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Autumn Vegies & Herbs to sow in April

There are plenty of vegies to sow in most areas, including cabbages, broccoli, kale, Asian greens, lettuce, onions, peas, spinach, carrots, salad greens and follow up crops of broad beans, sugar snap peas and radish.

Now is the peak time for sowing almost everything – slightly cooler conditions are ideal for broccoli, cabbage, leeks, parsnip, celery and potato, and they thrive in the sunny conditions!

Keep autumn and winter vegies growing steadily by watering with Yates Thrive Natural Fish Seaweed+ Plant Food Concentrate, which promotes strong healthy growth and feeds through both the foliage and roots for fast results. Healthy plants are more able to resist attack from insects, but keep checking for aphids which cluster on the tender new growth of vegie seedlings. Control aphids with Yates Natures Way Organic Citrus, Vegie Ornamental Spray and make sure to spray thoroughly under the leaves, too.

Also, keep watch for caterpillars (often the larvae of cabbage white butterfly), which love to munch on all the cabbage family seedlings. Control with a spray Yates Success Ultra Insect Control Concentrate.

Spinach Winter Queen – Sow seeds now of Spinach Winter Queen, which is quick growing with large, dark green leaves and has a smooth, delicate flavour of English spinach. Spinach Winter Queen loves to grow during the cooler months, and is best sown directly into the garden. Prepare the soil well with plenty of organics and add some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food  for the extra nitrogen spinach enjoys. Sow clumps of two or three seeds, and keep moist. It’s ready to harvest in around 8 weeks, but tender baby leaves can be snipped off earlier.

Protect vegetable seedlings from snails and slugs for they also enjoy the cooler autumn conditions. Protect young vegie seedlings from snail and slug damage with a light sprinkle of Yates Blitzem Slug Snail Pellets .

Garlic – Homegrown garlic is an easy and very rewarding crop to grow and autumn is the optimum time for planting. Begin with an organic corm from nurseries or by mail order. Choose a sunny, well-drained spot in the garden, or in 30-40cm diameter pots. Prepare the soil by digging in some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food. Separate the individual cloves and push these into the soil, pointy end up, 2-5cm deep and 10-20cm apart. Lightly mulch to suppress weeds between the rows. Keep plants well-watered as shoots appear and grow steadily over 7-8 months. To encourage plump, healthy garlic, fertilise regularly with Yates Thrive Natural Fish Seaweed+ Plant Food Concentrate. From October or November, foliage dying off signals corms are ready to harvest (although you can harvest some early stems to use as green garlic in stir fry meals).