure to tag us @bircheco on Facebook & Instagram with your growing adventures. We'd love to see your gardens flourish!

Happy Planting

Ali x 🌿💚