Looking ahead...

Now that we've passed the Summer Solstice, which is when the earths tilt takes us in the Southern Hemisphere closest to the sun, we're on the long slide back down through Autumn towards Winter. Not that we should feel it for some time yet. Due to the effect of the atmosphere and the mitigating effects of the oceans, the temperatures won't be dropping for some time yet, so theres still time to grow more salad crops.
It IS however, time to start thinking about what to be putting in the garden for the colder months, and this time of year is the time to start things like cabbages, caulis, broccoli, and also to plant out more potatoes.

Potatoes

I already have two containers of potatoes going atm, and I want to plant another one. The ones I have are Agria and Purple Heart, but Im still dithering between putting in more Agria, which are the spuds I use the most, or somthing else. I know I have another bag of seed potatoes but i cant remember what variety they are (as usual) so I might take a punt and see what I get.
I always have to have a good lot of Agria planted every year though. I know they all of a sudden became the darling of every TV chef in the country, but don't hold that against them! If you love a good roast spud, or pride yourself on your mashed potato, then Agria is worth growing. I just love the buttery yellow flesh, and they make the worlds best baked spuds too.  Its a fairly heavy cropper with me as long as you remember to earth them up. This means that when you plant your tubers, you put them on top of about 10-20 cms of soil in the bottom of your container and then you cover them lightly with soil. Water regularly and it shouldnt be long before your plants are showing their leaves above the soil. As they grow, you keep covering them with soil, leaving just a few leaves showing until you reach the top of your container at which time you can just let the plant finish its growth and flower etc. What youre doing is allowing the plant to form tubers all the way along that main stem, and obviously, youre going to increase your yield dramatically. I love growing potatoes. There are few plants that are as tolerant, and yet give you so much in return. Even last year with the interruption to garden care, I STILL harvested a couple of kilos of spuds!
With the potatoes taken care of, its time to look at what else to plant. This is always a dangerous time for me lol. I get onto a seed merchants website and before you know it, I have enough seeds to plant out a garden 10 times the size of mine. Everything just looks so tempting!
One thing I DO have to grow tho is carrots. Funnily enough, some people will tell you that carrots cant be grown in containers. Dont believe a word of it! I always grow carrots in containers and did so even when I had a garden bed. The main reason is that you can grow them in clean soil each time, and the soil quality will be good. If your carrots have to grow in rocky or stoney soil what you will find is that youll have a lot of forked and twisted roots as they grow around the obstacles. In a container, you dont have that issue and you get lovely straight roots.
The important thing with growing carrots in containers is that the container has depth, to allow root development. I never buy carrots in any form other than seed for the garden. I often wonder if any of those punnets of seedling carrots in the garden centres ever come to anything, because the one thing that carrots really dont like is being transplanted. Its best to plant em where you want em, and I usually just broadcast the seed onto the surface of the container and then cover it lightly with seed raising mix (its finer) and MIST!. Dont water full on with the hose until you have established seedlings or youll wash them all over the show, and even when established go gently. A fine spray is what you need.
And Im not sticking to orange carrots either, in fact the orange carrot is the johnny-come-lately of the carrot world, which is a very old one indeed, as it can be traced back 5000 years or so. The carrot  is believed to have originated in Afghanistan, and came in many colours, red,white, purple, but not orange. That came later, when Dutch breeders started crossing various kinds and came up with an orange carrot. This became an emblem of the House of Orange and William of Orange who was a leader in the Dutch independance movement(and became the royal house of The Netherlands) I like White Belgian carrots, but you can also get them in yellow, red, purple,and ofc, if you really MUST, orange.
I think this year I might do a combination of several kinds. When sowing carrots, particularly the way I do it, which is to broadcast(scatter) the seed, you WILL get clumps. Some people like to thin their carrots when theyre small by "pricking them out" which is waiting till the seedlings have true leaves and then thinning till each little plant has a space of its own. If youre VERY careful you might be able to replant the thinnings, though Im way too clumsy to consider it, and even with a lot of care they dont often take. I prefer to thin as they grow, taking out the biggest little baby carrots regularly, which the rabbit or the possum will be only too happy to nom on.
Another thing I want to start are some cauliflower seedlings. This is another vegetable that is far more colourful than youd imagine, going on the white caulis in the shops. Cauliflowers come in white, green, purple and yellow/orange. Ive grown Orange Bouquet before and its a lovely cauli, and grows well here. I also want to grow Violet Sicilian, for its gorgeous colour, and if i have space, maybe a green one or two, thought Id also like to grow one of the whites too like Snowball, which is another heirloom variety. There's also a white broccoli called Cauli Greens, which isnt a cauli and isnt green, but there you go! Ive never grown that but Id like to give it a try.  I havent even gotten onto the cabbages yet. Now you can see why I end up with more seed than garden, but I love choosing what to plant each year and this year Im determined to get my seedlings started in good time.