Vegetables
Sowing, spacing, feeding, pollination and harvest for the kitchen garden, crop by crop.
54 articles
Showing the 50 most recent of 54 articles, A to Z. Show the rest
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- All Top and No Bottom: Why Radish, Beetroot and Carrots Do Not Form RootsLush leaves and a stringy nothing underneath. The reasons root vegetables refuse to swell, from crowding and rich soil to heat and late h...Root Vegetables
- Asian Greens from Seed: Fast, Forgiving Leaves for Every Australian GardenAsian greens are some of the fastest, most forgiving crops you can grow from seed. Here is how to grow them across Australia, zone by zon...Asian Greens
- Asian Greens: A stir fry lover's paradise!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 gre...Asian Greens
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- Bush, Climbing and Runner Beans: How to Grow Beans From Seed in AustraliaBeans are the fastest return in the summer garden, as long as the soil is warm and you keep picking. The differences between bush, climbi...Growing from Seed
- How to Grow Beetroot from Seed in AustraliaA root crop that asks very little Beetroot, Beta vulgaris, is a root vegetable also known as red beet, garden beet and table beet. It sui...Cool Season
- A Comprehensive Guide on Growing Broad BeansA hardy cool season bean Vicia faba, the broad bean, is a vetch, and its closest garden relatives are peas and lentils. Despite the share...Cool Season
- How to grow Brussels sprouts in Australia: sow early, pick in the coldBrussels 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 i...Brassicas
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- How to Grow Cabbage from Seed in AustraliaCabbage is a cool season crop, not a summer one Cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. capitata, is a cole crop: a green, white or red biennial ...Cool Season
- Why Your Cabbages Are Not Forming Heads (and How to Fix It)Big leafy cabbages with nothing in the middle are one of the most common winter-garden complaints. Ten causes, from the wrong season to a...Brassicas
- Growing Capsicum in Australia: From Seed to Harvest Without the GuessworkCapsicums reward patience: a long warm season, an early start from seed, steady water and the right feed. Here is how to grow them across...Edible Produce
- How to Grow Capsicums and ChilliesCapsicums and chillies from seed Capsicums and chillies are close relatives grown for different ends, and they want the same things: warm...Companion Planting
- Carrot Growing Problems: Forked, Hairy, Green or Missing AltogetherCarrots that never came up, forked into legs, went hairy or turned green at the top all have simple causes. Here is how to read the root ...Root Vegetables
- Cauliflower Head Problems: Buttoning, Ricing, No Head and BrowningCauliflower is the fussiest brassica, and the head tells you exactly what went wrong. What tiny buttons, fuzzy curds, brown patches and p...Brassicas
- The Chilli Grower's Starter Guide: Heat Levels, Varieties, and What to Do With the HarvestChillies are easy and rewarding to grow. Here is how the Scoville heat scale works, which varieties to choose, how to grow them, and how ...Edible Produce
- How to Grow Cucumbers in Australia: Trellises, Pollination and Fruit That Is Never BitterA cucumber grown up a trellis is cleaner, straighter and easier to pick than one sprawled on the ground. How to sow, train, water and har...Growing from Seed
- Cut-and-come-again: months of greens from a single plantingOne planting of leafy greens, picked a little at a time, can keep cropping for weeks. Here is how cut-and-come-again works and which crop...Edible Produce
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- How to Grow Eggplant from Seed in AustraliaCoveringΒ several aspect of growing eggplant to get started if youβre looking to add this amazing plant to your garden.Β Growing from Seed
- A Comprehensive Guide on Growing Egyptian SpinachWhat Egyptian spinach is Corchorus olitorius answers to many names: Egyptian spinach, molokhia, mulukhiyah, jute mallow, saluyot and nalt...Growing from Seed
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- How to grow leeks in Australia: from seed tray to a thick white shankLeeks 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 ...Cool Season
- Lettuce All Year Round: How to Keep the Salad Bowl Full in Every SeasonLettuce can be picked every week of the year in most of Australia if you match the type to the season, sow little and often, and outwit t...Salad Greens
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- A Comprehensive Guide to Growing Okra from SeedsOkra in the Australian garden Abelmoschus esculentus, or okra, is an increasingly popular summer vegetable here. It usually starts settin...Edible Produce
- Onions Not Forming Bulbs? Day Length, Timing and the FixesOnions bulb on a signal from the length of the day, not the calendar. Why the wrong variety or sowing date gives you spring onions instea...Alliums
- How to Grow Organic PeasWhy 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 s...Cool Season
- How to Overwinter Chillies and Capsicums for an Earlier, Bigger CropChillies are perennials that frost turns into annuals. Keep the plant alive through winter and it fruits weeks earlier next summer. Which...Chillies
