MAY 2025
Cool Temperate/Warm Temperate
it’s time to plant:
SEEDLINGS: Broccoli, broadbeans, cabbage, cauliflower, English spinach, kale, leek, rocket, silverbeet/Swiss chard, spring and salad onions, winter lettuce.
CROWNS: Artichoke, asparagus, strawberries
TUBERS: Early potatoes
BULBS/CLOVES: Garlic, elephant garlic
SEEDS: Broadbeans, broccoli, cabbage, celtuce, chives, coriander, English spinach, kale, lettuce & salad greens, pak choi, mustard, onion, parsley, parsnip, peas, radish, snap peas, snow peas, spinach, spring onions, salad onions, shallots, swede, thyme, turnips, and green manure crops.
What’s been planted:
Beetroot ‘Crimson Globe’ – seeds planted 8 May – have been having trouble getting beetroot to germinate, so hopefully this time… – seeds were a gift from my beautiful sisters. 25 May, clearly patience is required, I have just a few germinated to date.
Broad Beans “Coles Dwarf” – seed saved from last years harvest.
Elephant Garlic: Cloves planted 26 May
Garlic ‘Hardneck Turbin’- planted 10 May – purchased from Farmers Market in Bega, NSW.
Peas – Snap ‘ ‘: Seedlings planted 25May
Radish “Pink Celebration”-planted 24 May – old seed. Beginning to germinate 26 May!
Swede “Laurentian – planted 12 May – old seed, I’m not sure if they will grow, but I love swede, so hope so! 25 May – just two seeds have germinated to date, we will see!
Full-flavoured and earthy with a savoury yet sweet aftertaste, this highly underrated vegetable is a wonderful addition to the winter garden. This outstanding heirloom variety has a smooth and creamy texture that is a welcome surprise in our Diggers restaurants. A variety of Brassica rapa, the purplish tops can also be steamed and eaten. This variety is an improved variety of Turnip ‘Purple Top’ that was bred in Quebec, Canada and introduced to the US in 1920. The fine grained, slightly sweet, flesh is ideal for mashing and serving as a substitute to traditional mashed spud. Like parsnip, a light frost helps to sweeten the root before harvest.
to do list!
Raspberries
– remove the star pickets and wires – they are looking sloppy and need to be removed and re-set.
– prune last seasons canes
– replace star pickets and re-wire
– tie canes in place
What I’ve achieved/done!
25 May, and the month has raced away. While visiting my sister a couple of weeks ago I picked up some seedlings, English spinach, snap peas and wombok/Chinese cabbage/Napa cabbage. After saying I was absolutely not going to purchase any flowers, the first thing that we come to was a colour palate of polyanthus and I caved, but I was contained, only purchasing two.
PIP Magazine
https://littleoakchurch.com.au/peter-cundalls-year-round-planting-and-sowing-guide-for-vegetables
