Last year I made the horrible mistake of thinking that winter vegetables means you must plant the vegetables in the winter months. It resulted in me losing about 20 heads of cauliflower. It is the hardest and most painful lesson I have learnt in the school of gardening. That winter vegetables actually mean harvest in winter, not plant in winter.
If I would like to harvest in winter it means I have to start planting now. I am planning to have a wider variety of winter harvest and drew up a plan to follow the progress of each vegetable:
| Plant Name | planted | Trays or direct | Transplanted | Estimated harvest time | Actual harvest time | notes |
| Broccoli | 23 January 2011 | Trays | | | | |
| Cauliflower | 23 January 2011 | Trays | | | | |
| Purple broccoli | January 2011 | Trays | | 9-10 weeks after transplanting | | |
| Garlic | January 2011 | Trays | | | | 19 February seeing green sprouts through soil |
| Frilly lettuce | January | Trays | | 50-60 days | | |
| Onions | 24 January 2011 | Trays | | Oct/nov 2011 | | |
| Spinach | January 2011 | Trays and direct | | | | |
| Beetroot | January 2011 | directly | | 11- 12 weeks | | |
| Carrots | January 2011 | directly | | 50 – 60 days End march 2011 | | |
| coriander | 24 january 2011 | pots | | | | |
| Peas | | | | | | |
As you can see from the list above I still have to plant peas and then my first winter planting will be done.The broccoli seedlings are already growing beautifully and needs to be planted into the soil soon.
