When it's too wet to dig September 12, 2012

This winter has been such a wet one! The water table is really high so that each time it rains, the water just sits on the top of the ground even in paddocks on a slope. Of course this means that the vege garden is too wet to be able to dig over for planting new spring seeds. Usually in September I am planting carrots, parsnips, beetroot and a few other things that will survive the bit of cold weather that is still to come. But this year there is no way of having a fine tilth to sow into. So what do I do?

Well one thing is to sow as many varieties of seeds as I can into punnets so that at least they are doing a bit of growing while I wait. I bought this little plastic greenhouse for only $20 from the local $2 type shop - a bargain. It has a zip up door which I undo during the day and close each night to keep out a bit of the winter chills (or in the case of last weekend - gale force winds and hail). I can't sow everything in punnets - carrots and parsnips really need to go straight into the ground- but I have lots of other things underway. Broccoli, spinach, beetroot, pak choy, lettuce, tomato, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin, fennel, squash and I will buy a few punnets of more difficult things to grow like eggplant to re-pot into little tubes. Some of these don't go into the ground until early November so they should be well under way by then. With tomatoes, it is always a good idea to get them a bit pot bound before you plant them out as this stimulates early flowering which leads to early fruiting.
Meanwhile I just keep doing some inside painting jobs and hope for the rains to stop soon!