Growing your own Heirloom Vegetables Bringing C02 down to earth •M KEY TO GROWING INSTRUCTIONS - ICONS >ee key to growing instructions (right) • VEGETABLE GARDEN - Seeds and bulbs PLANT TYPE I LIFE CYCLE ow to use this book HA Hardy Annual: survives frost. Life cycle 4-12 months. TA Tender Annual: frost sensitive. HB Hardy biennial: life cycle 2 growing seasons [ND YOUR CLIMATE COLOUR for Hp Hardy perennial. igetables you can grow nr Perennial roots with annual flowers, (life cycle 2 years plus). TP Tender perennial: dies in frosty areas. Cool Warm Hot >e the 'Growing Days map' on p43 to guide you SEED SOWING —S°: Sow direct outside. your selection of vegetables and when to sow (see p44-45) sow ^ S': Sow as seedling into pots then transplant 21T1. sow outside. Find your location on the map. This indicates _,„„ „ _, Space between rows by Spacing of seeds / transplants. p e number of growing days in your region. We m/cm x mlcm sp ace be,ween plants ve grouped the growing days into three broad Cool Warm Hot TEMPERATURE mes represented by icons that are coloured blue, Tasmania Melb-Adel Bris. Perth, GROWING DAYS inland Sydney een or yellow. The number of growing days Number days over 15°C Below 150 days 150-240 days 240+ days GROW GROW GROW {ermines what vegetables you can grow and months months months hen it is best to grow them. On p44-45 select the ilumn marked in your growing zone colour, and DAYS TO HARVEST Harvest Days from sowing seed days (including seedling stage). ant out your seeds in the months indicated for ch vegetable. Each individual vegetable entry ill display the climate colours and months of FRUITING TREES & SHRUBS - Container grown plants •wing appropriate for that vegetable. GROWING ZONES Cool Warm Warm Hot Growing Days X Cold Zone Coastal Inland IND YOUR CLIMATE COLOUR for Tas, Melb,M| Mildura. Sydney. Areas Ballaral, Adol. Dubbo. Perth. uiting trees and shrubs you can grow Orange. Bega, T'woomba Brisbane Canb Bunbury ;ooi Warm Warm Hot Growing Days 1-150 150-240 150-240 240+ Coastal Inland se the 'Cold Zone map' on p42 to ascertain what Cold Zones 9a.9b 10 9b 10,11,12 :es, shrubs, climbers and perennials you can grow a Frost icon !;ft| $ your area. Find your location on the map, it will Minimum Temperatures -7°C -rc P-4°CI -1°c i covered by one of the four colours, blue, pink, een or yellow indicating different zones. Fruit ants will be permanent members of your garden id are likely to be acquired as young plants in HEIGHT AND WIDTH J Height of mature plant >ts, or bare-rooted in winter in the case of some " Width of mature plant :ciduous trees, canes or shrubs. FOLIAGE (Jjk Evergreen ^ Deciduous [ow do I grow fruit and vegetables? ^ Semi-Deciduous ;e the icon table (right) and on the inside of the ick cover for the symbols used for the type of SEASON OF HARVEST Harvest ant, sowing method, spacing and harvest icons month ir vegetables. TOTAL PRODUCE Yield The icons for fruiting trees and shrubs cover ost tolerance/intolerance, climate, height and idth of plant, type of foliage, harvest month and SUNLIGHT AND WATER REQUIREMENTS kely yield. equired sunlight icons are on the bottom section SUNLIGHT REQUIRED ^ Full sun F the page. Part sun or part shade ^ Shade only WATER 444 Constantly moist soil (Above 850mm rainfall) Vegetables must be kept moist at alt times unless otherwise 44 Seasonal watering indicated in the text. 4 Drought tolerant (Below 500mm rainfall) Heirloom pumpkin display at 'Fork to Fork' cafe, Heronswood Growing your own Heirloom Vegetables Bringing C02 down to earth Dedicated to Kent Whealey who rescued 25,000 heirloom vegetable varieties world wide through the Seed Savers Exchange. Clive Blazey Thank-you We could not have written this book without the help of Digger's staff, Jane Varkulevicius, Camilla Lazzar, Tim Sansom, Caroline Trevorrow, Jayne Anderson, Rex Ennis, Lisa Remato, Talei Kenyon, Phil Seymour & Lou Larrieu. Each has contributed to the sum total of knowledge that this book contains. First published in Australia in 2008, by The Digger's Club Dromana, Vic., Australia Phone +61 03 5984 7900 Facsimile +61 03 5987 2398 © Clive Blazey All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Printer: Bookbuilders Desktop publishing: John P. Con- Photographs supplied and owned by The Digger's Club, except where otherwise attributed. Distributed by: Bookshops: Unireps c/o University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 Ph: +61 (02) 9385 0150 Mail Order: The Digger's Club - Heronswood, 105 Latrobe Parade, Dromana, VIC 3936 Ph: +61 (03) 5984 7900 diggers.com.