My favourite thing to grow at home in Autumn... from four local gardening experts

Autumn is a season of change, but it doesn’t mean the end of your vegetable garden - it’s just the beginning of a new growing cycle!

Autumn is a fantastic season for growing, offering the perfect conditions for a variety of hardy, flavourful crops. From leafy greens to root vegetables, there’s plenty to plant that will keep your garden productive well into the cooler months.

To inspire you, we’ve spoken with four passionate gardeners from across the region. They share their top crop recommendations, practical growing tips, and creative ways to use your homegrown produce.

Gus – Garden Facilitator at Echuca Twin Rivers Specialist School

Autumn is a busy time in the garden, probably the busiest season of the year. The summer crops are finishing up and need to be harvested and stored. And while the ground is still warm, we need to take advantage of this and get a head start on the Winter crops.

What's your favourite thing to grow in Autumn and why?

I think Beetroot, as it’s super fast and easy and really fun for the students.

Key tips or tricks on growing it?

It’s really easy, sow directly into the ground and plant out whenever you have time and space.

How do you like to use it?

I love beetroot roasted in a salad with roast pumpkin, carrots, garlic, potatoes, feta and spinach or rocket. Add some chorizo for extra flavour. It’s super easy (1 roasting tray) colourful, cheap and delicious. Add couscous for a main meal, you will have all the ingredients on hand from the garden at this time of year.

Beetroot also makes a great simple chutney as a condiment for other dishes and you can use the smaller leaves as a substitute for the spinach in the recipe above.

As we are a specialist school it’s useful that the seeds are quite large and easy to handle; many of our students struggle with fine motor skills.

Cutting beetroot also makes great free stamps for younger students to have fun with, just be aware it will stain!

Fiona – The Street Harvest program at Maryborough Community Garden

What's your favourite thing to grow in Autumn and why?

Broccoli! There are lots of yummy and healthy varieties, including purple sprouting, broccolini, Romanesque, green sprouting and large flowering head and they are loaded with Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Fiber and Antioxidants.

Key tips or tricks on growing it?

Broccoli is best grown in cooler weather; there is less chance of the cabbage white butterfly attacking it as they prefer warmer weather. You can use companion plantings of aromatic dill, sage or peppermint as a deterrent or throw over an old lace curtain.

How do you like to use it?

All parts of broccoli can be used. l stir fry the leaves, add all parts to soup, make pesto, roast it, char grill, air fry, grate and steam it.

You can cut the stems into matchsticks and add them as a crunchy element in rice paper rolls.

Another great way to use the stems is to pickle them:

• Peel and finely slice broccoli stems.
• In a jug mix 1/2 cup boiling water, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 3 tbs sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and pour over broccoli stems. For extra flavour, you can add a big pinch of chilli flakes, some fennel seeds and a garlic clove to the jar.
• Cover the jar and let it sit for a few days in the fridge, then enjoy the stems tossed into salads, added to toasties, burgers and cheesy crackers. It will last for 1 month in the fridge.

Jonathan – Garden Facilitator at Long Gully Neighbourhood Centre Community Garden

What's your favourite thing to grow in Autumn and why?

As the weather cools and the days get shorter, the range of produce we can grow shrinks. One of my favourites to grow in Autumn is Broad Beans. But not just for cropping delicious pods in late winter and spring, but for their ability to help replenish the soil for spring. Broad Bean seed is very easy to save, because you just let some bean pods dry on the plant and set aside. So we'll be planting three times as many Broad Bean plants as we need for food. The rest will be turned into green manure, either flattened and left to rot under a straw mulch or put into our compost to give it a boost of nitrogen rich plant material.

Key tips or tricks on growing it?

Broad Bean seeds are big and robust, so for some of our plots we'll simply broadcast them onto the soil and rake them in. But we'll also germinate some in tubes for transplanting (so we can give some plants away at our Seedling Swap) and sow them in more orderly rows for the plants we want to cultivate. One of the challenges with Broad Beans is keeping them all upright. Strong winds can knock over the plants, creating problems. A twine grid can help support the plants, and if you are able, a metal mesh can be raised as the plants grow taller to support them.

How do you like to use them?

I personally don't like Broad Beans! But both our Community Garden volunteers and the people who use our Neighbourhood Centre Mini Pantry love them. I'm told sautéing them in garlic and butter makes them delicious, but I'd say just about anything in garlic and butter tastes good!

Thea – Growing Abundance Harvest Coordinator, Castlemaine Community House

What's your favourite thing to grow in Autumn and why?

Autumn, Apples, Abundance!

The end-of-summer turning of the season is a truly abundant time on Djaara Country. The last of the summer produce is coming through, and the oncoming autumn promises the delights of crisp apples, pears and quinces. The Growing Abundance Project, based at Castlemaine Community House, is gearing up for a big harvest season. We help backyard growers distribute their excess produce and also glean from commercial orchards after their big harvests have been completed. The cool mornings of areas around Harcourt and Bendigo make them famous apple regions, and we make the most of the abundance!

Saying goodbye to summer vegetable crops is always sad (I lament pulling out the tomatoes as much as the next person!), but the process of seed-saving from my strongest plants always gives me peace of mind that summer will come again. Give it a go if you haven’t before! Tomato and pumpkin seeds are my favourite to store, and remind me of how generous plants are with their seeds. I usually collect plenty for my next season, as well as more than enough to share with community or my local seed library. Combined with the onset of apple season and the wind-down of the heat, heralding the slowness of the cooler months, autumn truly is a magical time to be connecting with your garden and the wider local food network of your community.

Key tips or tricks on growing it?

Apples are a remarkably versatile, nutritious fruit and store well in or out of the fridge. This makes them such a perfect candidate for the food relief work that Growing Abundance does through Community Food Pantries across Mount Alexander Shire. Last year we harvested over 3 tonnes of apples which were distributed to community food collection points and programs!

How do you like to use them?

Some of our favourite things to do with apples include:

• Juicing/Pressing for delicious fresh juice, vinegar and cider. We have a yearly Community Apple Pressing Day in May – keep an eye on our socials for details!
• Bottling for ready-to-go stewed and poached apples all year round
• Making chutneys, relishes and sauces
• Fruit leathers – simple to make, dehydrated fruit for a vitamin, energy and fibre hit!