Annual Planning
Dry Season
The dry season is the best time to plant out veggies, the best month to start your sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings is late March/April. Most of the Wet season bugs are starting to disappear and hopefully the days are becoming cooler. The cooler weather veggies like broccoli, broad beans and cabbages cannot be planted out until May.
Use the dry season to top up beds with fresh soil, manure and straw. Get your crops out before the end of November when the rains and bugs arrive all at once.
The Dry season is a great time to collect seed from veggies and store them in a cool place to use the next dry season.
Dry Season Vegies: capsicum, chillies, broccoli, tomato, lettuce, climbing beans, peas, sweet corn, silverbeet, spinach, carrot, watermelon, rock melon, spring onion, Spanish onion, garlic, beetroot.
Wet Season
The wet seems to be arriving late, or in some cases not at all. Wet season growing can be difficult because of the intense heat, heavy rains either drown the roots of veggies or beat them into the ground. The other problem is fungal diseases that hit certain veggies.
Don’t bother spraying for pests or fungal problems if it is going to rain – your hard work will just wash off. The main job during the wet is to try and keep the weeds under control.
The beginning of the Wet is the best time to plant out all the native and bush tucker plants. It is also ideal for all the tropical fruit trees as they will grow very quickly. Anything planted over the wet will need fertilising every 4 weeks and liquid fertilising every 3 weeks as the nutrients will get leached away in the rains.
Wet Season Vegies: snake beans, New Guinea beans, Ceylon spinach, eggplant, basil, chillies, garlic chives, watermelon, sweet potato, rosella, ginger, turmeric, mung beans, soya beans and peanuts.