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Blazey, Clive. Title: Growing your own heirloom vegetables : bringing C02 down to earth / Clive Blazey. ISBN: 9780646492766 (hbk.) Notes: Includes index. Bibliography. Subjects: Vegetables-Heirloom varieties. Climatic changes. Dewey Number: 635 Other Digger's titles: The Australian Flower Garden, 2001 The Australian Fruit and Vegetable Garden, 2006 No Tasmanian old growth forests felled to make this paper FSC Certified Paper This book is printed on is FSC certified paper. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international, non-profit organisation which was set up to ensure sound and sustainable forest management. It prevents the felling of old growth forests, protects watersheds and ensures harvesting of trees only if replanting replaces felled trees. Its guarantee is as sound and respected as an organic certification. The FSC certifies and labels forest products from paper to furniture using its chain of custody to ensure all wood products have been harvested sustainably. By choosing FSC certified paper or organic products you are supporting the best international practice. CONTENTS BEING CLIMATE POSITIVE Bringing C02 down to earth 6 Only a biodiverse world can adapt to change 8 Growing food in our cities 10 The story of heirloom seeds - what's new is old 12 ORGANIC GARDENING Know your soil 14 Soils - food for plants 16 Water, mulches and green manures 18 Pest control without pesticides 20 BEING SELF-SUFFICIENT The Mini Plot - Growing a year's supply in 40m2 24 Convert your lawn into a food garden 26 Getting children started 28 Kitchen gardens should be decorative 30 How much water does the garden need? 32 Hybrids, heirlooms or GM? 36 GARDENING BASICS Sowing seed successfully 38 Climate maps 42 Sow What When sowing calender 44 VEGETABLES TO GROW Cool soil - 1st planting 46 Cool soil - 2nd planting 56 Warm soil 66 Herbs 82 The gardens of Heronswood and St Erth 88 Index 90 Glossary 94 Bibliography 96 BEING CLIMATE POSITIVE Bringing C02 down to earth It will astound most people to realise that a visit to Biology is our ecological recycler. the supermarket to buy food is a greater threat to our The globalisation of our food supply is a very bad environment than all the pollution caused by coal fired idea that needs to be reversed. It transfers wealth power stations. to corporations at the expense of our environment. Nearly 30% of the C02 in our atmosphere is caused Cheap food delivers a trashed ecosystem. In a hot, dry, by us not growing our own food. water-deficient continent, is it sensible to export 40% Non-renewable energy is used to plough the fields, of our water through the sale of meat and grains? Is it harvest and process the crop and take it to market. The sensible that only 1% of our population grows food for fertilisers, pesticides and weed killers used to grow the us? Do we want corporations to use our food supply to crop are derived from oil. In fact 75% of the energy increase their sales of chemicals? that is used to grow our food occurs once it has left "When it comes to choosing the food 1 buy, organic the farm. The kitchen fridge uses more energy than is actually my fourth choice. I would choose local and the farm tractor. In some areas more energy is used seasonal products, particularly from farmer's markets, to drive to the supermarket than is used on the farm. ahead of organically certified products, particularly Up to 25% of the energy is consumed in wasteful if those products have travelled long distances. I feel packaging. that our diet needs a diversity of foods, all of which I would consider ahead of organically grown food," says organics expert Tim Marshall. In our race for efficiency, farms are getting so large that neighbours are kilometres away and have lost the sense of community. The producer driven farmer never sells directly to the consumer and is oblivious to their anxieties. How else can we explain that despite 70% of the population slating they don't want genetically engineered food, less than 200 growers will impose genetically engineered crops on our food THE IMPACT OF BOTTLED WATER Many of our buying choices have extraordinary impacts on global wanning. Are you aware that kitchen fridge an empty bottle of water costs as much to produce t more energy as a full container? This industry is valued at •i the farm tractor $35,000,000,000 and yet its direct water cost is Instead of buying fertilisers, which require Middle probably less than $ 17,500. The rest of the cost goes Eastern oil (and the wars that come from it) we could into carbon-polluting transportation and bottling.