In the Veggie Path - December (southern hemisphere)

Author: Toni Salter

Article: Sit back and enjoy the festive season this month. Hydrangeas make a wonderful Christmas display with their giant ""mop heads"" in shades of white, blue and pink. Often it's too hot to do too much in the garden now and Christmas shopping seems to take precedence anyway. Many of you might venture on a summer holiday around now, so I've included a few handy tips before you go.

<b>Holiday Care</b>

Take care of your precious work in the garden by ensuring that a neighbour or friend can do some watering if you go away.Make sure the garden is heavily mulched with at least 5cm (and preferably 7 or 8cm) of straw, sugarcane mulch, compost and pea straw. If you use fresh grass clippings don't lay them as heavily or it may go sludgy.Keeping the garden covered in a thick layer of mulch will keep down the need for watering so much and will also keep out the unwanted weeds. Soak all of your pot plants for several days leading up to your departure and place them in a shady part of the garden when you leave. You could try to rig up some shadecloth temporarily over sensitive plants or areas of the garden if you're concerned about them. And don't mow your lawn too low before you go, otherwise you might find it completely dead by the time you get back.

<b>What to sow</b>

Start sowing your winter crops this month. This includes all of your cabbage family plants like cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and Chinese vegetables. By the time they're a reasonable size for planting out, the weather should be starting to cool down. Carrots, beetroot, parsley, celery, leek and silverbeet are all winter crops so they can be sown now too.

Special care of seedlings needs to happen over the next few months to make sure they survive the heat. Be vigilant with daily watering and sometimes twice a day in really hot weather. I plant my seedlings out with cardboard milk cartons around them. This gives them a bit more protection from critters and gives a bit of extra shade.

<b>Successful veggies</b> You should be able to harvest a few ""new"" potatoes now if you can't wait. New potatoes are the young ones just under the surface, simply forage around under the topp layer of soil and pick a few off. The bigger ones can be dug up all at once after the tops die off later on.

Tomatoes start to come on from now also. They'll stay green until the weather is consistently warm to ripen the fruit. If you got in some early plants then you'll have some lush red tomatoes for Christmas lunch. Mulch around the tomatoes and corn to give them constistent water and nutrients. Keep picking things like cucumber, zucchini and leafy vegetables to encourage more cropping. You can almost watch zucchinis growing before your eyes!!

Successive planting means planting out seedlings every month to get a continual supply of veggies. So even if you have a few plants producing a crop now, still sow what ever you can to extend the harvest for a few months more. An easy way of getting another tomato plant quickly is to take a cutting by snipping of one of the ""laterals"" (or side shoots) with a clean cut, dip it in some rooting powder, stick it in a small pot of seed raising mix, tie a plastic bag over it after giving it some water and wait for about a week. Roots develop quickly and you'll have a new plant ready for the garden in a short time.

Pinch out growing tips of cucumbers, pumpkins and squash to encourage side shoots. These side shoots produce more flowers and keep the plant contained. Give regular liquid feed for all of your vegies especially leafy crops. Steep some chicken manure in water and use that for your leafy crops since it is full of nitrogen. But remember to dilute it to the colour of weak tea and apply it only after you've watered the garden, otherwise you risk burning the roots.

<b>The Flower Garden</b>

Hydrangeas give a fantastic focal point to a shady part of the garden. They like to be kept moist so keep the water up to them now. Did you know that you can change the colour of your hydrangea flowers depending on whether your soil is acid or alkaline?From about July, just keep adding lime to the soil to make them pink or add sulphur to make them blue.Do this for a few months and they'll be right for a December display. 

Don't be fooled into thinking that there is something wrong with your poinsettia in the garden because it isn't red like the ones in the shops. Poinsettia turns red in cooler months and are used for a Christmas focus in the Northern hemisphere. So the plants you see in the nursery are all """"forced"""" into what you see. Large blinds covering green houses simulates winter, as does temperature controlling. These plants are then sprayed with dwarfing hormone to produce the showy little Christmas features that we often see. Get away from our northern hemisphere legacy for Christmas this year and make a garland of gardenias instead. Gardenias' heavenly fragrance alone is enough to bring about a state of peace and joy for all mankind at Christmas!!

Dig up spring bulbs and store them over summer in a cool airy spot. Otherwise split them up and reposition them around the garden if the clumps are getting too big and not flowering well. Some bulbs, like tulips and daffodils need a cold winter to produce a good flower display. If you don't get really cold winters then you'll need to dig the bulbs up and ""force"" them into flower by putting them in the crisper section of your fridge for a few weeks next April.

<b>Pest alert!</b> Use milk sprays for fungal problems by diluting some milk with water at a rate of one part milk and 6 parts water. Keep it up every couple of days until it's controlled. This is good for rust, black spot and mildews - in fact, try it on anything that's got spots on it, it cant hurt!!

Use seaweed solution to strengthen soft new growth, it won't be as easily affected by either pests or diseases.

Fruit fly becomes a problem from now on especially on tomatoes, capsicum and fruit and they're particularly hard to control organically. Use a combination of controls like lures to trap male flies as a first measure, then use splash baits if necessary on branches and leaves (not the fruit). Ask your nursery for the traps and baits available. Always keep the garden free of fallen fruits that harbour eggs and larvae, this way you'll help stop the reproduction cycle.

Make a boundary of sawdust, coffee grounds or eggshells to deep snails and slugs off garden beds.

Treat bean fly with pyrethrum if you have to but apply it at the end of the day when the bees have gone home so they won't be harmed by it. Dipel is great for tomato grubs too.

<b>Fruit trees</b> Scale can attack citrus and ornamental plants so spray with white oil or pest oil to control it. It may take a few applications to penetrate the hard shell before you see any difference. Just make sure it's not a really hot day when you apply it or you could scorch the leaves.

Give your strawberries plenty of liquid feed now to keep up good supplies and vigorous new growth.

Don't overwater melons otherwise they'll be watery and tasteless.

Keep an eye on brown shrivelled fruit on stone fruit trees now and get rid of them in the garbage. Don't compost diseased or infested plant material. Give stone fruit good water and nutrients as the fruit develops and the tree puts on new growth. All next year's fruit will develop on this year's growth.

About the author: Toni Salter is the 'Veggie Lady'. Her website contains <a href =""http://www.theveggielady.com"">free advice on what to do in the garden</a>, <a href=""http://www.theveggielady.com/gardenguide.asp"">a planting guide</a>, <a href=""http://www.theveggielady.com/pests.asp"">organic pest and disease control</a>, featured plants and more each month.