I have some rather grand plans for my winter garden this for this year. While it is still summer here in Sydney, I can make a start on my seed sowing this weekend and continue through autumn with the various seeds that I want to sow. there is a mix of vegetables and flowers. I am hoping to have more success than I have had over the summer!

I’ll start with the seeds that I will be sowing in the last month of summer, so between now and the end of February:

• Leek ‘Bulgarian Giant’
• Beetroot
• Brussels sprouts ‘Red Rubine’ and ‘Long Island’
• Cabbage ‘Red Drumhead’
• Cauliflower ‘Mini’
• Borage
• Cosmos ‘Rubenza’, ‘Yellow Garden’ and ‘White’
• Helichrysum ‘Copper Red’, ‘Salmon Rose’ and ‘Silvery Rose’

I’ll sow a batch of these seeds tomorrow, followed by another set in a couple of weeks time.

Many of the seeds I want to sow suggest that the seeds are sown in autumn, so that is what I will be doing from March onwards. Here is what I will be sowing then:

• Onion ‘Australian Brown’, ‘Bartletta’, ‘Cream Gold’ and ‘Red Marksman’
• Pea ‘Greenfeeast’
• Broad Bean ‘Aquadulche’ and ‘Crimson Flowered’
• Nasturtium “Purple Emporer’ and especially ‘Orchid Cream’
• Calendula ‘Double Red’
• Cornflower ‘Classic Fantastic’ and ‘Black Ball’
• Sweet pea ‘America’, ‘Flora Norton’, ‘Matucana’, ‘Miss Willmott’, ‘My Navy’, ‘Nimbus’, ‘Painted Lady’ and ‘Spencer Ripple Mix’.

As always, there are other tasks that need to be done in my garden over the next few weeks. All the plants that I have growing at the moment need to be fertilised, which will be done tomorrow when I sow my seeds.

Tidying up is something that always needs doing in some form or other. Sweeping up, removing dead plant material and old pots that need sorting are the jobs I need to do on this front. As I don’t like doing this stuff, I’ll do a bit every time I go out into my garden.

The final thing that I need to do is to go through all my seed packets and update my seed spreadsheet as needed. While this is a rather tedious task, it allows me to see what seeds I do have and then I can plan what I am sowing and when.

What I will make sure of over the next few months is that I make sure I water my plants in the morning before I go to work. Over spring, I would water my seedlings in the evening after work. I think this encouraged the snails to have a nice meal on the young plant growth overnight more than I wanted. I will try my best to make this part of my morning routine, no matter how sleepy I feel at that time of day!

That is my general plan for winter and I will let you know how I get on over the next few months. I am hoping to get plenty of food and flowers that I can eat and use as cut flowers as the seasons change.