June Gardening Guide – Tropical Climate
(Image credit: Steele Plant Company)
What to Plant in June?
• There is still time to plant the European style vegetables and be able to harvest them, before the fierce heat and heavy rain of the wet season.
• Peruse seed catalogues and plan for next wet season.
Maintenance
• Re-pot any plants that are in permanently in pots
• Any other jobs not done yet – pruning, path clearing, digging and fertilising holes for future plantings, replacing edging which has come adrift
• Fertilise the fruit trees except those in flower.
Weeds, Pests, and Disease
• Weeding is still a priority
• The grasshoppers are still in abundance
• The white cabbage moth butterfly larvae may need some attention with dipel so that you do get something to eat.
Harvest and Preserve
• Harvest and replant sweet potatoes.
• Continue to harvest greens to keep the plants in active growth
• There may be some early beans and peas to harvest
• Tomatoes are just starting to ripen
Permaculture Principles #6: Produce No Waste
• My grandmother and grandfather well understood this principle as they lived and raised children during the depression
• This is at odds with the capitalist economic system which depends on increasing consumption for increasing profits. This system also depends on desires becoming wants and then needs over time.
• To refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle means resisting the impact of advertising. Advertising is seductive and powerful and it is not easy to remain immune to the pressures caused by the advertising messages.
• Allowing weeds or green manure crops to grow on unused ground serves many purposes within this principle. The soil protection means that the soil biota remains intact, the nutrients are not washed away but are harvested by the plant roots, the plant material is then harvested to use as plant food, the roots also maintain the soil crumb and facilitate air and moisture passage through the soil.
• Seeking ways in which our waste can be used by another for their needs whether passing on good left over clothing to an op shop or giving vegetable scraps to the chooks and worms.
– Kathleen Hosking, Solution Focused
