How to figure out what to plant
You'll mostly be driven by your climate as to what you can plant, my biggest tip is to try and grow what grows well first (You can also find what I like to grow in the depths of summer in a sub tropical climate here). Then second of all of course is it must be something you will eat. What's the point of having heaps of coriander that you don't eat (I still grow it because I use the ground seeds but cannot stand the fresh stuff). By default I know now what I can and cannot grow, so I look at all the foods we love to eat over spring/summer and it's mostly salad stuff so that's how I am planning my garden this spring.
What I am planting in my Sub Tropical Vegetable Garden
Aquaponics
Our aquaponics is really great for churning out leafy greens, and summer time we eat a lot. So we'll be loading it up with lettuces, cabbages and spring onions. I'll be really succession planting the lettuce with new ones added each week. We don't bother growing traditional onions as I am too impatient (who can wait 9 months especially if you have limited space). Aquaponics- Lettuce
- Spring Onions
- Cabbage
Large Garden Bed
We've got our big garden bed at at this stage I am thinking it is going to get a bit of a rest as we've had all sorts of issues with bugs/disease and the soil is just not right. So for spring I am planning on filling it with horse poo and doing a green manure crop of Mustard Seeds. At the end of spring we'll plant something that has a short turn around so it's free for Autumn planting (my favourite season!). Large Garden Bed- Green Manure crop
Front Garden Beds
We've just installed our 3 small 1x1 garden beds in our front yard. I am a bit excited about this as I'll be able to use real stinky fertiliser (we currently can't do it in the back yard because the beagle likes to get in and dig it out). This is where my main focus of growing will be this year and I've put together my little summer recipes that is a combination of spaces saving + companion Planting. Bed 1- Cherry Tomatoes
- Carrots
- Beetroot
- Zucchini
- Cucumber
- Bush Beans
- Corn
- Sunflowers
Pots & Containers
We obviously have all our fruit and herbs in pots around the place, but I am looking at this year growing my capsicum in a grow bag and looking at somehow to net it from fruit fly. We'll also be doing the sweet potato in the trug again, not the best place for it, but not much else grows in the thing and it contains the sweet potato. Pots & Containers- Fruit Trees
- Herbs
- Capsicum
- Sweet Potato
