GrowSmart Calendar - September

It's getting warmer now but there're still cold snaps and the gardens still wet.

This is a busy planting month - both seed raising in trays and sowing direct. If soil has been too wet and heavy to incorporate compost, now is a good time to do this, along with a dusting of dolomite lime. Mulch perennial plants before soil starts drying out. Clumps of perennial herbs can be divided and planted out - such as horseradish, comfrey and chives. established rhubarb plants can also be divided.

Sow beans, beetroot, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, cauliflower, celery, egplant, leek, lettuce, melon, parsnip, radish, silverbeet, tomato, zucchini.
Plant cape gooseberry, kumura, potato.

Plant of the month - Potato
Potatoes like well prepared, composted soil. Dig 15cm trenches, place sprouted potato tubers along the trench and with about 5cm of soil. As leaves emerge gradually 'hill' up potatoes by covering them from all sides. This increases the number of potatoes growing from the main stem. Allow plants to flower, and about 3 or 4 weeks later once the lower leaves start to yellow, it is possible to start harvesting some smallish 'new' potatoes. The longer you leave your crop, the bigger they get! If you are short of space, potatoes will happily grow in an old barrel or stack of tyres.