Sowing in September

A December CSA box 2017 - Many of these crops were sown in September!!!

Here are the crops we sow and plant in September:

• Greens

  • Butter Lettuce, Icebergs like Red iceberg, Head Cardinal and Reine d’Glace

    • interplant with alyssum to help attract beneficial insects that eat aphids

  • Spinach, Silverbeet, Agretti, Orach

  • Rocket, Bok Choy, Tatsoi, Mustards, Mizuna (We interplant these with our other brassicas AND we cover them with insect netting!

• Roots

  • Carrots - to keep a constant supply, we sow carrots ever 3 weeks from now through March!

  • Beetroot - we continue sowing these every month

  • Fennel

  • Radish and salad turnips

• Brassicas

  • Transplant seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage,kale

  • Cover with insect netting as the Diamond Back Moth LOVES all brassica crops including radishes, turnips, rocket, mustards, bok choy

  • Interplant with alyssum to offer beneficial bugs a nectar source

• Peas

  • We sow our second planting of sugar snap, snow and shelling peas this month. This keeps us with a constant supply, including peas for Christmas some seasons.

  • Peas prefer growing in the cooler months

• Onions and Leeks

  • We have had great results sowing long daylight onion varieties in the first week of September, growing large bulbs for fresh eating and storage.

  • We successively sow Spring onions from now through March

  • We have started our leeks from August - October. As we really like leeks in late Autumn and Winter, we find a late September start works best for us.

• Tomatoes

  • We start all of our field tomatoes this month!

• Basil, Marigolds and Herbs

  • We start basil and marigolds AHEAD of the field tomatoes, transplanting the flowers and basil earlier to attract beneficial insects to the tomatoes. Summer savoury is a great companion to tomatoes both in the garden and the kitchen!

  • We continue to successively sow coriander- as the days grow longer, its desire to bolt or shoot up to flower increases

  • We usually sow parsley 3 times throughout the season to keep a strong supply

• Zucchini, Summer Squash and Cucumbers

  • We start our first crop of these inside the greenhouse and transplant them out in October. In our late frost prone fields, we plant our first seedlings with protection from wind and frost, ensuring the earliest of harvests.

  • We will successively sow these mitigating our risks from frost and disease

• Flowers

  • Summer Cut Flowers of Zinnias, Celosia, Cleome, Phlox, Salvias, Strawflowers, Scabiosa (Pincushion Flower), Cosmos

  • Flowers that attract beneficial insects such as alyssum, calendula, marigolds and dill

  • Successive plantings of fillers such as pennycress and mignonette

• Capsicum, Eggplants and Chilies

  • Start these NOW to have an abundant harvest through Autumn

• Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes

  • We start our own sweet potato slips this month

  • We wait until mid - October to sow our potatoes because we are in a fiost hollow and can get late frosts that wipe out our crop

This is a very busy month in our glasshouse and our fields as we watch seeds transform into roots and shoots and incorporate our green manure crops, apply prepared biodynamic 500 to encourage the dynamic humus building and transplant crops!

Happy Spring!

PLEASE NOTE - These recommendations are completely based on our 15 years of growing on this patch in Southern Victoria, Australia. See Key Information To Record For Future Success to understand on what we base this information