​                               Autumn in the Garden

• Now is the time to order your bare-rooted exotic and fruiting plants at your local nursery or trusted online supplier. Yalca Fruit Tree Nursery www.yalcafruittrees.com.au and Daleys Fruit Trees www.daleysfruit.com.au  are now taking orders for 2021 season.

 
It is also worth preparing planting sites well in advance, to give any organic additions plenty of time to settle.

• Here today, gone tomorrow - Saffron Crocus (Crocus Sativus):

It’s saffron crocus harvest time, although you may have missed it as their cropping season is fleeting to say the least. The high end and deliciously exotic stamens from this herbaceous plant require immediate harvesting when the flowers appear from within its subtle foliage, otherwise you will miss out. Keep your saffron stash in a conveniently located area so the chances of overlooking them are avoided.
 
Aside from producing a highly sought-after culinary ingredient, saffron crocus flowers are especially ornamental, and bees adore them.  So much so in fact, that I was beginning to wonder if I should pull up a chair whilst waiting for a resident bee to vacate the flower I wanted to harvest from. 

• Preventing weeds outstaying their welcome:

Mother Nature doesn’t like bare earth and responds by covering it with fast-growing, pioneer plants with low nutritional requirements and exemplary reproductive capabilities. Generally, these plants are considered garden pests and once they have produced seed, are difficult to control.
 
The veggie patch is one such place where the soil surface is commonly idle, damp and host to weedy plants outstaying their welcome. However, these unwanted plants also have many benefits including protecting the soil, encouraging beneficial soil life and increasing nutrient levels. Many are also healthy additions to the human diet.
 
When used smartly, weeds are your friends. The key is knowing which varieties to leave and which, including my nemesis couch grass, are best removed straight away. Weedy crops can be dug into the soil, left as a lush organic mulch, or used to make a fertiliser tea. Any seed heads should be removed before they mature to prevent their spread.

• Controlling Cabbage White Butterfly:

This regular and at times prolific gardening pest can wreak havoc on young seedlings, particularly those from the brassica family such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Putting pretend white butterflies about the place helps deter them as they are territorial. Exclusion control using pots covered with old onion or orange bags and their bases removed, works a treat for smaller plants, and I have also been introduced to a more novel and physical approach involving a squash racquet.

• Monitor and collect seed from remnant summer veggies and herbs as they mature. Depending on the variety, some seeds require harvesting early and ripening in paper bags or similar, to prevent them dispersing before collection. 
• If you don’t intend on getting out in the veggie patch this winter, throw in a green manure or nitrogen fixing crop to rejuvenate the soil in readiness for spring.
• Build up compost reserves with all the prunings and vegetative matter, which inevitably arises at this time of year.

 

Cabbage White Butterfly’s can obliterate young brassica seedlings – try making butterfly’s out of cloth or white plastic to deter these territorial pests.

Breathable bags used to harvest ripening seed heads.