In the winter months you’ll no doubt have your beds full of cabbages, caulis, broccoli (those in the South will be able to grow Brussels sprouts too), along with kales, spinach and silverbeet, carrots, beetroot and parsnips, maybe some leeks too.

Broccoli is probably the most loved green vegetable of all time and it’s time to plant it now - along with its cousins in the brassica family – cabbage, cauliflower, kale and so on.

If you grow nothing else, have a go with herbs – they’re truly easy and rewarding. Nothing beats being able to go out the back or front door to pick fresh herbs for meals, and it costs so much less.

Sowing seed and growing seedlings on is a skill that’s truly worth having. In this time where we can be in Lockdown within hours, having seeds in your fridge and some good quality potting mix on hand means you can grow food.

As we write this, it’s Conservation Week/Te Wiki Tiaki Ao Tūroa in New Zealand. And because of COVID-19, the country is also at levels 4 and 3 lockdown. So while we all need to stay at home – this is an excellent opportunity to think about how we can protect our native wildlife right in our own backyard.

Winter is the best time of the year to plant pip and stone fruit. At this time of year you’ll be able to buy bare-rooted fruit trees. The advantages of a bare-rooted fruit tree are they can have up to twice as many roots as trees in bags and they usually cost less.

Autumn is the time to enjoy the last of our fruiting crops - capsicums and eggplants are pumping out fruit - and we sow seeds for our brassicas (kale, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli) to enjoy over the winter months.

Newly planted summer vegetables have been thriving on the extra water we've seen in recent weeks, especially given the water restrictions in place for parts of New Zealand and Australia. In this blog post we discuss how to plant asparagus and why some leafy greens planted in spring have the annoying habit of going to seed early on.

Spring is the time we think about the soil that’s going to grow our summer bounty. There’s so much advice out there as well as loads of good products and it can be very confusing. There are fertilisers, and there are soil conditioners and while they’re different from one another, they’re both essential for good soil health.