It has been almost a year since starting my vegie garden in Brisbane.

Once again I have no silverbeet to harvest.

The 4 fordhook silverbeet plants that provided me with fresh, dark green leafy additions to meals since July last year lasted until March this year – 8 months. Despite my best efforts to make these plants perennials, they finally became too woody and rotten after the rains in February and March.

Small replacement seedlings are now planted, but the name of the game is succession planting. The key to succession planting is to know how long a crop is likely to be viable for and grow the next crop so that the harvests can overlap. In the case of my silverbeet and the late summer rains – a protected environment out of the rain will be a good way to kick start my crop next year!

I did actually buy a bunch of the stuff – never again!! It is just not right.