Get set for summer: Canberra-ready seedlings are here

Every Canberra gardener knows the rule: don’t put your tomatoes in until after Melbourne Cup Day. But the smart gardeners don’t wait until November to start planning. Now is the perfect time to pick up your seedlings, get them settled and be ready to plant as soon as the frosts are behind us.

And this year you won’t find better-suited seedlings than the ones at the Capital Region Farmers Market. Every one of our seedling growers is based right here in our cold-climate region. Their plants have grown up with the same chilly mornings and big temperature swings as your backyard, so they’re Canberra-ready from day one.

Meet our seedling growers

Greenhill Farm has brought back the heirloom tomatoes we look forward to every spring. If you’ve only ever grown one kind of tomato, this is your year to branch out. Mix a few different varieties and you’ll have tomatoes with different colours, shapes and flavours on your table all summer long.

Superseedlings from the Yass Valley return this Saturday, and you’ll find them every second and fourth Saturday of the month. Their cool-climate range covers all the summer staples: tomatoes, capsicums and chillies, cucumbers, basil and plenty of other herbs.

Kuch’s Plants join us every first, third and fifth Saturday. Alongside the tried-and-true favourites, they grow some unusual varieties that will make your veggie patch the talk of the street. October has five Saturdays this year, so you can catch them on 17 and 31 October.

Canberra Colour grows its herb and vegetable seedlings just down the road in Bungendore and has a great variety to choose from every week.

Protect your little seedlings from late frosts

Canberra loves a late frost, and young seedlings feel it first. On cold, clear nights, cover your seedlings with frost cloth, an old sheet or a cut-down plastic bottle, and take the cover off in the morning. Keep seedlings in pots in a sheltered spot, or bring them inside, until the risk has passed. Water in the morning rather than the evening so the soil isn’t cold and wet overnight.

Ask our growers for their tips too. They’ve been through plenty of Canberra springs.