Midsummer garden
Some of you have built cages or even extensive arbors over fruits to protect your efforts. Photo: Sol Morgan
This time of year is epitomised by the passage “We like the things that summer brings. It brings the sun. It brings the heat. It brings the things we love to eat”, from the children’s book, Summer, by Alice Low.
Even as a child I remember with fondness the joys of summer fruits, starting with cherries and strawberries, then plums, gooseberries, raspberries, boysenberries, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, rock melons and water melons. That makes my mouth water in anticipation.
There are plenty of options among stall/shop-sold fruit but nothing can beat your own fully ripened fruit. Managing to harvest it before the birds and other hungry creatures do can be an issue. I don’t mind sharing, but discovering that all my gooseberries had been eaten last year spurred me to get them netted this year, and so far, so good. Some of you have built cages or even extensive arbors over fruits to protect your efforts.
Minimise crop losses by staying observant for insect pests and diseases, removing affected material early by hand, or spraying. I avoid using sprays, except tonics like seaweed, relying instead on keeping the tree or shrub happy with enough food (by mulching) and water (in hot, dry periods).
Summer vegetables are pumping now and need careful tending to keep them happy and producing for us. Continued harvesting often prolongs the crop’s life, forcing it to keep growing fruits, as with beans, tomatoes and zucchinis. Allowing one to mature and seed on the plant can shut down or stall the production process.
Getting our children involved in the garden is easiest when there’s lots to pick (though not so easy when there’s weeding to do!). Seeing a crop growing from seed to maturity, and possibly to seed again, is a great way to educate them about plant (and insect) lifecycles.
Many crops stay true to type and can be saved for seed: beans, peas, lettuce, silverbeet, celery, parsley, coriander, tomatoes, and cucumbers (provided they’re not hybrids). Select the best and let them fully mature.
The shortest day has just passed, so garlic, shallots and onions can be harvested now when their tops flop over. It’s best to leave them to sun-dry for a day, then dry them further in airy, sheltered spot. In their newly vacant beds you can plant crops for winter harvest, like leeks, carrots, beetroot, brassicas (which like a bit of shade now, though) and silverbeet.
Keeping up with salad plantings (also in shady spots to avoid heat stress and bolting) will provide yummy, fresh salads to complement your many outdoor meals and summer BBQs as you relax with friends and family.
Fruit care
Summer-prune stone and pipfruits.
Prune grapes back to five to six leaves after fruit bunches.
Prune citrus when harvesting.
Support heavily laden fruit branches.
Foliar-feed fruits.
Spray neem oil for aphid and passionvine hopper infestations.
Spray Bt on berries vs caterpillar moth damage.
Insert trichodowels (vinevax) vs silverleaf fungus, particularly in stonefruit.
Herb care
Harvest coriander seeds for cooking.
Sow most annual herbs outdoors.
Weed and mulch.
Vegetable care
Prepare for summer planting of winter vegetables.
Sow and plant crops like French beans successively for ongoing supply. Sow/plant more zucchini too.
Water in the early morning, well every 2-3 days.
Liquid fertilise weekly, especially with comfrey on fruiting crops.
Mulch with seaweed, seagrass, grass, old baleage or straw.
Hoe unmulched beds to disturb soil pests like cutworms and weeds.
Keep mounding potatoes and yams or mulch well. Lift trailing kumara runners back onto the bed, or trim.
Delateral tomatoes and cucumbers (on a hot day) to encourage main stem growth.
Spray Bt on brassicas weekly.
Watch for shield bugs and remove or use garlic and pyrethrum spray.
Keep planting flowers.
Feed asparagus.
Hothouse
Keep well ventilated, well watered (daily) and well fed.
Hang yellow sticky cards for whitefly.
For transplanting: All seeds 8 Jan. Spring onions and leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, silverbeet, lettuce, endive, cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts) (also 10-11 & 19-20 Jan). Cauliflower, broccoli and flowers, eg cyclamen and polyanthus (also 9 & 17-18 Jan).
Sow direct: All seeds 8 Jan. Salads and spring onions (also 10-11 & 19-20 Jan). Corn, zucchini and cucumbers, French and climbing beans (also 12-13 Jan). Carrots, beetroot, radish (also 14-16 Jan). Flowers, eg scabiosa, larkspur (also 9 & 17-18 Jan).
Plant: Best 24 Dec – 6 Jan. Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, celery, leeks, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, late tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and potatoes. Flowers eg celosia, petunia.
General garden care
Avoid mowing lawns too short (reduces drought tolerance). Use clippings in compost, etc.
Keep cutting comfrey leaves and top up liquid fertiliser drums.
Make and turn compost. Cover to conserve moisture.
Prune perennials and shrubs after flowering, eg roses.
Trim hedges and mulch prunings.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
