🥕 Home Grown Vegetables - A True Blue Guide When To Plant 🥕

One of the most important things about growing vegetables is to know their requirements for cold and warmth.  Soil preparation is a very important step too.  Some vegetables can be disappointing if they are planted out of season, and unfortunately some stores have seedlings on their shelves more suited to coastal areas than the Toowoomba climate.  Here’s some information to help you, but if you’re not sure please ask our helpful horticulturists.

Sweet Corn

Most warm season vegetables like daytime temperatures of 20 degrees C or above.  This group includes beans, capsicum, eggplant, sweet corn, sweet potato, tomato and vine crops like melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini, and squash.  Some gardeners have lovely protected warm spots to grow a tomato or two in a corner with a warm north-facing wall or fence next to them, or you could build a small ‘hot-house’ to grow some summer vegies in winter.

Cool weather varieties grow their best in daytime temperatures of 10-20 degrees C, and include broad beans, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, onions, peas, spinach, silverbeet and turnips.

A good idea is to plant successively every 4 weeks or so and then you will have an ongoing supply of the freshest, healthiest, and tastiest vegetables just outside your back door.

An open, sunny site is a must for your vegetable garden.  To grow quickly and well, vegetables need as much sunlight as possible, especially in winter.  If possible, select a part of the garden facing north to north-east to catch the winter sun and at least 4 or 5 hours direct sunlight each day.  Do make allowances for the shorter daylight hours, long shadows in winter, and avoid heavy shade from buildings, fences, or large trees and shrubs.

Trees and shrubs with large root systems will compete for moisture and plant nutrients as well

Beetroot and Leeks - Great home grown produce

as sunlight so avoid planting too close to them.  A level site is best and easier to manage with rows running north-south.  This way each plant in the row receives balanced and maximum sunlight.  Healthy soil for vegetables should be loose and crumbly which absorbs and holds moisture and nutrients, and it should also drain easily.

Vegetables are often divided into three groups depending on the part of the plants we eat.

Type 1:          Fruit and seed vegetables – beans, peas, capsicum, eggplant, tomato, sweet                           corn and the vine crops

Type 2:          Leaf and stem vegetables – cabbage, celery, lettuce, rhubarb, silver beet and spinach

Type 3:          Root and bulb vegetables – beetroot, carrots, onions, parsnips, potatoes,                          radish and turnips.

All vegetables need to be grown quickly so plant nutrition is very important too.  You don’t need different soils for different vegetables, however the grouping of your vegetables into fruit, leaf, and root plants gives you very good guidelines for fertiliser use.

Fruit and root crops need large quantities of phosphorus included in their fertiliser to promote the flower, fruit, seed and root development.  Fertilisers high in nitrogen may produce too much leafy growth and reduce yields of fruits and seeds.

On the other hand, nitrogenous fertilisers are needed in greater quantities by leafy vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, silver beet and spinach.

So as you can see, the fertiliser needs of vegetables are partly determined by the part of the plant we eat. There are fertilisers available which are specifically blended for the different needs of vegetable growing, as well as phosphorus separately. 

Experience is a great teacher, so don’t be afraid to have a go at growing some luscious, fresh vegetables.

Seasonal Vegetable Planting Guide - Toowoomba & Darling Downs