Annual Garden Calendar
Annual Garden Calendar
Annual Garden Calendar
Homegrown Harvest
growing and eating fresh and in season
Annual Garden Calendar
SEPTEMBER
HARVEST RECIPE
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This recipe found its way into my kitchen under quite humorous circumstances. We'd met some new friends and shared lunch at their place. It was a very healthy vegetarian spread (and quite delicious). As a meat eater, when it was our turn to host them I scoured the internet in a mild panic for suitable recipes that looked easy to make that I could 'pull off' for our new vegetarian friends without too much fluffing around. They enjoyed the meal, and commented that we must have lots of vegetarian recipes with our lifestyle choice. Over good belly laughs we confessed that we both enjoy meat, we just really like vegetables too! We've since become good friends. This recipe was such a good one that like them, it's stuck around.
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Cauliflower Falafels
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250g cauliflower heads finely chopped (roughly half a cauliflower)
¼ Cup tahini
½ to 1 Cup flat leaf parsley leaves finely chopped
½ Cup mint leaves
2 Tablespoons of grated lemon rind
1 spring onion finely chopped
1 ½ Cups almond meal
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Pre head oven to 180 degrees bake.
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Place the cauliflower, tahini, parsley, mint, grated lemon rind, and spring onion in a food processor and process for 15–20 seconds or until the mixture just comes together.
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Then add the almond meal and salt and pepper and mix by hand.
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Shape the mixture into small balls and place on a lined baking tray.
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Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden and firm.
Hooray, spring is finally here, and with it some warmer temperatures and brighter colours in the garden.
September Planting & Sowing
One of my favourite things about spring is planting some garden flowers. It brightens up your garden by instantly adding a splash of colour in the spring, and most of all the bees love the blooms. There are heaps of flowers to choose from, including calendula, marigolds, snapdragons and my favourite, petunias.
We can finally get to sowing some summer seeds. Remember to water them regularly. The work put in now will set you ahead with strong healthy seedlings to plant in late spring.
​Seeds you can sow
Asian spinach, beans, bok choy, carrots, cauliflower, coriander, kohlrabi, lettuce, mesclun, parsley, pumpkin, radish, silverbeet, squash, rocket. In a warm space in trays sow corn, chilli, cucumber, tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum and zucchini. (As a general rule, allow eight weeks to seedling stage).
​Seedlings you can plant
Asian spinach, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, coriander, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mesclun, parsley, peas, potato tubers, spring onions, radish, silverbeet, spinach. (A good handful of blood and bone on planting will benefit your leafy seedlings).
September 'can do' Garden Tasks
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Prepare new and weeded beds by lightly aerating the soil through and adding a good all round fertiliser such as sheep pellets.
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Now is a good time to plant deciduous fruit trees such as plums, peaches, apples, pears and citrus trees, to get them settled in before summer. Choose a position where they have enough space to grow. You don’t want to have to move them later on. September is a good month to mulch around your trees. This insulates the soil to protect from changing temperatures, retains water to help keep roots moist and also keeps weeds out. I also like to feed my fruit trees with slow release citrus fertiliser at this time of the year.
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Check the condition of your planting stakes and trellises, and source more if you need them. You'll want them ready for your beans, and planting your tomatoes and capsicum next month!
September Harvest
Ready in september are the avacados, along with broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, kale, radish, rocket, silverbeet and spinach. We also have lettuce, mizuna, mesculan and bok choy ready to pick, and the last of the grapefruit.