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Garden Tips May 2015
May Tips from the Living Earth Staff Veggie Garden - autumn is here and Digger Dan is getting into the season with lots of compost and planting!
The Garden: Despite the unseasonably wild weather this autumn the boys have been busy digging in compost and measuring out new rows for autumn planting in the Living Earth staff veggie patch.
Compost - Feed the soil that feeds you!
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Compost is excellent for adding organic matter and a diversity of micro-organisms back into your soil to grow strong plants.
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Helps soil structure - great for breaking up those typical Auckland clays
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High in nutrients, beneficial fungi and bacteria that help release vital goodies for plants to absorb and use in their growing process.
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Living Earth's organic, weed-free compost is sustainably made from Auckland's garden waste and is helping our city towards its zero waste goal in 2040.
Compost MUST be dug in with existing soil! Apply a 50mm layer to the gardens and incorporate into the top layer of soil.
Harvest: Pumpkins! After waiting patiently the boys harvested over 30 large pumpkins and all of them have been busily cooking up soup, roasts and salads using them. Digger tried to grab some for the local food bank at Nga Whare Waatea Marae, but they had disappeared! One of the boys had already cooked them into an authentic Indian curry for the folk at the Auckland City Mission in West Auckland. It's so awesome to observe what the food garden is revealing about the staff. And good food doesn't last long!
New Crops: Coming into autumn it's great to start thinking
about winter meals - grow based on what you like to cook and eat! Digger loves
good hearty boil ups and broths using organic meat, or fish and any vegetables
thrown in.
The boys have been sowing parsnips, onions, broad and soy beans in trays in
their tunnel house. They're also planting, onions, cauliflower, spinach, bok
choy and radish.
And there's a new variety of broccoli - Romanesco - for its incredible
geometric design. Nature is stunning!
All the LE staff love garlic too - so watch this space for a whole new bed
being dedicated to this favourite.
Pest Watch: Outside in the mini market garden the kale,
leek and cos lettuce crops have bounced back despite the hungry pukekos. And
the white butterfly has finally disappeared for the
season….
Digger knows the beer dish trick works
brilliantly for slugs and snails, but The Living Earth site is alcohol-free, so
it's back to removal by hand. Happily the birds are pretty good at finding
them!
General March Gardening:
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Replenish your soil - Dig in Living Earth compost - your plants and microbe buddies will thank you later for the investment and TLC you show them now!
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Transplant - Many of the smaller shrubs such as azaleas, hebes, conifers and gardenias can be transplanted this month.
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Excellent winter colour can be found by planting winter flowers such as camellias, daphne and rich tapestry colours of the winter hellebores. Great time to fill pots, hanging baskets and garden beds with polyanthus, cyclamen and primulas!
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Feed and spray citrus - Liquid feed with Yates' Thrive Citrus Liquid Food and spray against mites and aphids with Aquaticus 'Glow'.
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May is also moving month - move vulnerable plants that are affected by cooler weather or winds to a more protected positions - warmer or sheltered spots indoors, verandahs or to the greenhouse.
Mother's Day is on the 10th May!
If your wonderful mother is a gardener, treat her to something special:
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A cook book: The highly awarded 'The Flavour Thesaurus' by Nikki Segnit. A fantastic listing of stunning flavour pairings via the main vegetable making it an easy way to cook with what is already in your fridge or garden. Be prepared to throw out the old rules and have your taste buds (and mind) exploded!
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Gardening book: 'Herbal Harvest' by Greg Whitten. An ultimate encyclopaedia for sowing and growing all types of medicinal herbs and their individual health benefits.
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For the down-to-earth Mum she'll love a trailer of Compost or Organic Veggie Mix! Go on - offer her some time, whack some garden beds together and get her garden growing!
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Take Mum to the Winter Gardens in The Domain, or the Auckland Botanic Gardens.
Lawn Care: With autumn being a bit late this year, you may
find you have more growth than you could usually expect at this time of the
year. Keep up regular mowing and fertilise with Prolawn Gold, this is important
to maintain strong and healthy growth before the winter cold kicks in. The
healthier and stronger your lawn is now the better it will handle the cold and
wet conditions of winter.
If you have not done your autumn renovation work yet it may not be too late to
spray off those weeds and fill in any bare areas that remain while there is
still some warmth around.
Garden Thought of the Month:
"Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans." Marcelene Cox
