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October in the Garden- Permaculture Food Gardening in Australia – Subtropics and Warm Climate

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October in the Garden- Permaculture Food Gardening in Australia – Subtropics and Warm Climate

by Ewa Bekiesch, Permaculture designer, teacher, self-sufficient living consultant, and healthy food advocate

The days are longer, temperatures are higher, and Mulberries and strawberries are having a ripening competition. October is also the time when we need to protect our ripening nectarines, peaches, blueberries, and co.

I hope that my article helps you to plan and organise your garden, and brings you one step closer to growing an abundance of food to become self-reliant sooner than later. Note: this is all based on my experience and the work we do in our food forest. Feel free to comment below if you would like to add or ask something.

General gardening jobs

  • Increasing biodiversity in your garden to attract beneficial insects. Many of them will be predators that feed on the bugs you don’t like in the garden. Biodiversity creates a natural balance in the ecosystem so nature can help itself and you can benefit from it.
  • Applying compost tea every 3-4 weeks to plants with new growth and the garden beds around the veggies. Check my video here if you want to know how to make your own. You can use any greens for it! This is something I talk about each month but it is really important! Applying compost tea to your garden should be a regular task if you love your garden.
  • Sowing, planting, harvesting – check the list below. This is the perfect time to plant new fruit trees!
  • Preparing for summer! Weeding if required and mulching, mulching, mulching! Don’t forget to water the ground before adding new mulch. Mulch will keep the soil cool and moist and that is exactly what we want. The earthworms are most happy and active when the soil temperature does not go over 24Β°C
  • Applying fruit fly bags and nettings on ripening fruit and veggies, make or buy fruit fly traps, and plant heat-resistant herbs like Bush basil, Rosmarine, mint, shallots, and other near fruit trees and garden beds to confuse the creatures you don’t want in your crop.

What NOT to do this month

  • Planting any brassicas and radishes is over now until autumn. They don’t like the hot temperatures we are coming into. All of them will bold quickly and all sorts of bugs will have a feast on them, too, so forget it! However, if you have some of them bolting, leave them for the beneficial insects and the seeds for next season

Sowing, planting, harvesting

Notes:

  1. There are more plants you can grow but I am limiting my list to the plants that I grow in my food forest and have the best experience with.
  2. If you are looking to buy some heirloom, non-GMO, and open-pollinated healthy seeds or plants, consider visiting my online shop at www.foodforestseeds.au Thank you for supporting my small business πŸ™‚
  3. One of the reasons for providing all the information is to encourage everyone to grow their own healthy food, build resilience and confidence, and taste the difference of homegrown food! Your seeds and plant orders in our online shop at www.foodforestseeds.au are always greatly appreciated as they help us do what we do.
  4. I have included links to the individual seeds and plants I sell. Simply click on the name with the link and a new page will open where you can read more info about the plant, and you can buy it if you don’t have it yet (all coloured names include the links, more to come!). Enjoy!
Sowing

Many of them are self-seeding in our food forest. If you don’t know some of the plants in the list below, check my ‘Food Forest Guide’ (FREE with any order in my online shop) for more info about the plants, how to grow and use them, and other tips and tricks.

I am super excited about all sorts of annuals we can start to grow this month! Check it out!

Planting

No trees in this list, mainly because there are too many fruit trees you can grow in a subtropical climate so simply choose what you enjoy eating and what suits your garden. Check our ‘Food Forest Guide’ if you like to know what trees we grow.

Planting seedlings throughout the entire month:

Harvesting

We are harvesting daily and as required, depending on what we like to eat and cook, and/or what needs to be harvested. The October harvest list includes and is based on what grows in our food forest and what is possible, fruit included. As you may think, we don’t harvest all of it every day. Many of them simply keep growing and wait patiently for their turn to end up in the kitchen, as green mulch ‘chop and drop’, some of them go to compost if they are taking over, or as food for our chickens, ducks, or worm farm. The possibilities are endless.

Perennials crop we harvest in October:
  • Bush basil – Ocimum oxcitriodorum
  • Blueberries
  • Cape Gooseberry
  • Cassava – Manihot esculenta – roots
  • Cranberry Hibiscus – Hibiscus acetosella – leaves and flowers
  • Galangal – Thai Ginger –Greater Galangal, Alpinia galangal – roots
  • Gotu Kola – Centella asiatica – leaves
  • Lemongrass – Cymbopogan citratus – leaves and stalks
  • Longevity Spinach – Gynura procumbens – leaves and stalks
  • Okinawa Spinach – Hawaiian lettuce – Gynura bicolour –  leaves and stalks
  • Peruvian Parsnip – Arracacia xanthorrhiza – leaves and roots
  • Brahmi-Memory Plant – Waterhyssop – Bacopa monnieri – leaves
  • Bana Grass – Pennisetum purpureum x amaricanum – leaves for mulch and food for animals
  • West Indian Arrowroot – Maranta arundinacea – root
  • Sugarcane Red – Saccharum officinarum – cane, mostly to dry and store for meat smoking later on
  • Elderberry – Sambucus Nigra – flowers
  • Strawberries
  • Alpine strawberries – Wild Strawberries – berries
  • Aloe Vera
  • Mulberries
  • shallots
  • garlic chives
  • sweet potatoes – leaves and roots
  • bananas
  • Horseradish – leaves and roots
  • limes
  • Dandelion – leaves and flowers
  • Pepino fruit
Short-living perennials and annuals we harvest in October:
  • Pigeon peas
  • tomatoes
  • cucumbers
  • carrots
  • beetroot
  • all sorts of herbs
  • Nasturtium
  • QLD Arrowrot – leaves for chickens and bulbs for us
  • Cassava
  • kale
  • Chinese tree lettuce leaves

What are you sowing, planting, and harvesting in your garden now? Leave your comment below. I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to support our work, you can do so in many ways:
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*Leave a comment under the videos you watch
*Follow us on Facebook and Instagram
*Buy a plant, cuttings, seeds, or my Food Forest Guide at https://www.foodforestseeds.au
*Book one of our workshops or online course
*Buy us a coffee. Our PayPal email is permaculturehaven@gmail.com

Enjoy your garden!

Ewa

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