December 2024 Planting Guide and Garden Update

This is no time for a pat on the back

I’m exhausted so it’s a good thing peak planting season is nearly over. Back when I grew vegetables in Melbourne, the window for planting tomatoes and other sensitive summer vegetables was always huge. I could pop a few early plants into the garden in September or, if life got busy, I could still reap a decent harvest from plants going in as late as the end of January.

Here in Kyneton, the growing season is much, much shorter. Our summers are usually hotter and drier than Melbourne’s, but they come and go in the blink of an eye. Tomatoes planted in September probably won’t survive the late Kyneton frosts, which bite until at least early November. Delaying planting tomatoes until Christmas will barely yield any ripe tomatoes before the cold weather returns in autumn. It’s a very short window for optimum planting. Mid-November is peak planting season in this part of the world, and I’m pleased to say that I’ve nearly finished planting.

Gosh it’s a lot of work. All that soil preparation, lugging compost, setting up irrigation, planting seed, transplanting seedlings, installing trellises. If you have a smaller vegetable patch, and a more relaxed approach to planting, this work may amount to only a day or two of labour. But I don’t do anything by halves. I need a strictly managed schedule to spread the workload over several weeks and ensure that succession planting delivers abundance without creating excessive gluts. The work involved in the scheduling, seed stocktake and seed ordering (months ahead of time) is a huge undertaking in itself. I’m so glad that I’m nearly at the finish line for planting my summer crops.

My sweet corn is looking great. I’m planting five successive crops to ensure a continuous harvest. This is plantings one, two and three. Can you guess what the garden stakes are for?

Picking up the pace

It would be easy to think that all the hard work was done: “Yes! It’s time to put my feet up.”

Alas, no. The planting is the easy part. It’s the harvesting that gets me every year. Snow peas, runner beans, zucchini and cucumbers all need picking every second day (daily is even better). Skipping more than a day or two will cause the peas and beans to slow up production and the zucchini to turn into monsters. Mustn’t. Stop. Picking.

Planting season still isn’t quite finished, but the harvest season has already begun. I picked my first tomato ten days ago.

I picked a Broad Ripple Currant tomato on November 23. It’s my earliest harvest yet.

The dates of my first tomato harvest for each summer of growing vegetables in Kyneton.

Tomatoes can be picked as required, but when late summer arrives, the 43 saucing tomatoes that I’ve just planted will need harvesting at least weekly. This doesn’t sound like much, but each pass of picking takes a few hours. Then they need processing into passata.

Many jars of passata in the making. Last week I planted my saucing tomatoes. Read more about my unique trellising method here.

Some of my readers find that watering is the most time-consuming part of growing food. My irrigation system cuts out the need to hand water. I still need to regularly inspect for leaks and problems, but growing on this scale would be impossible if I had to hand water and harvest all the produce.

The pick of the orchard

Strawberries and raspberries need picking every second day. If left too long, the former are demolished by slugs and harlequins and the latter drop to the ground and wither. Both berries are hitting their peak. The first blueberries are ripening. They are more forgiving and will hang on the bush for several weeks before falling to the ground. I pick blueberries weekly.

Plenty of “Christmas berries” – a colourful array of gooseberries and black, red and white currants – are ripening too. Combined with yellow and red raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, they make for delightful toppings for pavlovas and platters to be shared with friends and families at festive celebrations.

It’s Christmas berry season in my garden.

The cherries are colouring up and I’m tantalising close to a bumper crop of apricots. In my September newsletter I wrote about all the hurdles that need clearing to ensure an abundant apricot harvest, which is something that has eluded me thus far. I’ve cleared most of the hurdles, but there’s still potential for fungal disease, brown rot or Queensland Fruit Fly to scupper everything.

Oh so close but so much could still go wrong. I’m trying to keep my hopes and dreams for apricot abundance in check.

My Nightingale persimmon is covered in even more flowers than last year. It will be among the last in the steady procession of summer and autumn fruit that will keep me busy as it ripens, with picking, sorting and preserving right through to winter.

But it’s not just the fun of planting and harvesting summer fruits and vegetables keeping me busy. I’ll begin planting winter vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage at the end of the month. For quite a while yet, it’s all systems go in my garden.

Downpour deja vu

Last year my garden saw a warm, dry spring, with parched garden soil towards the end of November. Then the heavens opened and we received a succession of downpours from late November right through to the middle of January.

That was the rainfall pattern last summer. And it feels like this season could be shaping up to be a “rinse and repeat” of that same weather.

I remember in mid-November 2023 I was boasting that the garden was going to be under control a month earlier than in previous years. This year, in mid-November 2024, I thought the same thing. The garden seemed under control and everything stopped growing due to drought stress. Until last week, the garden was looking very thirsty. Local eucalyptus trees were shedding leaves in an attempt to cope with the drought stress. I’m accustomed to seeing this happen in February and March, but never as early as November.

