Garden Tips for October


Welcome to the October newsletter. The cost of food is on the rise, especially fresh produce. Growing even a few foods at home saves money and can help improve your health and well-being on many levels. I started our new compact kitchen garden around nine months ago. Now, a lot of our fresh produce comes out of our garden and it’s increasing all the time. For every edible you grow, it’s one less you need to buy!

Garden Tips for October

What’s on the menu this month?

  • Tips for growing food in challenging weather conditions and building healthy soil;
  • Growing delicious blueberries, strawberries and raspberries;
  • Need inspiration? Peek over the virtual fence into my new garden and what I’ve been up to;
  • Get your timing right with moon planting this month for better success;
  • Coupon Code for all guides and books!

Growing Food in Challenging Climate Conditions

Weather conditions have been tough for many gardeners around the world. Read on to dig into tips for working with climate challenges. These articles offer you a barrowload of strategies to optimise planting wherever you live.

Healthy Soil Tips

With a little soil preparation, your plants will produce an abundant crop, resist pest and disease attacks and support your health. Check out the articles below to help you grow, restore and rebalance your garden.




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Gardening Tips for October

Apply compost, feed your soil, top up with a layer of mulch and observe your plants daily. Look for clues your plants may need a little help. Are they wilting, being attacked or leaves changing colour? Look closer for pests or disease symptoms. Check the soil moisture. Refer to your garden journal for when you last added nutrients to the pot or garden bed.

If the weather conditions are changing, it may be time to remove annual crops. Add the plant material to your compost. Get seasonal seeds started and crop rotate annual plants to minimise pest and disease problems.

The new moon growth phase in the last week of October into November is an ideal time to sow all above-ground plants. The strong upward sap flow into stems, branches, flowers, seeds and fruit makes this phase a good time to liquid fertilise as nutrients are transported quickly. Sow seeds and seedlings or transplant potted plants. Plant flowers, herbs, fruit trees, and vegetables that you harvest for their fruit or leaves above ground.

Spend a few minutes pottering around your plants. What stage of growth are they? If they are just getting started or fruiting and flowering, keep up liquid feeding to support strong growth. Soak up vitamin D in the sun, walk barefoot to connect with the earth and listen to the sounds of nature. Pick a few herbs and enjoy a herbal tea.

Note other observations such as seeds starting to form or flowers being pollinated and setting fruit. Are any crops ready to harvest? Which ones need support with a stake or trellis?

When annual herbs reach maturity, they will flower and produce seed pods. Watch as they turn brown and are ready to gift you a rich bounty of free seeds. Collect and save your own seeds and start propagating plants to grow them for free. Take cuttings from your best plants this season. These skills save you money and help you become a sustainable gardener. If you have a surplus of seeds or cuttings, swap or sell them or plants you propagate to earn an income.

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October 2019 Newsletter

In this newsletter, I discuss earthworms in container gardens; risks and safety tips for using bagged soil mixes; introduce a new herb and medicinal plant guide; share tips for changing seasons and moon gardening timing. Grab a cuppa and dig in!

October 2019 Newsletter | The Micro Gardener


Earthworms in Pots

Earthworms provide incredible benefits in the garden. They help aerate the soil with their tunnels, opening soil pores and improving soil structure and drainage. This helps plant roots access oxygen and allows moisture and nutrients to penetrate. They digest organic matter and leave their castings (‘vermicast’ or poop) with soluble nutrients plants can access immediately, improving crop yields. Vermicast is humus and a pure plant food and soil conditioner. Earthworms are wonderful soil workers indeed!

If you have container gardens and add garden soil or compost to your potting mix, then you may sometimes find an earthworm or two. Whilst earthworms perform many valuable roles, they can occasionally be problematic in pots, especially small ones. If you have just one or two worms, it may take a while for their tunnels to make an impact. However, if you have a community (yes they will breed!) then the plant roots may become exposed to too much air in the potting mix.

The other thing to watch for is if you are raising seedlings in a small pot and there is little organic matter in the potting or seed raising mix, any earthworms present may resort to eating the plant roots if all the organic materials are consumed. I was doing container garden maintenance once and picked up an old pot that was very heavy. Curious, I discovered it was almost pure worm castings that were retaining moisture and the pot was filled with earthworms! They had turned all the potting mix media and mulch into vermicast.

Earthworms with their rich castings

Earthworms with their rich castings

Feeding Earthworms and Repotting Plants

If you notice fresh worm castings on top of the potting mix or mulch, or around the base of the pot, these are a clue of their presence. If you notice a potted plant declining and suspect you have earthworms in your potting mix, you have a couple of options. Keep providing plenty of alternate organic matter like mulch to the top of the pot for the worms to eat instead of your plant roots.

