Is anyone still sowing in this cold weather?

[Nikki Dillon]

I sowed broad beans this weekend - they'll be great - but also chanced some spring onions and carrots. Wonder if they'll come up? It's a sheltered spot but it's getting frosty...

[Annette David and Iris]

Bok choi, but yes, our chooks got in before us. And kale growing wild. It is getting warmer, they tell me.

[Nikki Dillon]

An update on those carrots and spring onions I sowed outside rather optimistically on June 1st (the weekend before the frosts started!): the carrots came up but are rather thin - now just getting past the first 2 leaf stage. The spring onions took ages so I though they had rotted, but they did eventually come up well and are now about 1-2 cm high. Would you believe it?!

Broad beans are looking good and we've just eaten our first cauliflower. There are quite a few broccoli heads ready to pick too. Brussel sprouts looking a bit hen-pecked (literally, the chooks found them) but getting bigger. I only just read that you are supposed to pick the leaves off below each sprout to encourage them to grow, so hopefully they'll speed up now I've done that. Anyone got anything else in the garden?

[Annette David and Iris]

Our broad beans, planted about a month ago, are just starting to appear. And the 'indoor garden' is producing - harvesting (a small amount) of spinach today for lunch and there will be a (tiny) salad tonight. It still takes a lot of time for things to grow but is a good option for winter.

Have just made a new bed for strawberries, and bought new plants to fill it. Just need the soil.

Will get on to indoor sowing of some slow growing vege soon - peppers, eggplant etc which like a headstart. Roll over frost!

[Sarah Walsh]

I sowed some kohl rabi and kale seeds in the beginning of June. I've transplanted them into topless/bottomless yogurt pottles and they're growing nicely, but still too small to go in the garden. If I'm lucky, they might be ready to eat in spring/early summer :)

[Nikki Dillon]

Those broad beans I put in on 1st June are just peeping up, and there are a few little carrots coming up too - wow! But no sign at all of the spring onions yet. Put some more beans in today, plus some spinach and silverbeet seedlings.

[Nikki Dillon]

Hey I've just noticed there are now little pea pods on the sugarsnap peas I sowed in April. The normal peas aren't doing so well though; starting to go a bit brown at the ends and the flowers don't seem to have come to anything. The sugarsnaps won't be a bumper crop but even if they provide a meal or two it's been worth it! I got the seeds from King Seeds and they're called Carouby pea I think.

Nikki Dillon said:

You can sow broad beans from any time now until the spring. You won't get a lot of growth during the winter, but if you sow them now they will have a head start in spring and you are less likely to have problems with warm weather pests eating them when they are ready for harvest. My father-in-law put some in last spring, but they were covered in blackfly or something by the time they were mature, and he didn't get much of a harvest, whereas my autumn sown ones had no problems and we had loads of beans.

If your peas are useless you can always dig them into the soil so at least you get some goodness from them! Still no pods on mine...

[Nikki Dillon]

You can sow broad beans from any time now until the spring. You won't get a lot of growth during the winter, but if you sow them now they will have a head start in spring and you are less likely to have problems with warm weather pests eating them when they are ready for harvest. My father-in-law put some in last spring, but they were covered in blackfly or something by the time they were mature, and he didn't get much of a harvest, whereas my autumn sown ones had no problems and we had loads of beans.

If your peas are useless you can always dig them into the soil so at least you get some goodness from them! Still no pods on mine...

[Claire W.]

So Broad beans will still grow?

I planted some peas but they never grew very well, I'm not sure why.
But now in the cold the leaves are turning brown and spotty and the pods are too.
So I figure it's too cold for them.
I've devoted nearly an entire patch to them so I'm a little disappointed they didn't turn out and that I will have to pull them out.
But if I do, and I were to replace the plants with broad beans, would they be alright to grow in the cold weather?

[Nikki Dillon]

I'm growing cabbages, broccoli and caulis (not yet ready to harvest) and have leeks, spring onions, carrots and spinach harvesting now. There are some peas and sugar snaps too with flowers, but no pods yet. The frost doesn't seem to have any effect on the mature plants - but I'll be surprised if anything new comes up. Spring feels a long time away...

Daniel Frost said:

Well I have some carrots that are surviuving and have just planted some silverbeet seeds (inside) will see how those are going to grow. What else is good to grow, or attempt to grow at this time of year? Also I have seen people with like a fine mesh tent over there vege patch to protect against the frosts I suspect. Whats the best material to use?

Also I have managed to raise a good patch of weeds this winter :)

[Annette David and Iris]

We invested in a small inside planting box on the weekend and transplanted some lettuce plants, and sowed radish and spring onions. It'll be interesting to see how the inside garden compares with the frosted outside one!