Down to Earth: The Strawberry Patch
Autumn is the main planting season for those yummy summer fruits – strawberries. There’s nothing quite like picking your own strawberries, and the kids love it! Here are a few tips on growing strawberries at home.
· There are two main types of strawberry: the alpine or wild strawberry, and many varieties of modern strawberry (a cross between old and new world strawberries).
· Propagate alpine strawberries from seed and crown division. Modern strawberries grow from seed, or best from runners.
· Grow in raised beds, on garden edges or edible ground covers (especially in ornamental or fruit areas), in pots, washing machine tubs, tyre towers, or on wooden pyramids (view one at the Motupipi School garden).
· They like a rich, fertile, free-draining soil. Prepare ground with lots of compost or rotted manure. Add a handful/metre of blood and bone, rock phosphate and wood ash.
· Add a mulch of pine needles to keep the soil acidic.
· Select healthy plants. Garden centres have virus-free lines.
· Plant about 30cm apart, not too deep, and water well.
· Best to grow in a three-year rotation, replacing three-year old plants with new plants every year.
· Limit runners to one per plant. Best to pot up young runners and cut from the main plant when well rooted.
· Keep weeded and mulched to limit slugs and snails.
· Remove diseased fruit and black-spotted leaves late summer.
· Use netting covers for bird protection.
· Keep well watered. Liquid fertilise in the summer for ongoing harvest. Enjoy!!
Fruit care:
· Spray stonefruit and pipfruit with copper vs bacterial diseases once leaves fall.
· Protect citrus and other subtropicals with frost cloth.
· Autumn prune trees. Remove diseased wood and fruit (brown rot, etc) and burn.
· Prune old berryfruit canes. Select and tie best new canes.
· Harvest grapes and passionfruit.
· Watch out for silverleaf in fruit trees.
· Re/plant strawberry patch.
Herb Care:
· Weed and mulch.
· Transplant perennial herbs.
· Take cuttings of rosemary, lavender and other semi-woody herbs. Put in coarse sand under cover.
Vegetable Care:
· Prepare ground for garlic and onions. Add lots of compost, lime, rock phosphate and wood ash.
· Prepare ground for peas and broad beans. Add lime and compost if you haven’t this season.
· Liquid fertilise weekly.
· Sow green crops (eg lupin, vetch, mustard, rye, corn or oats) on vacant beds for winter/spring plantings.
· Weed and mulch.
· Stay observant for pests and diseases.
· Spray Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) for caterpillars on brassicas.
· Tend asparagus beds with lots of compost and straw.
· Hothouse: Keep ventilated. Manage pests. Keep crops tidy - remove dead/diseased leaves. Plant salads for winter.
· Harvest late potatoes. Store in cool, dry, shady place.
· Keep harvesting late beans, zucchinis and tomatoes.
· Harvest pumpkins and melons. Store pumpkins in dry, rodent proof area.
· Do a soil test if you haven’t for a few years to check for deficiencies. Try Hills Laboratory (www.hill-laboratories.com).
Sow for transplanting: Leafy greens (winter spinach, lettuce, endive, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard, Chinese cabbage and red onions) (13th-14th April). Broccoli, cauliflowers. Flowers, eg cornflowers.
Sow direct: Radish, beetroot, turnip and swede (10th April). Spring onions, salads, silverbeet/chard. Peas and early broad beans. Flowers, eg sweet pea.
Plant: Best: 16th – 27th April. Salad greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, silverbeet/rainbow chard and beetroot. Flowers, eg tulip bulbs.
General Garden Care:
· Make and turn composts. Time for big tidy up!
· Create leaf compost ring.
· Collect seed from vegetables and annual flowers.
· Prune back flowering plants and hedges.
· Shred prunings.
· Weed and mulch ornamental areas.
· Sow or re-sow patches of lawn. Compost lawn clippings
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy. Ph 525 9110.
