Container gardening
Main spring planting will be on top of the gardening list for many of you. But what if you haven’t got a garden? Try gardening in containers. The options are endless, but require more care and attention, especially watering during the warmer months.
Container options: Pots, buckets, used mussel buoys (halved), old fish crates, half wine barrels, halved drums, water tanks, polystyrene boxes, wire baskets, wooden boxes, window planters, washtubs, washing machine tubs, even old boots or kettles. Size determines the amount of mix that can fit and therefore limit the growth of the plant. So size the plant to the container eg a bucket will fit one cucumber.
Container material has an influence. Plastic deteriorates with UV exposure, so thick plastic is better. Clay pots dry out quickly, so better suit dry-loving cacti or succulents. Glazed clay pots work better for this reason. Wooden boxes are very adaptable and can be made to fit your individual situation—but avoid using treated timber near food plants, or line containers with plastic before filling with potting mix.
Drainage is critical, as plants sitting in water will die. Several holes must be drilled in the bottom for drainage. Line with drainage material like coarse gravel, stones or broken clay pots. Then add shredded newspaper, fine bark, peat, coconut fibre, or leaf mould to prevent water loss.
Container mix: If you want to make your own continer mix, then ensure its texture is both crumbly AND holds together somewhat when squeezed in your hand. The trick is using resources you have on hand. Here’s a rough recipe:
1 part leaf mould/forest litter/seagrass, old rotted sawdust/bark/shreddings or peat moss (water retention/sponginess)
2 parts coarse sand from river or granite sand (drainage)
3 parts compost or worm castings (nutrients). Handful of blood and bone or fishmeal for fruiting vegetables
3 parts topsoil, free of nasty weeds like oxalis (body, minerals and soil organisms) handful or dolomite/lime and minerals (compound fert mix)
Planting: Make sure your plant deep enough and firmly. Water well. Stake fruit trees. Provide support for climbers.
Feeding: Other than the mix, additional food can be supplied either as a top/side dressing or liquid fertilise.
Watering: Container plants require more water as temperature rise. Test with a finger.
Fruit care
Plant subtropicals. Stake, protect from wind/animals.
Prune newly planted fruit trees to chosen shape (eg vase for stonefruit and centre leader for pipfruit).
Plant comfrey under fruit trees at drip line or 1.5 metres from trunk.
Sow understorey plants under fruit trees or on edges to encourage beneficial insects and improve soil heath.
Mulch fruits with woody compost and manures (especially citrus and peaches).
Plant strawberries. Weed and mulch established beds. Liquid fertilise with comfrey from last year.
Prune citrus when harvesting. Spray with all-purpose oil for scale insect.
Spray everything with diluted seaweed solution or fish-based foliar spray for added nutrition.
Spray lime sulphur (after blossoming) on fruit trees vs peach leaf curl, black spot, powdery mildew, scale, mites.
Spray garlic and pyrethrum with neem oil on fruits like apples vs bronze beetle attack.
Watch for silver leaf. Prune out affected branches, treat cuts with trichoderma and insert biodowels into trunk.
Herb care
Transplant rooted cuttings from last year.
Weed herb beds in preparation for sowing annual herbs.
Sow herb seed indoors.
Vegetable care
Watch for slugs/snails, which can devastate young seedlings quickly. Keep beds weeded. Mulch with ash or crushed eggshells.
Make loads of compost as you complete bed preparations.
Continue main spring sowings indoors, especially cucumbers, squash, pumpkins.
Stake and tie around broad beans for support. Pinch tips to encourage flowering.
Plant potatoes into organic-matter-rich soil. Mound as tips poke through soil.
Plant early hot crops (tomatoes, cucumbers, etc). Ensure beds have lots of compost, dolomite, blood and bone and organic compound NZ fert.
Continue preparing seed beds for sowings of root crops, etc. Prepare rich beds for sweetcorn and sow.
Prepare shallow, rich beds for kumara.
Sow/plant beneficial flowers, eg marigolds.
Liquid fertilise weekly with cow manure, fish, urine, comfrey, or seaweed brews.
Hothouse: Main sowings into punnets/trays. Make indoor compost to raise temperature. Organise yellow sticky cards in preparation for whitefly control. Keep well ventilated. Spray with garlic and pyrethrum if plants get aphid infestations.
For transplanting: All seeds 21st October. Leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, silverbeet/chard, lettuce, endive, cabbages, leeks)(also 30th–31st Oct). Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins. Herbs, flowers, eg cosmos (also 29th Oct).Sow direct: All seeds 21st October. Mesclun salad, spring onions (also 30th–31st Oct). Peas; climbing & French beans (cover). Radish, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, kohlrabi. Sweetcorn, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins. Flowers, eg Canterbury bells.
Plant: 13th–26th best. Salad greens, silverbeet, spinach, cabbages. Onions. Early sweetcorn, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants. Main potatoes. Flowers eg dahlias.
General garden care
Mulch perennial gardens with bark or shreddings.
Mulch-mow lawn; add lime/dolomite.
Collect seaweed/seagrass.
Plant comfrey near compost bins and set up liquid fertiliser drums for manures, seaweed/seagrass, comfrey/weeds (add hard-to-compost weeds like dock, convolvulus etc).
Check hoses and watering systems. Replace broken sprinklers.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
