Winter

Hints and tips for cooler weather

Chickens

• With the winter rains comes damp chook pens. Damp bedding needs to be cleaned more often so keep hay dry and out of the weather. Hay should only be used in protected laying boxes at this time of year.

• Keep feeders protected from the rain and damp to ensure your feed doesn’t get wet and clog the feeder. Inspect the tray of the feeder often to ensure feed is able to flow freely.

• Chooks love luscious winter weeds, weed your veggie garden and give your chooks a treat.

• Keep your chickens away from your vegetable plants as they love the leafy greens growing at this time of year. A stray chicken will make short work of tender seedlings and although chickens will eat grubs they will also eat plant attached to it!

• It is important that chickens have a place to shelter and keep dry during rain. Shelters should be free from drafts yet still provide adequate ventilation.

• It is just as important to make sure your chickens have fresh clean water in winter as in summer.

Fish Farms

• April marked the end of the barramundi season and the start of the trout season. You can grow your trout through until early November and start harvesting from September to avoid having too many fish at the end of the season.

• Trout are feisty feeders and don’t be tempted to over feed them. Feed them small amounts often!

• Although tempted to go on a planting frenzy in your vegetable garden filter, stick to seasonal vegetables for fish farm filters (see vegetable section below for advice).

• After rain, look on pavements, patios and pathways for worms that have come out to move around while everything is still wet. Don’t let them dry out, collect and place in your fish farm filter!

• Consider attaching stakes and string lines to the edge of fish farms to support plants in strong winter winds.

• Don’t be concerned if your fish tank was empty for a few weeks between the barramundi and trout seasons. There will still be plenty of residual nutrient in the water to keep your plants healthy.

• Trout love it cold so don’t worry about how cold it might get overnight.

• Trout are an exciting fish to grow. They are very active, very hungry feeders and very fast growers. However they do need better water quality and higher levels of dissolved oxygen than barramundi.

• Trout will jump out of your fish tank so it is important to cover the top of your fish tank with netting. Bird netting is suitable and very cheap, make a hoop out of reticulation piping, attach the netting to the hoop and put over fish tank.

Vegetable Gardens

• Many winter crops are top heavy (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts) and require a strong stake. Stake them early, while they are small plants so that early winter storms don’t do any damage and set back plant growth.

• Broad beans also need to be protected from strong winds. Stake around your crop and connect with string lines, allowing your crop to support itself, or run string lines connected to stakes through your crop along sow lines.

• Great time of year to brew some manure tea, winter crops love a good dose every 3-4 weeks. Apply to the soil only and give some distance between the tea and the base of the stem of your plants.

• Beans that provided so much produce during autumn have come to the end of their lifespan. However don’t pull them out, cut them at the base and leave their roots to return nitrogen to the soil. Beans are nitrogen fixers, taking nitrogen out of the air and storing it in their roots. Collect any unharvested seed pods and store for next year. Spread the leaves and stems of the plants on the soil surface to act as a nutritious mulch. As you can see beans can do no wrong, so make sure you include beans in every year’s plantings (same with peas!)

• Be on the lookout for winter seeds that have laid dormant over summer and started to sprout. If you find any new plants outside of your veggie patch, dig around them and move them into your veggie patch.

• If harvesting worm whizz for weekly application make sure your worm farm is sheltered from winter rains.

• Keep covering your potatoes as the stems emerge. The stems grow surprisingly fast so don’t allow the stems to grow to spindly, where they might be damaged by strong winds. Covering stems with soil promotes more tubers (potatoes) and keep covering them until the trench you planted your seed potatoes in becomes a mound. Do this slowly and build up the soil a bit at a time (at least once a week).

• Summer chilli plants are still fruiting this time of year. If you have plenty, don’t let them dry on the bush and go to waste. Make a chilli sauce or use with garlic in homemade organic sprays.

• Plant nasturtiums around your Brassica's (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage etc). This fast growing herb is a fantastic companion because 9/10 times caterpillars (winters no. 1 pest) will choose a nasturtium leaf instead of your brassicas! Nasturtium leaves and flowers can be used in salads and if the flowers are left, a seed forms and can be used to make nasturtium capers. Your chickens will also love a good bunch of nasturtium leaves, especially if there are a few caterpillars in amongst the leaves.

• Plant fast to harvest varieties such as peas and carrot in amongst your slow to harvest varieties such as broccoli and broad beans.

• If you haven’t planted your winter vegetable seedlings it’s not too late (just!) and aim to have them planted by mid June.

• When unsure what to plant in winter, just think of the ingredients used for a chicken soup!

• Winter Vegetables include: Asian Greens, Beetroot, Broad Beans, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Chives, Leek, Lettuce, Onion, Peas, Silverbeet, Spinach and Spring Onions

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