Alternatively, repot your plant. This is simply a matter of upturning your pot and gently setting aside your plants in a cool location. Give them a quick soak in liquid seaweed as a boost. Then look for a network of tunnels in the potting mix and worms squirming around. If you can, rescue your earthworms and add them back into your garden soil where they can continue to work for you. The worm castings are indeed beneficial, so you want to retain this valuable free plant food in your potting mix.

Get your own easy DIY Homemade Potting Mix Recipe Guide using worm castings.

Learn more about the business and biology of worms with the Worm Farming Secrets eBook.

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Summer Heatwaves in My Garden

Weather extremes – hot or cold – make it challenging to grow food. Don’t you agree? Severe conditions with intense heat and long periods of drought are especially tough to deal with.

Summer Heatwaves in My Garden - Growing Food in Hot Dry Conditions

Normally, January and February are our ‘wet’ rainy storm and cyclone season. On average, we’d have received about 360mm (14 in) by now. How much rain have we had here in subtropical SE Queensland, Australia over this time? In my garden, just 55mm (2in) all year!

On top of these unseasonally extreme dry conditions, we’ve had soaring temperatures since December. We’ve experienced the most 30°C+ (86°F) consecutive days for years. Today, it’s 40°C (104°F). Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to a forecast cooler day – just 33°C! Not to mention drying winds. Nice!

So, as a gardener, it’s essential to be flexible and learn to adapt to changing weather conditions. I’m no exception! We have to learn to accept we get too much or not enough sun or rain sometimes, and go with the flow of life. Plants adapt and we can too.

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November 2016 Newsletter

Organic Gardening Tips for an Abundant Harvest

Hi and welcome to the November 2016 Newsletter. I’m sharing a bucket load of tips and inspiration with you this month including:

The Micro Gardener November 2016 Newsletter

  • Broccoli – Health Benefits + Best Ways to Eat
  • 6 Recycling Ideas for your Garden
  • Shop Specials – SAVE 15% (See COUPON offer)
  • 12 Tips + Uses for Mint – in your Garden & Kitchen
  • Peek over the Fence … into Jennifer’s Garden (inspiring photos!)
  • Growing Edible Plants in the Shade
  • Healthy Soil = Healthy Plants
  • Blog articles
  • Follow The Micro Gardener on Instagram

So tuck in! If you missed the tips in my last newsletter, CLICK HERE.

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3 Steps to Prepare Your Garden for Planting

Do you ever wonder why your plants don’t grow well? Or just survive instead of thrive? Sowing seeds or plants into ‘dead dirt’ just won’t cut it if you want to grow a healthy garden! If you’re a beginner gardener, there are some basic principles to learn so you succeed every time.

You don’t need to spend much time, but a little effort every season to revive your soil in pots and garden beds will reap BIG rewards.

You don’t need to spend much time, but a little effort every season to revive your soil in pots and garden beds will reap BIG rewards.

 

Just like we thrive on a nutrient-dense diet in a stress-free environment, healthy plants need food and a happy home to live in too!

“If you meet the ‘needs’ of your plants, they will flourish, blossom and produce a bountiful harvest.” – Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener

Are you:

If so, then follow my three steps to boost your soil and help your garden thrive:

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Easy DIY Potting Mix Recipe

Do you want to learn how to make potting mix at home? Want a quality potting mix recipe? Look no further! My early experiences with bagged potting mixes were not happy ones. With a sea of choices, clueless salespeople and confusing labels, I made more than one bad choice. Maybe you have too!

Easy DIY Potting Mix Recipe - learn how to make your own moisture holding, nutrient rich potting mix at home in simple steps.

Easy DIY Potting Mix Recipe – learn how to make your own moisture holding, nutrient rich potting mix at home in simple steps.

I fried my seedlings in what I thought from the label was ‘potting mix with fertiliser’ but was actually almost 100% fertiliser. I starved my plants with the next bag that didn’t have any food in it at all. Then another bag was virtually dead dirt that wouldn’t grow anything!

I got so seriously cheesed off wasting time and money with ‘dried arrangements‘ as a result. So I decided to make my own mix. It had to be better than going through all that pain!

Now, I try to be self-reliant and budget conscious where possible, by making my own supplies. If you don’t already, give home made potting mix a go. It’s easy, saves you money and a whole lot of headaches!

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