We are now in Autumn and that means some wonderful vegetables are needing to be sown or planted asap.

Here in Canterbury, I germinated a row of seeds of French beans – a few weeks ago. They came up pretty quickly and hopefully our late summer will be better than our “summer summer” (which was pretty awful with lower temps and less sunshine than “average”).

In the North Island Your final call for these beans is now. Well-drained soil, nice and moist and in a sunny warm spot, 10 cm separation and keep the weeds under control.

Late summer is also great for peas. Honestly, these are going a lot better when it gets cooler, but seeing we have a longer day-length compared to the early winter situation, you’ll be able to harvest them in large numbers. Mind you, Peas can be planted through autumn and early spring. Their seeds contain a lot of “reserves” to grow in the cooler months; well-drained soils, friable and with compost. Chuck some pea-straw over the soil to help them along.

But I am trying to get ahead of schedule to get some early peas.

Broad beans, similar gig! Plenty of growth potential and they might ripen quite early too

These are good greens for the winter (if you like them)

Broad beans with pretty crimson flowers

Carrot seedlings will also germinate at lower temperatures; Remember to create a soil that is free of lumps and stones, so that the carrots keep straight and do not “fork”.

An extra handful of Phosphate will give them the impetus to grow nice roots.

I start early so we’ll have carrots continuously for the next few months.

Using the carrot “seed-tape” makes sense: they are nicely spaced and can be thinned when they take off,

Julie seems to prefer the thinner, young carrots, whereas I cook the bigger ones as vegie strips in my Nasi Goreng.

Broccoli is another suitable winter vegetable that can be planted now – in fact while there’s still some temperature in the soil they’ll grow well in the next few months – even if they slow down afterwards, you’ve got more than a month’s worth of advance before they start taking it easy – slow ripening means that they don’t all ripen at once, so pick the biggest ones as they mature.

Most other cabbage varieties will also grow from now on

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