Then, 10 days ago, on the night of November 23, the heavens opened to deliver gentle “meat and three veg rain” for the rest of the next day. This was followed up with a whopping 58 mm in the wee hours of the morning of November 27. Most of this second downpour fell so hard and fast that it overwhelmed my water catchment systems. However, the tanks are nearly replenished despite so much water spilling onto the ground.

According to my rain gauge, earlier this week it was raining cats and spiders.

I remembered that there had been a similar downpour after a prolonged dry spell in spring 2023. I checked back through my records, and 36.5 mm fell on November 25, 2023. The date of the first downpour this year is eerily similar.

So I started delving deeper into the rainfall records. There are many similarities between the rainfall of this spring and last. The following table shows the most significant correlation.

Rainfall data for the past four years. This year and 2023 are incredibly similar, especially when contrasted with the rainfall patterns of 2021 and 2022.

I’m no Nostradamus. Just because two months of rainfall records correlate well, doesn’t mean we are in for exactly the same weather patterns all over again this summer. But if we are, get set for a very wet Christmas Eve (remember that epic downpour?) and subtropical conditions this January.

Last year, the late November downpours kickstarted another round of weed, grass and hedge growth. I spent the rest of the summer mowing, hedge trimming and weeding all the rampant growth when normally I would be kicking back in the shade with a book.

Are we set for more of the same? And what might that mean?

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is forecasting a summer that is warmer than average, with the potential for higher-than-average rainfall. We could indeed be in for more of the same subtropical conditions we experienced last summer. However, its most recent long-range forecast states that rainfall could be closer to the average as we progress through January.

To work out what above-average rainfall and subtropical conditions might mean for the garden, I checked back through my hits and misses reflection on last summer. High rainfall in late December 2023 and right through January 2024 led to severe fungal disease outbreaks. Powdery mildew was rampant in the cucurbits and my early crop of cucumbers amounted to nothing. Fortunately, my second crop was very productive.

Last year I broke my one zucchini plant rule so I could compare early and later planting for my Fool’s Garden experiment. It was lucky I did because both plants were hampered by powdery mildew, which reduced productivity. The two plants combined had the output of one normal, healthy plant, so there were still enough zucchini to keep us satisfied (I referred to the situation at the time as “the holy grail of vegetable gardening: zucchini equilibrium”). So this week, I’m hedging my bets by sowing seeds to grow a second plant (I’ve already got one plant off and racing). If the weather pattern continues to produce rain and if mildew runs rampant, I’ll have plenty of zucchini. If the mildew doesn’t eventuate, in late January I can choose to enjoy a zucchini glut, or simply remove the extra plant.

Will this summer see proliferation of powdery mildew and the Fungus-eating Ladybird that usually accompanies it?

Another bonus from last summer’s rain was the impact on the harlequin bugs. I’ve noticed they proliferate during dry spells. This year, thanks to the dry spell, they are everywhere. They were also prevalent last spring, but their numbers diminished quickly after the heavy rains. I’m hoping that a continued pattern of abundant summer rain (if it eventuates) will help reduce their numbers again this time around.

I am seeing a pattern in the weather thus far. But when it comes to Mother Nature and growing food, there’s no certainty. Who knows what the summer holds? I don’t, but I’m going to have fun watching events unfold. As always, I’ll be comparing my successes and failures to my previous efforts and trying to understand what lies behind them.

My passion project

This is exciting. I’m often told that you can’t grow passionfruit in Kyneton, but this summer, I am one step closer.

There are dozens of flowers open on the passionfruit vine and some have already set fruit. Many more flower buds are developing and the foliage growth is explosive.

With a bit of luck, I will harvest our first homegrown passionfruit this summer. Here are a few tips if you’re wanting to grow them in a cool temperate climate like mine:

• Choose a cold tolerant variety. I’ve gone with Nelly Kelly Black. It’s grafted, which means the plants sucker like crazy. However, I initially planted non-grafted ones and they died. Hopefully the abundance of fruit will offset the pain that is pulling all the suckers out.

• Timing of planting is critical. I’ve found that planting in late spring allows the plants to establish before the onset of summer. The vines can grow all summer and harden off before the onset of winter. The frost still knocks them back severely, but at least they’ve put on enough foliage in the first summer of establishment to cope with frost and recover in the second spring. I initially killed quite a few plants planting at the wrong time of the year. Plant passionfruit at the same time you would normally plant tomatoes.

• Select the best microclimate you can find. Mine are growing in my citrus grove against a water tank which provides thermal mass. The vines are protected by a tall hedge from wind and all but the heaviest frosts. Read more about my citrus grove microclimate here.

  

  The passionfruit vines are thriving in my citrus grove microclimate.

