Yes it’s summer, but we want to talk about your winter garden!

Golden question! Is it possible to harvest from the garden all year round in Tasmania? 

Kachina: Harvesting from the garden all year round in Tasmania is definitely, one hundred percent possible.
Jimmy: Yes. I would say one hundred percent … I really don’t see winter as a lean season.

What’s your winter garden strategy?

Kachina: My winter gardening strategy is definitely to put some beds to rest … Even though you can harvest and plant in winter. So I do a green manure crop and slash it and cover it because it’s a good opportunity for that because you are growing a bit less of those key summer crops. But definitely planting those brassicas, and for a school garden as well, there’s just key things that kids love, like snow peas, crispy kale and cabbages. Kids love cabbage! I also think having a green house is great.

Reuben: One of my hot tips that’s awesome for if you are putting a green manure crop in, is select a few edible things in the green manure, that’s really great. 

Kachina: Yes definitely! And colourful things. 

Reuben: Yep, like broadbean tips, broadbean flowers, pea tips and then mustards and other brassicas in there as well. 

Kachina: I’ve actually put daikon radish in a green manure mix and that was a really good one because it’s got such a long tap root so if you do just a few and they break down, they create such good, organic matter in the ground. I once did a daikon crop just by itself in a green manure crop and the daikons in the green manure crop were giant and huge and the other ones didn’t go as well. But yes, very true, having colour and everything, making your green manure edible and interesting. 

Reuben: Jimmy, what’s your winter garden strategy?

Jimmy: I would say the key for me has always been to get those crops in, like brassicas, beets and kales, when there’s still that good warmth in the soil. Getting those [crops] established so that there’s an amount of growth before you head into the cooler months. And then even with your leafy stuff, like spinach and mizunas too. 

But I’d just bring it back to soil health. If you can build that really healthy biome in your soil, which is really just about adding good compost, and minimal tillage, lots of mulching if possible. I think if you’ve got super healthy soil, then the plants that you grow in that soil, regardless of what they are, are going to be more resilient, they’ll be more resistant to those fluctuations in temperature. It just gives you a buffer if you’ve got that really healthy base. So that’s my primary tip first and foremost. I grow the soil and the plants are a byproduct of that. And the way that I look at it, I guess my overall philosophy, the underpinning is soil health.  The seasonal picture has a bit more fluidity to it. It’s not too cut and dry because you’ll find if the soil is kicking and it’s really healthy, it means the plants are more resilient and likely to crop well even if they’re a little bit out of what’s on paper as ‘in season’.

Do you have some simple soil health tips to ensure that people have healthy soil no matter what the time of year? 

Jimmy: Compost, compost, compost. Really good, healthy, homemade if it can be, compost from a good supplier. I do lots of bokashi composting as well. So it’s really just about getting additional, healthy microbes into the soil ecology at any and every stage. Before I plant anything, I’ll dunk it in a bath of microbes, so I make sure all the root zones are fully inoculated, fully saturated with health to give them the best start. And again, I guess I would bring that into my strategy as seedling health and soil health. If I can get good seedlings that I’ve grown, that have been nurtured from day dot, and if the soil is healthy and has plenty of composting, bokashi, great, any kind of compost, it’s just going to add life to it. Keep it moist! Don’t let it dry out, mulching will help with that. If you can get those two things in balance where you’ve got really healthy seedlings and healthy soil, then the garden will do the rest for you. It’s not rocket science.

What are you aiming to grow in the garden at Bayview Secondary College for this winter?

Kachina: I think with the school garden, more unusual things the students really love. Unusual brassicas like kohlrabi and those types of things are really good, so I always try to grow something a little bit different every year to keep the kids excited, not just kale and cabbage. So yeah, I think those things definitely, and I like to bring the carrots into winter, so you’re harvesting the end of the carrots as well because kids love carrots. Having the basic herbs always throughout winter as well, like parsley and spring onion. 

Jimmy: Lots of brassicas, as always! There’ll be kale, there’ll be romanescos and kohlrabi. Beets, all the herbs, parsley, chives, spring onions, all the staples that the kitchen tends to use. We’ll get some carrots in, in early autumn, then I’ve found you can even push your spring carrots to winter carrots. You know, if you put them in the right conditions. I haven’t played around with using closhes (mini greenhouse row covers), but that’s another thing we could experiment with. Especially with the kids. Even just doing mini hoop houses with hort fleece, to push the edges of the seasons as well.  But coming back to what we’ll grow in winter… definitely spinach and mizuna. We had a bumper crop of purple mizuna last year and it was self-seeding everywhere and the kitchen had to get very creative. And things like silverbeets, I’ve always found that they grow better in the cooler months anyway.  So yeah, lots of leafy stuff and brassicas and cauliflowers. 

What’s the kitchen asking for and what’s been really good for the kitchen during winter months from your experience? 

Jimmy: They love all of the staples. Things that can grow and will grow well. There’d be some lettuce that we could get through too, as well as cabbage, silverbeets and maybe some beetroots, and then all the brassicas; broccoli, cauliflowers and kale. Kale’s so awesome, everybody knows. It’s such an awesome cropper, you can get such a long harvest out of it and it has so many different uses.

Any final tips or thoughts?

Kachina: I think a good tip for people who are unsure what to plant during this time, is to start planning and getting onto it a bit earlier because when the soil gets colder germinating seeds can be really difficult, so start to plan your garden now before autumn. And just giving things a go! Trial and error. That’s definitely the beauty of gardening. 

Jimmy: In the 24 Carrot Gardens model, having worked in two different schools, every school is unique in terms of what the kitchen will want to use and are capable of, or willing to use. As always, it’s about establishing what works for that particular kitchen and building that relationship, that communication with the kitchen, and then trying to work with that. Obviously we can only work within the realms of what’s possible within the season and within our resources; time and energy and what the garden can produce at that time of year. But yeah, I think that every chef, every cook [every kitchen garden] has their own sorts of needs, wants and then it’s about working it out together.  Like rhubarb, [the kitchen] absolutely loves rhubarb. So we’ve done a bit more rhubarb.  We also have our amazing bush tucker garden that’s just going off! We’ve got saltbush, we’ve got warrigal greens, you know and that will be different in every garden, so every kitchen and the flavour coming out is going to be unique. 

We hope this gives you a bit of insight into how our talented Garden Specialists (and you!) can grow vegetables all year round in Tasmania (and other temperate climates) and how a little bit of forward planning in the summer months now can set you up for a delicious harvest of leafy, crispy winter produce. 

For more details about what to plant and when, we recommend this great planting guide by Peter Cundall.