In the Veggie Patch with Jasper: Wirltuti

Hello, I am Jasper

I run the garden section of the newspaper. In these articles I will be giving advice straight from the garden. Each season I'll be here to share relatively simple tricks, tips and advice. There will be something for everyone.

What's New in the Ngutu Garden

After a few weeks of mostly rain, the sun is finally shining, and the birds are singing. This could only mean one thing: spring season is upon us. Gardeners across the southern coast are preparing for the next three months. Meanwhile, the Ngutu gardening crew have been frantically transplanting, sowing, harvesting and overall improving the garden for the start of the Spring season. For example, we renovated the scarecrow, sprinkled new fertilizer and transplanted a lot of Indigenous plants such as saltbush and wattle.

We have also been working with some of the Kurlana young people on competitions in the Royal Adelaide Show. Some of these include imagination salad, harvest basket, and flower saucers (a legitimate thing!) For proof here are some of our award-winning displays. 

Royal Adelaide Show First Prize

Royal Adelaide Show Second Prize

Royal Adelaide Show Third Prize for Salad of the Imagination

What's Fresh in the Garden

As always, with a new season there are new ingredients in abundance and our cooks have taken advantage of that with extraordinary results from dips to fruit platters. As the season continues more produce will be available for the Ngutu community as part of our new free weekly freshly harvested produce from our garden each Friday! As for what you can do for a spring garden? Well, Louise has you covered. Here are the questions.

With this helpful Q&A:

Q: What fertilizers are best for a Spring garden?

A: Organic type fertilizers can be made at home with animal bones for plant products like stems. They can also be found for sale on country roads through farm areas, or dynamic lifter and Seasol, both of which can be found at hardware stores like Mitre 10 or Bunnings.

Q: The leaves on my plant are going yellow, what can I do?

A: First of all, assess the type of plant you are dealing with as the reason might be a pest infecting it. Talking about it to an expert at a nursery or doing your own research can help. Before you start researching here are some question to remember. Is it part of its life cycle? Is it dead or have you been giving it the minimal nutrients it requires?

Q: What are the fastest growing veggies for the garden?

A: The fastest growing veggies at the moment are lettuces, radishes and stinging nettles. Yeah I know what you're thinking. Why would anyone plant stinging nettles on purpose? Reason, stinging nettle soup! (Look it up).

Q: What are the best herbs for a Spring garden?

A: Mediterranean herbs like Basil and Thyme but alos native herbs like Old Man Saltbush. 

Unfortunately, that's the end of this issue but I hope you come back next issue. 

Now get started on your patch!

Bye