It may not feel like it yet, but if you want a lovely winter vegetable crop, you need to sow fabulous Franchi Sementi heirloom vegetable seeds.
Germination started now will give you good sturdy little plants before the cold nights arrive. It is more the night time temperatures that inhibit the growth of your plants than the daytime ones, especially in Gauteng, where the day temperatures are quite good even in the middle of winter. This is also why you only water winter vegetables in the morning, as watering late in the day, causes freezing!
Prepare your beds well, remembering crop rotation principles. To find out more attend one of Linda’s (featured on DSTV) organic gardening 101 gardening courses. Visit Sought After Seedlings’ website – soughtafterseedlings.co.za for more information. In May 2017 GardenShop Bryanston will proudly launch their own, on-site organic vegetable garden. A beautiful venue for children and adult organic gardening courses.
Replace the food that your summer plants have used up in your soil, get good organic fertiliser, after all, you don’t want to eat any chemicals, and if you are lucky enough to be able to get manure, use that as well, but make sure that the animals where the manure comes from have not been given hormones and antibiotics. Antibiotics will kill the organisms and worms in the soil, so this will be of no use to your vegetables or you. If you can get worm tea or vermicast use that liberally. You can purchase Fertilis (which is vermicast), at your nearest GardenShop, apply it and wait for the magic.
Get ready to spend winter outdoors in your garden instead of being a couch potato… potatoes grow in summer!
This Post Has 2 Comments
Do you stock the organic manure? I buy regularly, my garden is organic but I have never even considered manure to be anything but organic!
Hello Jenny thank you for your enquiry. Manure, to be considered organic, is dependent on the treatment of the animal that it comes from. Unfortunately, a lot of animals are inoculated with hormones and antibiotics. The absorption of these chemical additions by the plants are unwanted in your organic diet and the micro and macro organisms in the soil are also effected, to their detriment. You may be interested to attend a course by Linda 082 365 0050 of Sought After Seedlings on Organic Vegetable Growing.