What to plant...

Now if you've recently bought a Fully Planted or Deluxe VEG Bed you can probably skip this section. But if you've a home vegie gardener or have bought VEG Edging, read on... 

• Vegies: The colder wetter months in Melbourne are a great time to grow vegies, and now is an excellent time to plant!  Consider cabbage, asian greens like mizuna, tatsoi or pak choi, lettuce, rocket, spinach, carrots, celery, cauliflower, spring onions, leek, onions, radish, turnips and swedes.  And don't forget some legumes for protein for you, and valuable nitrogen for your soil: now's the time to plant peas of all varieties and the much maligned but actually very delicious fresh, broad beans. 
  

• Herbs: Get some parsley in, one of the most hardy, productive, delicious and healthy herbs there is.  Also try some rosemary, oregano, thyme and if you've got a corner of the garden where it won't go wandering into your vegie patch, some mint.

• Companions and flowers: Add some colour to your garden bed and salad, attract beneficial insects, and suppress disease with some flowering plants.  Some multipurpose flowers (most, not all, edible) include cornflower, calendula, pansies, viola, nasturtium, yarrow, daisies including feverfew and camomile, and marigolds.

• Green manures: Even if you're not going to grow anything over winter to eat, you can grow some soil improving crops which you can dig back in or mulch with come Spring.  If your soil has been a little overworked, it will love you for it!  It's like taking your soil on vacation.  At this time of year try broad bean (buy them in bulk as fava beans from Middle Eastern groceries), field pea, oats and wheat.

Fertilising, mulching and watering

If you've been growing summer vegies, it's now about time for "out with the old, and in with the new".  The changing of the seasons is the best time to add new mulch, fertilise and build up organic matter in your soil.

• Now's the time to begin pulling out the defeated of the Summer vegies.  Eggplants, basil, zuccini and capsicum are still going strong, but maybe some of your other vegies are well past their prime.  When you pull out the vegies -- and weeds in between -- don't let those wonderful nutrients leave your system.  The compost will gladly eat them up and turn them into great soil.  If you're pulling up diseased plants, you'd ideally build a hot compost to make sure the disease causing organisms are mercilessly cooked.  Try to pull your weeds out before they go to seed, but if they have gone to seed, a hot compost will take care of them too!  (We'll put some hot compost instructions up on the iVEG page soon, or come along to one of our Beginners' Guide to Compost and Worms courses.)

• Some of last season's plants might be able to stay right where they are to form a mulch for the next season.  Or you may get your hands on some autumn leaves, or buy a bale of straw.  Whatever it is -- mulch!  Then mulch some more. It protects the soil from the elements and breaks down to fertilise your plants.

• Give your plants a good water before you mulch.  Mulch holds water in the soil, but actually too much can prevent rain from getting through.  About 5-10cm is a good amount for most mulches.  Make sure to pull it away from the trunks of plants and small seedlings to keep them dry.

• There's no longer as much need to water as much as in Summer, so water only when needed.  If you're a customer with an automated tap timer, consider turning the tap off after rain, and turning it back on in dry spells.