Real World Gardener La Niña and Changing Weather in the Kitchen Garden

 THE KITCHEN GARDEN <p>La Niña and your produce garden</p> Torrential rain is lashing the east coast of Australia as a write this while the west coast of enjoys a hot spell. Without sounding too dramatic, we’re starting off the kitchen garden segment with a topic about how the changing weather patterns are affecting the vegetable garden. At the moment Australia is in the grip of La Niña, a complex weather pattern, that bought rain for much of summer and now is causing flooding in many areas. Last year's summer was quite different with bushfires in most parts of Australia. <a href='https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dPfIFHHx8FY/YFVlUPs_T0I/AAAAAAAAkXc/QgnIS_WMTYISoTSWrzocGmv_nWhmvm_VwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1275/Rainy%2Bin%2Bmy%2Bgarden.jpg'></a> Torrential rain driven by La Niña in my garden. <p>We’re not so much spruiking climate change, but really it’s more about what you the gardener can do to mitigate problems in the veggie patch because of climate events like La Niña.</p> <p>This summer, the produce garden is seeing cooler temperatures during the day, increased humidity, and higher night temperatures because of the consistent cloud cover.</p> <p>For those gardeners on clay soil, the soil is staying damp even during the drier periods. Veggies do not like their roots in constant water.</p> <p>For those gardeners who haven't prepared their gardens for these events, they may find collar rot around citrus and other fungal problems in the kitchen garden.</p> <p>The answer for clay soil in produce gardens is build raised beds. Not only does this improve drainage, but saves all that bending to ground level.</p> <p>Powdery mildew is a problem with all gardens in humid weather, particularly when the crops are coming to their end of their production.</p> <p>Toni recommends using a bi-carbonate spray to change the pH of the leaf surface so that the fungus cannot thrive. This is only a preventative measure. Once the mildew takes hold.</p> Bicarb soda recipe: 1/2 teaspoon of sodium bi-carbonate 450ml water couple of drops