Three veggies to plant in your garden this week

With many people spending more time at home, some of us are turning to our gardens to provide a distraction, a project and hopefully a bit of food. Canberra has a climate that’s pretty different to other parts of Australia, with frosty winters and dry hot summers to contend with.

The good news is that there’re plenty of edible plants you can grow in your garden right now in mid autumn. Today we’re going to focus on three plants that you can grow from seed.

Radishes planted in mid March are ready to eat right now!

Radishes

Bright, colourful and satisfyingly crunchy, you won’t regret planting radishes this autumn.  The good news is that you can look forward to radishes in about 6 weeks. There are many different kinds of radish, so make sure you use one that’s suitable for growing in the colder months.

Sow 1-2cm deep and 5cm apart. Make sure you thoroughly weed the bed first, because radishes like their space.

Garlic

Once you’ve discovered the joy of growing your own garlic you’ll never go back! Garlic is planted in mid-late autumn, grows throughout winter and is harvested in mid-late spring, normally around November in Canberra.  You can use bulbs that are sprouting from the back of the cupboard, from your local nursery or from a local grower. Just make sure that you’re not planting garlic that’s been imported. This is because it’s likely been fumigated and won’t sprout, and you don’t want to be disappointed in your garlic crop so early in the season!

If you can’t wait till spring to harvest your garlic, try cooking with ‘young garlic’, by harvesting and using the green stalks throughout the winter.

Plant garlic 10cm apart and 6cm deep with the point facing upwards. Keep your watering schedule consistent, garlic doesn’t like drying out or getting soggy.

Snow peas

These delicate climbing beauties will brighten up any winter garden. If you can’t wait for the pods, the shoots of snow peas make a delicious and mild salad green. Select the sunniest spot in the garden to keep them growing as much as possible throughout winter.

Plant: 5-8cm apart, and 2-3cm deep. Make sure you’ve given them something to climb on: a fence, trellis, tomato stakes or perhaps some bespoke construction of sticks and string.

Radishes grow quickly and can outcompete weeds and cope with some pest activity