NOVEMBER In The Garden

With continued hot, dry weather, it’s a full-time job keeping water up to things. I

have been applying wetta soil to all my pot plants and any new planting about once a

month for the last three months. Wetta soil will encourage hydrophobic soil (soil so

dry that it repels water) to absorb moisture making the most of any irrigation applied

to your plants.

---

In The Veggie Garden

Your spring and summer planting should be in full swing with the only restraint being leaving enough room for ongoing planting for the rest of the season.

To do:

Raise seedlings:

• Tomato

• Capsicum

• Chilli

• Eggplant

• Silverbeet

• Leeks

• Celery

Direct sow:

• Beetroots

• Carrots

• Beans

• Cucumber

• Lettuce & other salad greens,

• Pumpkins

• Sweet corn

• Zucchini

Continue to plant small amounts of potatoes to give you continual cropping into late

summer and autumn

TIP

Leave a bit of room to plant some flowering plants such as alyssum, nasturtium and marigolds to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects.

---

In The Herb Garden

If you have not already done so now is a great time to trim and fertilise all perennial herbs such as rosemary and thyme.

I like to have plenty of sage for Christmas if you are the same trim and fertilise it now. Replant it if it has succumbed to cold wet feet over the winter and died. Try planting into a pot using a well-drained potting mix or add some coarse sand to your favourite mix. Sage detests wet feet. Continue to successively plant summer herbs like dill, chervil, coriander, basil and parsley.

---

In The Orchard

Keep an eye out for leaf curl on your peaches and nectarines and woolly aphid on your apples. Woolly aphid can cause considerable damage to your trees if not controlled. I find it more prevalent on vigorously growing trees so limit or don’t fertilise your apple, pear and nashi pear trees. Mostly it is controlled by a parasitic wasp but infections need to be controlled either by removing (and burning) of infected branches or several application of pest oil.

ABOVE: Wooly aphid

It is also time to think about how you are going to protect your crop. A simple structure with netting is always successful, though I find the bower birds can still eat through the netting which is annoying.

My Productive Backyard has a wonderful blog post on how to build these.

IMAGE via My Productive Backyard

Netting is difficult to work with and can be very cruel to birds and reptiles so think about a permanent structure made from timber or steel and covered in aviary mesh.

Expensive to install but it will last a lifetime and there is not the plastic waste generated from plastic netting which does not last very many years.

---

Recipe of the month - Deirdre's Mum's Pineapple Fruit Cake

INGREDIENTS

500g sultanas

375g raisins

60g glace cherries

125g dates

125g glace pineapple

60g mixed peel

½ cup pineapple juice

1 teaspoon orange rind

3 tablespoons dry sherry

315 g butter

1 1/3 cups brown sugar firmly packed

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1/3 cup SR flour

1 1/2teaspoons mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg.

Method

1. Beat and rind together. Add brown sugar. Beat until smooth.

2. Add eggs one at a time.

3. Add fruit mixture, mix well.

4. Add dry ingredients.

5. Spread in a deep 8in square tin lined with 4 thicknesses of grease proof paper 2in above tin.

6. Bake in a slow oven 4 to 4 ½ hours or until cooked when tested.

7. Wrap with foil and leave until cold.

8. Remove from tin, leave in lining paper.

9. Wrap in plastic food wrap and store in a airtight container.

SHELF LIFE: Will keep 3 months.