Ruud Kleinpaste: Winter Gardening

Winter Gardening Just because we’re inching towards the start of winter (Sunday 21 June at 09.43 am) … that doesn’t mean we have to stop thinking about gardening! 1. Celery 


It grows great in winter, get some punnets and plant in a sunny spot with well-drained soil. Good compost mixed in the top of the soil and add some blood and bone or some general fertiliser. Celery doesn’t really like drying out too much. What I think is important here: add a bit of liquid fertiliser like seaweed tea or seafood soup every fortnight or so. In my opinion, harvesting is best done by cutting off the half-size outer leaves as they grow. I have never been a fan of those huge plants with thick stems, and if you aim for that sort of crop you often run into disease problems. 


 
2. Garlic 
This should be in the ground by now. I do not really subscribe to that “shortest day” myth, it’s best to be at least two weeks earlierm if not a month or more. That means you'll take advantage of the still warmer soil conditions, before the cold winter temps slow progress down. The other advantage is that you are likely to harvest the new garlic somewhat earlier, before that dreaded Garlic Rust kicks in. 


Well-drained soil with plenty of compost and don’t plant the cloves too deep. Sometimes a soil cover with some sheep dags and residual wool works wonders to feed this wonderful plant.


3. Asparagus
For those of you lucky enough to have an asparagus bed, now’s the time to put it “to bed”. Remove the old, fading stems, cut them off and lay them down as a thin mulch. Add some compost, a thin layer – couple of centimeters, and perhaps some sheep’s poo. I reckon vigilant weeding will assist the asparagus plants to soak up all the nutrients for themselves, resulting in more spears for you in September-onwards. This goes for the rest of the year too: keep the bed free of weeds and you’ll cut the rewards in spring. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE