KITCHEN GARDENS With Norina Jane from Whitpro

Less than two weeks till Autumn!

As the weather starts its journey into the cooler months, it is a very exciting time for the vegie patches in the Whitsundays. April is “the month” to plant a huge variety of vegetable seeds, so now is the time for preparation and there is lots to do.

If you don’t have a compost bin, start one now.

A compost bin is the best thing you can do for your garden.  Adding a layer of compost to your garden beds will support worms, bacteria, fungi and micro-organisms to get to work.

If you haven’t had a compost before there are a few important things to remember.

No one wants a stinky compost bin and with the right balance, your compost should smell earthy and pleasant. It’s about balance and moisture. Keep your compost bin contents moist throughout but not saturated.  

Here’s how my compost bin looks:

• 50% dry materials - Cut up garden prunings, cardboard and paper (I wet mine before adding them into the pile), egg cartoons, dead leaves, straw

• 30% green plant matter – Soft garden prunings, thin layers of grass clippings

• 20% kitchen scraps – Avoiding meat, whole eggs and dairy as they smell and attract rodents

• Then I add blood and bone or poultry manure. This adds nitrogen and phosphorus and makes for a healthy environment for micro-organisms to do their work.

If you have not established garden beds yet, then find the sunniest part of your garden, as close as possible to the house and make a raised bed (great for drainage when we do get those heavy downpours) and remember that your soil depth needs to be 30-40cm for your vegies. Don’t make the bed any wider than 1.2 metres, you’ll need to comfortably reach in for mulching, weeding, pruning and picking!

If your beds are already established, then it’s time to clean them up. Remove weeds, add compost (if you don’t have any yet, you can buy soil improvers in bags, come see us at Whitpro we have plenty of options), a slow-release fertiliser like poultry manure and cover with mulch, my go to is sugar cane mulch. Your soil health means everything to the success in your vegetable garden, so give it some love now.

Soil temperature is a really important factor when it comes to seed germination, so don’t be tempted to plant them out too early. If your patch is ready to go and you just can’t wait till April then plant some basil and corn now, in March you can start adding capsicums, chillis, coriander and eggplant but be sure to leave plenty of room for April planting, you’re going to need it!

In the Whitsunday summer heat, salads are still our go to.

With a great dressing, you can lift any salad from dull to fabulous.

Try this one:

Salad:

Layer these ingredients on the plate and don’t stir

• Spinach leaves (as a base)

• Alfalfa – Sprinkle with as little or as much as you like

• Red Grapes cut in half

• Tomatoes – cut into quarters, remove seeds, dice into 1 cm pieces

• Cucumber – seeds removed and diced into 1cm pieces

• Beetroot – drain off excess liquid and cut into cubes

• Sprinkle with nuts or seeds of your choice

• Goats cheese – crumbled and spread on top (or your favourite cheese)

Drizzle the dressing over the salad. If you want to make it a meal on its own, then top with thinly sliced chicken schnitzel or salmon or lamb (whatever you enjoy or have left over from the night before).

Chive dressing:

This dressing can be stored in the fridge for a few days

• ¼ cup Olive Oil

• ¼ cup white wine vinegar

• 2 teaspoon crushed garlic

• ¼ cup caster sugar

• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• 1/3 cup Mayonnaise

• 1 teaspoon Dried salad herbs – Eg  Parsley / Chives / Basil / Onion Powder

• Salt and Lots of Pepper

1. Put all ingredients in a jar and shake like crazy (or in the blender)

1: Healthy soil creates a vibrant and flourishing veggie patch

2: Delicious home-grown herbs make the best salad dressing

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