Vegetables

Nearly everyone is told to buy a rhubarb crown. Seed is cheaper and gives you a batch of plants, but the seedlings vary and the first real harvest is further away. Here is the honest trade-off, and how to do it well.

Silverbeet keeps making leaves long after spinach has run to seed. Here is how to sow it, thin the clumps, feed it for leaf and pick it for months, zone by zone.

Brussels sprouts are one of the easiest winter crops to get wrong, and the reason is nearly always the sowing date. Here is when to sow in each Australian climate zone, and where the crop is not worth the bed space.

Parsnips have the worst germination reputation of any common vegetable, and the causes are few. Here is how to get a first crop up, and why cold makes the roots sweet.

Leeks are a long crop, not a hard one. Here is the autumn sowing, the dibber hole that makes the white shank, and what actually causes a leek to bolt.

A root crop that asks very little Beetroot, Beta vulgaris, is a root vegetable also known as red beet, garden beet and table beet. It suits a small...

Asian greens in the cool season patch A stir fry lover can keep a garden productive right through the cool months with a bed of Asian greens. Pak c...

Cabbage is a cool season crop, not a summer one Cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. capitata, is a cole crop: a green, white or red biennial that home ...

Why peas are worth a bed The sugars in a fresh pea begin turning to starch within hours of picking, which is why a homegrown pea tastes sweeter tha...

A hardy cool season bean Vicia faba, the broad bean, is a vetch, and its closest garden relatives are peas and lentils. Despite the shared name it ...

Witloof, sold as Belgian endive, is really forced chicory. Learn the two-stage method, why it is bitter, and when to sow by Australian climate zone.