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- How to grow rhubarb from seed in Australia, and whether it is worth itNearly 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 rea...Cool Season
- How to Grow Rockmelon and Honeydew: Sweet Melons From Seed in an Australian SummerMelons are not hard, they are just fussy about heat and water at the end. How to sow rockmelon and honeydew, how many fruit to leave on a...Growing from Seed
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- How to Grow Salsify and Other Unusual Root VegetablesSalsify, scorzonera, skirret and friends are no harder than a carrot, just rarely on the shelf. Here is how to grow the unusual roots fro...Edible Produce
- How to grow silverbeet from seed in AustraliaSilverbeet 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 f...Cool Season
- How to Grow Squash and ZucchiniPrepare your garden Put the plant support in the bed before you sow. Most squash can be grown upright, which saves space and keeps the le...Companion Planting
- Starting Winter Brassicas in Summer HeatBroccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts started in summer have time to size up before winter. When to sow in each zone, and h...Brassicas
- Stop being kind to your carrots: why thinning is the step everyone skipsCrowded carrot rows give thin, tangled roots. How and when to thin carrots, beetroot and radish, the two-pass method, what really causes ...Root Vegetables
- Stop watering a little every day: how to water vegetables so the roots go downA light sprinkle every day keeps vegetable roots shallow. How to water deeply and less often, the finger test, when to water, mulch depth...Deep Watering
- Storage Crops: Vegetables That Keep for Months Without PreservingSome crops feed you for half a year after harvest with nothing more than a cool, dark cupboard. The best storage vegetables, how to cure ...Harvest
- Summer Crops in a Short, Cool Season: Tasmania, Canberra and the TablelandsLate spring frost and an early autumn leave cool and alpine gardens a short summer. Here is how to count your frost-free weeks, choose qu...Sowing Calendar
- Summer Greens: Leafy Crops That Take the Heat When Spinach BoltsWhen spinach and lettuce bolt in spring, a different set of leafy greens takes over. How to sow, pick and safely cook seven heat-loving g...Leafy greens
- How to Grow Sweet Corn in Australia: Block Planting, Pollination and Picking It at Its SweetestSweet corn is wind pollinated, so a short fat block beats a long thin row every time. Here is how to sow it, feed it, water it at the rig...Growing from Seed
- How to grow sweet potatoes in Australia, from tuber to harvestOne planting tuber can become a bed full of vines and a winter's worth of sweet potatoes. Here is the whole season, step by step, for Aus...Edible Produce
- How to Grow Sweeter, Less Bitter CucumbersWhy cucumbers turn bitter Planting cucumbers beside sunflowers does not make them sweeter. Bitterness comes from cucurbitacins, natural c...Companion Planting
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- Tomato Fruit Problems: Cracking, Blossom End Rot, No Fruit and MoreThe leaves look fine but the fruit is split, sunken, scarred or missing. A guide to the problems that show up on the tomato itself, what ...Tomatoes
- How to Grow Tomatoes from Seed in AustraliaLearn how toΒ grow tomatoesΒ fromΒ seedΒ with this back-to-basics tutorial. TheΒ best gardening tips toΒ growing tomatoesΒ in your own garden.Companion Planting
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- Vegetable Spacing: Why Plants Need Room, With a Guide for Common CropsCrowded plants share light, water and disease. What the spacing on the packet is really for, the difference between sowing and final spac...Gardening Basics
- Why vegetables bolt, and how to slow it downVegetables run to seed early for three reasons: warmth and longer days, a cold spell followed by warmer weather, and stress. How to delay...Troubleshooting
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- What to grow in winter: cool-season vegetables across AustraliaWinter is one of the best growing windows in much of Australia. Here is what to grow by climate zone, when to sow, and how frost shapes t...Edible Produce
- Growing Witloof (Belgian Endive) and Chicory in the Australian GardenWitloof, sold as Belgian endive, is really forced chicory. Learn the two-stage method, why it is bitter, and when to sow by Australian cl...Cool Season
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- Why your zucchini and pumpkin are not setting fruitA pumpkin or zucchini covered in flowers but no fruit is rarely a sick plant. Here is how cucurbits flower, and how to get yours setting ...Edible Produce
- Zucchini Flowers But No Fruit: The Male Flower Problem, Solved in a MorningZucchini flowers dropping without fruit is normal early on: the first flowers are male. How to tell male from female, why small fruit yel...Pollination
- Why Your Zucchini Keeps Flowering But Not Fruiting, and How to Fix ItA zucchini covered in flowers but no fruit is usually a timing or pollination issue, not a sick plant. Here is how to tell what is wrong ...Edible Produce