Photo - Linda Ross
Our warm season vegetable guide
It’s time to pull out winter crops to make room for summer’s great produce.
Here Linda Ross shares her know-how and experience about what to plant now to keep a family of four enjoying delicious home-grown food all through summer.
Climbing tropical spinach
By: seed
How many: 3 plants
Time to harvest: 6 weeks
Yield: continuous picking
Tips: this climbing or trailing spinach is perennial in warm climates, annual in cool climates. It grows to 1.5 metres so requires a frame or support.
Leaves can be eaten raw and cooked.
Photo - Linda Ross
Leaf salad
By: seed sown direct
How many: sow one square metre every 4 weeks throughout spring
Time to harvest: 6 weeks
Yield: continuous picking
Tips: harvest the young leaves as you need them. We sow a mix of some of these: basil, beetroot, chicory, chard, corn salad, dandelion,
endive, land cress, leaf celery, lettuce, mizuna, mustard, pak choi, parsley, purslane, radicchio, red kale, rocket, sorrel and spinach.
Photo - Linda Ross
Climbing beans
By: seed planted directly into the soil
How many: plant 2 every 4 weeks throughout spring.
Time to harvest: 9 weeks
Yield: 3kg per plant, over 3 months
Tips: beans need a 2.5m high structure on which to grow. ‘Blue Lake’ is high-yielding with 15cm green pods. ‘Purple King’ has flat purple 18cm pods. ‘Australian
Butter’ has yellow pods with mauve seeds. Climbing beans can be grown up corn. Save your own seeds for the next year.
Photo - Linda Ross
Dwarf beans
By: seed planted directly into the soil
How many: plant 10 every 4 weeks throughout spring
Time to harvest: 9 weeks
Yield: 1kg per plant
Tips: ‘Bush’ beans can be grown under climbing beans to maximise space. ‘Borlotti’ grow to 70cm, have pretty pink-spotted pods and beans,and can be eaten
fresh or dried.
Photo - Linda Ross
Climbing cherry tomato
By: seed, seedling, cutting
How many: plant 2 every 4 weeks throughout spring
Time to harvest: 16 weeks
Yield: 7-10kg per plant, over 3 months
Tips: plants grow 2mx 2m and require a 2.5m high tomato trellis or bamboo tepee to grow on. Feed regularly. ‘Tommy Toe’ is the sweetest cherry tomato,
‘Yellow Pear’ and ‘Black Cherry’ are good complements. Green Harvest’s ‘Rainbow Cherry’ includes a mix of different colours.
Photo - Linda Ross
Bush tomato
By: seed or seedling
How many: plant 2 every 4 weeks throughout spring
Time to harvest: 8-12 wks
Yield: 5-7kg per plant
Tips: grow plants over a square 1mx1m bamboo box frame to support stems and fruit. Feed regularly. Tends to produce fruit all at once in late summer. We
like ‘Roma’, ‘Black Krim’ and ‘Oxheart’.
Photo - Linda Ross
Cucumber
By: seed or seedling
How many: 6 plants
Time to harvest: 12-14 weeks
Yield: 5 kg per plant
Tips: ‘White Spine’ has good flavour, a smooth white skin and oblong fruit to 15cm. ‘Double Yield’ yields up to 17kg per plant! Grow cucumbers with climbing
beans and climbing tomatoes up 2.5m bamboo tepees.
Photo - Linda Ross
Eggplant
By: seedling
How many: 4 plants
Time to harvest: 12-16 weeks
Yield: 2-3kg per plant
Tips: choose the hottest spot in the garden. ‘Long Purple’produces up to 50 fruit per bush. Support boughs with a handmade bamboo 1mx1m frame or box.
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Photo - Linda Ross
Zucchini
By: seed or seedling
How many: plant one every 4 weeks throughout spring
Time to harvest: 12 weeks
Yield: 30-120 fruit per plant
Tips: black and yellow varieties tend to be low-growing shrubs; pale-green ‘Lebanese’ can grow up to 7m along the ground and can up to 120 fruit (one every
day of the season!)
Photo - Linda Ross
Pumpkin
By: seed sown direct
How many: 4 plants
Time to harvest: 16 weeks
Yield: 5-10 kg per plant
Tips: grow up a fence to save space. ‘Waltham Butternut’ is delicious: pear-shaped fruit to 2kg with light orange skin and a small seed cavity at one end.
Save seeds for the next year.
Photo - Linda Ross
Sweet corn
By: seed or seedling
How many: a square of 25 seeds
Time to harvest: 10-12 weeks
Yield: 1kg per plant
Tips: plant in blocks to assist pollination. Sweet corn can be underplanted with zucchini and its stems can be used as supports for climbing beans. Sow
directly when soil temperature reaches 20 degrees C.
Photo - Linda Ross
Basil
By: seed or seedling
Number: 1 plants of each variety (purple, green and bush)
Time to harvest: 4 weeks
Yield: Pick leaves throughout warm weather
Comments: harvest one third of a basil bush at a time; picking an entire main stem encourages the production of more stems. Save seed for next year.
Photo - Linda Ross
Summer melons
By: seed or seedling
How many: 4 plants
Time to harvest: 15-16 wks
Yield: 6-8kg per plant
Tips: rockmelon ‘Ananas’ is a pineapple-smelling melon that fruits after 113 days. ‘Moon and Stars’ watermelon will fruit after 101 days and produce 4
fruit per plant. Melons can be grown vertically up a steel mesh trellis.
Photo - Linda Ross
Where to buy
By seed: we use Yates, Green Patch Organic Seeds, Green Harvest and Diggers.
By seedling: we look for Oasis seedlings at nurseries, and when we make it to our local farmers market, we load up with organic seedlings from Patio Plants.
Starter packs
Green Harvest’s starter collection includes beans, capsicum, cucumber, tomato and zucchini for $14. Call Green Harvest 1800 681014
Diggers Club’s highest yielding varieties are available as a special pack: zucchini ‘Tromboncino’; broccoli ‘Green Sprouting’; capsicum ‘Chinese Giant’;
cucumber ‘Mini Muncher’; pea ‘Greenfeast’; pumpkin ‘Delicata’; broad bean ‘Aquadulce’; and tomato ‘Tommy Toe’. $39.95 www.diggers.com.au
Text: Linda Ross