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My to-do list this December

• It’s sucker season. Citrus, passionfruit, fruit trees, hazelnuts and roses – I’m noticing suckers emerging from the rootstock of all of them. Keep an eye on the suckers and remove them before they take over. Here’s what to look for and how to remove them.

• Fruit thinning continues. I’ve done a first pass on my stone fruit, but I’ll keep thinning any damaged fruit, plus a few extras as they develop, with another two or three passes. I’ll be making my first thinning pass on the apples and pears this week. See November’s newsletter for more information on fruit thinning.

• I need to net the fruit trees outside of my netted enclosure. The cockatoos have been circling over the past fortnight and the crimson rosellas are already sampling immature fruit (and assisting with fruit thinning). I’ve found that the first week of December is the last chance to net fruit trees. After that you can expect the cockatoos to descend with vigour.

• Most of my vegetable crops are planted, but I’ll be sowing my final crop of sweet corn (my fifth successive crop) just before the red-suited man descends the chimney. There’s also a crop of snow peas to go in and perhaps a few back-up cucumbers, in case the subtropical rains eventuate and the dreaded mildew descends.

• Melbourne folks and those gardening in warmer climates than mine don’t need to worry about winter crops for months yet. But this month I’ll be prepping beds for winter brassicas and will sow my first of three crops just before the end of 2024.

• I expect the downpours of last week will encourage rampant germination of black nightshade and other annual summer weeds. Later in the month I’ll be busy hoeing between vegetable rows to remove the bulk of them. I’ll follow up with delicate hand weeding close to young vegetable seedlings. Good airflow will be essential this summer to reduce fungal disease outbreaks. The last thing that I want is an avalanche of weeds swamping my precious vegetable seedlings.

• Picking. Picking. Picking. Huge quantities of berries, handfuls of cherries, ripening tomatoes and possibly, maybe, if I’m lucky, the until now elusive apricots. Could this be our first bumper apricot harvest in Kyneton? Fingers crossed that the rain and humidity don’t affect them (or the cherries).

• Cherry slug (aka pear slug) is appearing a month earlier than usual this year. I wont be doing anything about it but if you’d like to, here are some tips.

• I’ll be pruning my espaliered fruit trees. These need a light haircut to curb any vigorous watershoots and help establish the framework on young trees.

Responses to one of my recent social media posts indicate that cherry slugs are emerging early on many of my readers’ trees.

Summer fruit tree pruning workshop

Pop Friday February 21 in your calendar. That’s the date for my next fruit tree pruning workshop. It’s my most popular event and every year it quickly sells out. If you want to attend, then grab your ticket now.

What to plant in December

At this time of the year, I often get asked whether it’s too late in the season to plant a vegetable or herb garden. Except for the middle of winter, you can start an edible garden at any time of the year. It's all about choosing the right plants to use. Most of the spring planting options are still applicable. In December, you'll just have to be careful to keep the young plants well-watered during periods of hot weather. Your harvest will begin later than in earlier planted gardens but will continue long after the early gardens have been pulled up to make space for next winter's crops.

The Vegetable Patch from Scratch series is popular with both novice and seasoned gardeners alike. It covers everything you might want to know about growing vegetables. It might save you a bit of time and frustration by steering you away from preventable crop failures.

My planting guide generally refers to vegetables planted in the garden (as opposed to a greenhouse). This planting may consist of seeds directly sown (my usual and preferred method) or plants transplanted as seedlings. Read more about using this guide here.

You can start a herb garden almost any time of the year. Try growing the following and save yourself a heap of money you would otherwise spend on over-packaged bunches of herbs at the supermarket:

• Basil

• Thyme

• Sage

• Parsley

• Mint

• Rosemary

• Chives

• Oregano

• Spring onions

Transplanting seedlings such as lettuce during the warmer months can cause them to bolt and go straight to seed. Try growing plants on the following list from seed. This article explains how to sow seeds directly.

• Lettuce

• Spinach

• Rocket

• Endive

• Silverbeet

• Mustard greens

• Celery

• Chervil

• Kale

The following root vegetables can be planted in December:

• Radishes

• Turnips

• Parsnips

• Carrots

• Onions

• Leeks

• Beetroot

• Potatoes

• Peanuts

Most fruiting crops need a long growing period over the summer and should be started in late October or early to mid-November. However, it's not too late to get started. In fact, provided the soil is kept moist, sowing these seeds now will have them germinating far quicker than they would have 6–8 weeks ago. I'd recommend that any tomatoes, capsicum, chillies or eggplant are planted as advanced seedlings from now on. Consider giving some of these a go:

• Peas

• Beans

• Snow peas

• Sweet corn

• Tomatoes

• Pumpkin

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Zucchini tromboncino

• Cucamelons

• Eggplant

• Capsicum

• Watermelon

• Okra

• Squash

• Chillies

• Rockmelon

Good luck and happy gardening!

Duncan