Down to Earth: Feeding the garden
If you missed planting out main crops in October, not to worry, as those planted now will soon catch up with the neighbours as temperatures and sunlight increase. Often on top of the gardening list is "What do I feed the garden with?" There are plenty of easy options available from garden centres and landscape suppliers in the form of fertilisers and compost, but if you're keen to save some money there are other options. The following is a list of ways to feed up your garden using local resources:
1. Compost: nothing beats rich well-decomposed compost made from a variety of materials like manure, hay, seaweed, crops, weeds and soil.
2. Manures: Each has different qualities, is full of microbes and nutrients, and best applied well rotted. Pig manure, rich in potassium, is ideal for root crops such as potatoes, leeks and celeriac. Horse manure is light and rich in ammonia so will warm the soil and aid leaf growth. Cow manure is great in compost. Sheep and goat manure are great all-round food. Poultry and bird manure is high in phosphorous so great for fruiting crops. Best made into a liquid fertiliser.
3. Lime and dolomite: essential fertilisers adding calcium (and magnesium), which stimulate nutrient exchange.
4. Seaweed and seagrass: great weed suppressants. Also supply many much-needed trace elements.
5. Wood ash: rich in phosphorous and potassium, ideal supplement for fruiting and heavy-feeding crops.
6. Liquid fertilisers: comfrey, seaweed, manure and weed brews are ideal supplements, providing additional nutrients and water during the growing season.
Fruit care:
Prune citrus as you harvest.
Prune young trees for good shape. Remove water shoots from centre of older trees.
Thin pipfruits.
Mulch strawberries, other berryfruits and fruit trees.
Preventative sprays of seaweed on fruits and copper spray on stonefruit vs leaf curl and pipfruit vs black spot.
Hang pheromone traps to prevent codlin and leafroller moth damage.
Divide and transplant comfrey around fruit tree drip line.
Herb Care:
Weed, cut back perennials, divide, transplant and mulch.
Sow annual herbs. Direct sow: dill, parsley and coriander.
Vegetable Care:
Stay observant of young seedlings: remove pests (eg snails) or spray with garlic and pyrethrum until established (eg vs aphids). Harden off seedlings you've propagated before planting.
Sow regularly (3-4 weeks) for continuous harvest into autumn: radishes, French beans, salads, annual herbs, carrots, sweet corn.
Avoid hay/straw mulches. Mulch with grass clippings or seagrass when plants are well established.
Mound potatoes, celery and carrots (after thinning).
Dig in green manure crops.
Apply lime/dolomite to beds (except potatoes/tomatoes).
Prepare ground for main planting in November.
Spray Bt every 2-3 days on brassicas.
Cloche sensitive crops. Use halved plastic bottles.
Stake broad beans and tie up. Tip broad beans to encourage fruiting. Set up stakes for climbing crops like beans and cucumbers.
Hothouse: plant with tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis. Keep well ventilated. Avoid mist watering. Hang yellow sticky cards vs whitefly and watch for aphids (spray garlic and pyrethrum).
Weed by surface tilling to aid soil warming, kill soil pests and improve crop growth.
Add flowers (and herbs) to the garden to attract beneficial insects, deter pests (eg nasturtium) and for beauty.
Sow for transplanting: Leafy greens (summer spinach, lettuce, endive, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, silverbeet/rainbow chard and celery), Florence fennel and leeks (best 18th Nov). Sweetcorn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, melons and pumpkins (best 20th-21st Nov). Herbs. Flowers (eg petunia and aster).
Sow direct: Radish, parsnip, carrots, beetroot (best 22nd-25th Nov). Spring onions, Florence fennel, leeks, salads, silverbeet/chard (best 18th Nov). Late peas, French/butter and climbing beans, sweet corn, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, melons and zucchini (best 20th-21st Nov).
Plant: Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard, onions, beetroot, Florence fennel, yams (oca). Potatoes (best 16th-17th Nov). Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchini, cucumbers, melons and squash may require cover. Annual herbs. .
General garden care:
Mulch-mow lawns, shred prunings.
Make and turn composts, mulch ornamental areas.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy. Ph 525 9110.
