Make way for spring
Make way for spring. Photo: Sol Morgan
After all those frosts most of us have been having I am hoping August will begin to warm up, making way for spring. Bulbs are blooming and stone fruits are blossoming so it’s not far away. It is time to get prepared for the coming growing season.
Seeds need to be ordered if you’re into seed propagation (kids love sowing and propagating seeds/seedlings as I’ve discovered at Motupipi School). Get all those seed punnets and trays ready as well as the seed-raising mix and potting mix. A simple seed-raising mix is one part sieved compost to one part Wainui sand to one part broken-down seagrass or peat. With potting mix I add a few scoops of blood and bone, fishmeal to a wheelbarrow of mix or half-bucket of kinpak (sheep manure) or vermicaste. Give the glasshouse or tunnel house a good clean down for better light penetration and start propagating. It’s an important sowing time for long-season crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Bottom heat mats will aid germination and growth too.
In the vegetable garden now is the time to dig in green manures for September plantings of brassicas, silverbeet etc. Prepare beds for spring sowings of root crops and other plantings. Add compost or simply pull back mulch on beds you wish to use. Lightly till with a rake for sowing small seeds like carrots. Cloche these to aid soil warming and their germination.
Sow early potatoes in a warm spot and provide frost protection either with cloth or straw mulch. Brussel sprouts, swedes and turnips are harvested now providing new ingredients for soups etc. Keep in broccoli and cauliflowers that have been harvested for bonus side shoots as produce gets leaner this month and next.
The orchard could do with a copper or lime sulphur spray if you haven’t done it and you have problems with fungal diseases. Plant last of the fruit trees and check they are staked and tied well. Ensure newly planted trees are mulched with woody material to inhibit grass growth. Feed citrus and other subtropicals like avocados and fejoas with rich woody compost or manure (especially chicken) to stimulate their growth and fruiting potential.
Fruit care:
Harvest late tamarillos, pepinos and citrus. Check stored fruit for those gone rotten.
Feed orchard with dolomite lime, rock phosphate, manure and woody compost. Especially fejoas.
Prepare strawberry beds and plant runners to replace old plants. Feed existing beds with worm juice etc.
Complete pruning of berrryfruits, grapes and fruit trees. Overgrown feijoas respond well to hard pruning.
Spray copper oxychloride or lime sulphur (but not both together) on fruits susceptible to black spot, brown rot, leaf curl or canker etc. Remember to use protective clothing and shower after.
Spray citrus with all purpose oil for scale insect or neem for aphid.
Herb Care:
Good time to redo (or create) the herb garden. Lift plants, remove couch grass etc, add compost and replant. Try making a herb spiral with rocks as edging spiralling into the centre like a snail shell.
Plant herbs like tarragon or transplant self-seeded perennials.
Sow hardy herbs like parsley and summer savory.
Vegetable Care:
Keep weeds away from onions, garlic and shallots with mulches of seagrass or lawn clippings.
Sort out stakes to support broad beans when they get up close to a metre high.
Liquid fertilise the whole garden with worm juice, compost tea, seaweed, fish or manure brews to stimulate microbes into action and help prevent diseases like spot on broad beans.
Plant new asparagus for cropping spring 2012. Existing asparagus: add lime, lots of compost and straw/seagrass.
Check for slugs and snails under rocks, pots etc and feed to chickens or compost.
Hothouse: Start propagating. Plant young tomato plants into rich beds for xmas harvest.
For transplanting: All seeds 12 August. Spring Onions and leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, silver beet, lettuce, endive, cabbages) (also 8 & 27 August). Onions (also 4-5 & 31 August). Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants (bottom heat) (also 28-29 August). Flowers, eg calliopsis, carnation, delphinium, lobelia, marigold and pansy (best 25 August).
Sow direct: All seeds 12 August. Mesclun salad & spring onions (also 8 & 27 August). Peas-cover (also 2 & 29 August). Carrots & beetroot –cover, and swede & turnip (also 4-5 & 31 August). Flowers eg alyssum, calendula, candytuft, cornflower, dianthus, sweet pea, wallflower (best 25 August).
Plant: Best 10 – 23 August. Onions, salad greens, spinach, chinese cabbage, cabbages and early potatoes. Flowers eg gladioli corms.
General Garden Care:
Plant perennial shrubs and trees.
Lime existing lawns.
Prune trees, hedges and shrubs after flowering, including roses.
Clean and fix garden tools.
Check other garden aids eg stakes, string lines, cloches, labels etc.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
