WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN THIS WEEK
We’ve decided to hold back on the sowing and transplanting of crops for a while. Mainly because we’re running out of space and probably have enough crops coming through to keep us going for a while. I have added three more sweetcorn seedlings between the tomatoes because they were being given away at the Māngere markets and seemed a shame to waste. And we’re taking advice from NZ Gardener to try some intercropping by giving the raspberry vines a heavy prune and sowing peas in the gaps.
And despite the recent rain, we’ve got our eyes on the Christmas holidays and an expected rise in temperatures and a drying of the grounds. The key here, I’m thinking, is to focus on mulch, getting it down and making sure there will be a continual supply over the coming summer months.
Mulching keeps the soil cool, moist and suppresses weeds, an especially good idea if you want to relax or get away for a couple of weeks.
So the plan was to visit a major garden centre or two to find out what was available. They have some good options in pea straw, wood chip and bark, although it can get quite expensive if you're like us and need a lot.
t o f pVibrantly coloured beetroot is delicious raw or cooked, brilliant for juicing, and easy to bottle if you want to add wow factor to your homemade burgers. Its naturally high sugar content means you can even use it in your baking – try adding cooked, grated beetroot to chocolate brownies and cake (it keeps them moist and makes the texture lighter) or try substituting beetroot for carrot in carrot cake.
SOW AND GROW
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B EWhen to sow: August to March in warmer areas and September to March in cooler areas. When to transplant: August to March in warmer areas and September to March in cooler areas. Position: Full sun Harvest: 10-12 weeks Good for beginners
I did find something else to cheer my heart at a garden centre, a small pine nut tree (Pinus pinea) in a container, sitting hidden behind other lonely unwanted plants in the sale bin, like an ugly puppy at the pound. A grow-your-own Christmas tree in a container. It’s small and cheery and has just enough room for a piece of tinsel. We don’t have a tree and I always like getting something I can plant out. And who doesn’t love a pine nut in their salad, pesto or pasta?
But here’s the thing with these pine nut trees, they don’t stay small, cute or well contained. According to the attached label, you can keep them in a container for the first 4-5 years, but they eventually need planting out. They will grow to 5-6m in 10 years, and won’t produce nuts for eight years. I guess that’s why it was in the sale bin. Who has room for a 6m tree, and who can wait eight years for a nut?
But they’re very hardy, tolerating most conditions. Each cone will produce about 50 nuts and 100kg of cones will produce 18kg of nuts. So, here’s the plan. Keep it this Christmas, and re-gift it next year to someone with a lifestyle block or farm that I can visit and harvest the nuts from in eight years time. Job done.
The Garden Ninjas Kaeo are a crack team of community gardeners and food growers from Northland. So following the record November downpours and ongoing issues with rain, we asked co-ordinator Sandy Sturm how they were coping and what they were going to do to combat the inevitable summer drought.
“We have two gardens that we run as community gardens,” she says. “They are both in different conditions even though they're on the same mountain but on different ends.”
Pupuke (to well up or rise) garden is elevated at around 200m and on a terrace.
“The heavy rain didn’t do any damage and didn’t have a negative effect on the garden, in fact, it was rather positive as we didn’t need to water the beds,” she says.
The plan for the hot summer is to use companion planting to provide shade. They will interplant with lettuces to cover the ground and edges to avoid drying out by the sun.
“We will also mulch the beds, but we’re still trying to find a good mulch. Grass clippings are being pulled apart by birds too easily. I’m looking into getting wood chips with goat manure that somebody around Kaeo has for sale. We might even look into setting up a watering system.
“It will be our first summer growing in this garden, so we will learn what works best.”
Their other garden, also benefited from the heavy rain, says Sturm.
“Again, it helped us water the garden, especially the carrot patch as that needed watering every day for the first two weeks. Nature helped us.”
To tackle the heat in summer Sturm and the team will cover the ground thickly with azolla, a weed that grows in the pond next to the gardens.
“It’s a great nitrogen fixer as well and will be harvested and thickly layered around the plants and all the ground. It will keep the plants moist, keeps the weeds down and feeds the plants.