Hi Mark,

There is not a heck of a lot that can be started from seed at this time of year - the life cycles of most vegetable crops mean that they will most likely bolt to seed before producing a good crop at this time of year due to changes in temperature, light cycles etc. plus the cold weather means that things grow very slowly. You could always sow a crop of the ever hardy broad bean, which would grow slowly over winter and produce beans in the spring. Also, garlic is planted any time from now through to the end of July or so and that will be ready for harvest in mid summer. Now is also a great time to sow onion seeds in trays in a protected area, you can then plant out the seedlings in spring time into your garden.

But with your new garden bed and then need for additional bulk mass in your soil you have the opportunity to kill a few birds with one stone by planting some 'green manure' crops now, which will grow over the winter and can be turned into the soil in the spring to rot down and form some great soil. The deep roots of green manure crops also condition your soil and if you plant some legumes they will add nitrogen to the soil as well. Full info on green manures can be found here.

You could also put down some mulch layers (click for info) prior to planting the green manure crops. Such as fallen leaves, grass clippings, seaweed etc. The green manures will still happily grow in this substrate and by the time spring rolls around and you turn in the green crops, everything will rot down nicely, providing a great base of organic matter for your vegetables to grow in come spring time.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Bart

Hi Mark,

I haven't tried spuds in my hot house this winter because over the previous summer I grew tomatoes in it. They are both in the same family botanically and fair few of the diseases that one gets will be transferrable to the other via the soil. I assumed that spuds wouldn't be worthwhile unless the soil could be replaced or sterilised (my hot house has beds not pots in it).

None of that would matter if you didnt grow tomatoes...

Instead I've just recently sown buckwheat in there as an experiment.

Tod

Not seed, but you could sneak in a few punnets of pak choi (the joy choi is cold tolerant) and perpetual spinach. And shallots, though I've scoured Dunedin and can't find any organic ones. Mustard greens from seed maybe.