Kirsty’s plot

I had a magnificent crop of seed sewn coriander through winter that kept me and the street in high supply for a month or more. Also had months of heavy cropping broccoli and some very vigorous to give away proportions spinach. Also had two lovely boxes of leaks, again giveaway proportions. And of course loads of silverbeet and beetroot. All of these through winter, along with two boxes of garlic planted june and four boxes spuds, half planted in may (! or even earlier, maybe march/april, Jackie French told me to do it!) the rest in july I think.

The May lot got fried by the frosts in July, so I planted a crop of broad beans over the top, harvested them and chopped them in as mulch only to find the spuds resprouting. These spuds were Kipflers and I got a lovely big harvest in Jan/ Feb. The other boxes, which I hadn't watered much, produced less: russet burbanks (very yummy) and something else I cant remember, these were from official seed spuds but they each produced maybe 3 each, so not a great success. So the spuds I left in the ground till we were ready to eat them which I discovered worked very well, and the garlic I pulled round summer solstice, about a third to half big purple heads, and the rest smaller.

I only planted one fresh summer bed, of eggplant and capsicum as we were to be away over the hols and unable to water. This bed got good but sometimes patchy watering, and the eggplants went crazy, am still eating them and giving them away. They were the small lebanese ones.

On reflection, I think I'd approach summer in a similar way again, but really build up the soil, wet it, cover with newspaper and mulch to percolate quietly in all beds that I haven't put a green crop into or planted. This way all non productive beds are fallow, resting and feeding up for the next growth season...