The Wamboin Gardener

September 2010 cuttings

Wow! The rain just keeps coming and coming. We're up to 640mm with the year just over two thirds gone. Over the past 22 years we have averaged 685mm per year, but it's been much less in the last 10 years. So it could be a great year for re-establishing lawns and shrubberies. I've been sprinkling a bit of drylands grass seed amongst the weeds of the half bare patch of dirt that used to be a lawn and lo and behold, there's some sign of new grass. A good year for the garden but it could be a bad bushfire year so clean up any dead shrubs, grass and trees around the house.

If you get a chance between the showers - and there's more forecast for tomorrow - clean up the weeds in the vege garden and start getting a few things in. Seed potatoes are now available. Buy them from a supplier who sells from the bag and save a few $. You'll need to buy enough to plant now and again in December as they can be hard to get later in the year. Other things to plant now include carrots, spinach (sown direct, not transplanted), silver beet and asian greens (like pak choi). Don't get carried away as the weather warms up - tomatoes, sweet corn, capsicums, pumpkins and zucchinis can wait until late October.

If you have asparagus in your garden you should be able to start harvesting soon. I saw a few starting to poke their heads through today.