January and February
By Bruce Molloy & Elisabeth Fekonia
Most gardeners tend to give up on their gardens at this time of the year, claiming the sun is too hot and the growing conditions too dry or too wet for plants to perform well. If you get up at the crack of dawn before the summer heat strikes, you will find that you can easily perform these laborious tasks and experience the real joy of gardening. Together with the birds.
Now is the ideal time to prepare the garden beds for more extensive winter planting in March and you can tackle important jobs such as reinvigorating the soil and planting support species to use as mulch in the garden.
Reinvigorating the Soil
Where garden beds are bare, feed the soil before the planting starts again. Organic matter spread on top will break down very quickly with the heat and the rain, and you will put life back into the soil. Add fresh manure to make use of this small window of opportunity. Note: adding raw manure is generally not advisable when the vegetables are in their growth stage; it makes the soil too rich in nitrogen. This is detrimental to their health, leaving them weak and prime targets for pests.
Planting Support Species
Comfrey and lemongrass are excellent mulch plants which grow well in the summer heat. Plant the comfrey on the inside edge of the garden and the lemongrass on the outer edge to create nice soft borders for easy mowing, then "chop and drop" them periodically for mulch. Use a whippersnipper to cut the lemongrass occasionally for "instant mulch" to spread on the garden beds. Remember to pluck the large succulent comfrey leaves and throw them onto the garden beds as a nutrient boost to the soil.
Plant Now:
- corn, capsicum, eggplant, cucurbits such as cucumber and squash, tomato, beans, choko, sweet potato
- all support species such as pigeon pea, lemongrass, comfrey, Queensland arrowroot, crotolaria and any other tropical legume to be grown for mulch
Sow Now:
- onion, broadbeans, brusselsprouts, nasturtium, shallots, sunflowers, pumpkin
 Harvest Now:
- A dedicated gardener may have successfully nurtured capsicums, eggplants, beans, corn and pumpkins through this dry spell, however, generally there is not a lot of produce in the garden to harvest these days.
- Tropical vegetables such as aibika, Peruvian spinach, pitpit, cassava and kangkong tend to be productive at this time of the year. These unusual vegetables are generally water-wise and grow abundantly in the summer heat. Cassava (also known as tapioca) is a versatile starchy tuber needing little care which can be planted anytime during the warmer months. Sandy loam soils will contribute to good tuber formation. A great substitute for wheat flour and potatoes, it can be used to make both sweet and savoury dishes.
- Tropical vegetable plants are available from the Yandina Community Garden for $2 per plant. The gardens are open every Tuesday and Saturday mornings.
Did you know?
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The soil is the stomach for the plants. Feed the soil not the plants!
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Carbon is an important fertiliser for the garden. Carbon forms the sugars needed for plant growth.
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Mulch plants are a great benefit in terms of global warming. In addition to regrowing quickly, they sequester carbon from the atmosphere and return it to the soil where it belongs.
Pictures: Top - Eggplant, Bottom - Cassava, Cajan style
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