Harvesting fruit is so much fun

How rewarding it is to pick bright fruits from the garden to supplement the shopping.  This week I have been harvesting Guava and Bananas and when the rain clears I'm popping down the road to a neighbours late ripening Mandarin tree.  The fruit may be a bit tart but that is a nice change too.  They will be perfect for juicing or freezing to make a yummy sorbet as a refreshing treat on hot summer days to come.  Peel them first before freezing or you will have a mission trying to get the skins off later!  It is important to pick fruit that you intend to keep fresh for eating when it is not wet or it will rot, save the harvesting for a fresh fine day where possible.  If you see a tree laden with fruit don't be afraid to ask the owners if they are happy for you to harvest.  I often find people not using the fruit for themselves are more than happy to let you pick it in exchange for something you have turned it into - a jar of jam or the like.  Picking the fruit is often more of a help than it falling and making a mess for them to clean up or worse, attract vermin.

After the school pick up today a shot down to the beach to collect some seaweed and was rapt to find sea grass mixed in.  This fine green 10cm long grass like seaweed is great for mulch on the garden and I have not seen it since living near the inlet in Wellington.  

Get yourself ready to plant citrus, plum, apple, pears, apricots and quince in July and August.  You will be able to buy them bare root which is the best way to get them.  They will be packed with a little bit of sawdust around the root system.  Organise yourself a consultation to determine the best varieties for your site and order them now before your supplier runs out.

In the Garden 

June 17 - 22 This week in the garden with a new moon it is best to stick to digging and tilling the soil, don't be tempted to sow or plant anything.  When I feel tempted to plant in these quieter times I fill my time with freezing, fruit picking and pickling!  

Come June 23rd is the best time for sowing seeds for this month so get cracking and sow broad beans, lettuce, garlic, onions, peas, shallots, silverbeet and spinach where there are frost free areas.  In cold inland areas or the south sow lettuce, garlic, onions, peas, shallots, silverbeet and spinach.  I love to use my pouch potter to make small paper pouches that I can sow just the right quantity of seeds and then plant out each pouch straight into the garden once germinated.  Visit www.edenliving.co.nz to see and order your pouch potter; the pouch potter is a great gift too.

June 24 - 30 is still seed sowing time.  Restrain from sowing root crops but get everything else in like rocket - rocket pesto yum! Spinach, broad beans, bok choy will all do really well.

During this seed sowing time you can also plant out seedlings of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, silverbeet, strawberries, shallots 

Ohhh it's quiet on the planting front but LOTS to do

This is the time of month for cleaning up, clearing up, setting up and tarting up your grounds all in the name of not just looking good but getting the most into and out of your vegetable garden.  

In regard to Moon Gardening - there is not much happening at the moment in the planting department and it is far better to wait and get busy doing something else than force planting that will result in low show later. 

I love these mild winter days, they ease me into the reality that yes summer and autumn are over and are a nice reminder as the days tick by that spring is really not that far away.  Taking the time to set up new garden beds now, trim hedges and prepare multiple composting methods are so important so come September as the barometer rises you are not trying to cram too much into your already busy week and missing out on being ready for the greatest growing seasons ahead.  I prepare for this by composting and mulching now as much as possible.  The break down of your Compost slows down in winter but it doesn't stop; so with plenty of leaf litter, overgrown shrubs and hedges from a wet summer and now the odd raging storm throwing up sea weed, it is a great time to keep on top of stock piling all of this matter for use on your compost heap and as mulches around your plants in the vegetable garden.  

Many people ask me what the big deal is about mulch.  Mulch will keep your garden warm in winter and protect from drying out in spring and summer.  This action of drenching rain and then scorching days on an unmulched garden bed are what help ruin your crop and create frustration in the fight against disesase, insect invasion and weeds.  The most important thing when applying mulch to your garden is to ensure that you sprinkle a handful per square meter of blood and bone on top of your soil first before laying your mulch.   The blood and bone will activate a break down process for the garden soil to use the mulch as food for your plants and will also prevent the mulch from drawing nutrients out of the bare earth it is bedding upon.  It is important to lay the right amount of mulch so it can do its job.  If you have a nice deep mulch it not only will keep the temperature stable your garden will keep your garden pretty much weed free, yay!  I spread my mulch to a depth of 75mm (keeping a clear 10cm ring around each plant so as not to suffocate and cause rot).  I recommend following a model of varying the mulch you lay so as to build up the soil structure in your garden as it breaks down.  Add new mulch layers every 3 months to keep this process rolling along.  Try laying, Lucerne Hay month one, un-rinsed seaweed collected from the latest incoming tide month 3, dampened down Autumn leaves month 6, washed up fine sticks and small leaves from the high tide mark at the beach or river month 9, and so on – you can try this in any order that suits your foraging at the time you start.  

I make it a habit to stroll along the beach before walking home and collect the freshest of sea weed from the latest incoming tide.  This fresh juicy seaweed is the best to take as being lush will break down faster and is easier to chop up to use as mulch or in your compost.  It is important to chop up the seaweed finely.  If the thought of RSI is creeping in right now - rev up your lawn mower; dump the sea weed on your recently mowed lawn and brummm over it for the perfect chopped blend to toss into your compost heap or lay as above as mulch on your garden!  The one thing to add here is to cut the lawn first so as not to add too much fresh green lawn clippings into your seaweed blend.  I had the pleasure of advising a lovely couple last weekend at their Stillwater lifestyle property and I explained the idea of giving your garden a variety of mulch regularly is to provide ‘food’ for the food you are growing – this will result in a more disease resistant garden.  Your plants, like us function better when fed a varied and nutritious diet. 

My big boys have just started their first junk mail paper run to mark the move into suburbia and the desire to earn more pocket money after them achieving a decent profit on selling fire wood just prior to departing the paddocks.  I have been so excited as I walk the streets with them in the early evening; there are so many properties that are boasting vegetable gardens bursting with food and these are just the homes with them on the front lawn.  Another garden that bought a smile to my face was last Saturday at my eldest son’s rugby game in Glenfield.  This property backed on the Rugby grounds car park and it sported a huge vegetable garden complete with worm farms and compost heap.  The thing that struck me the most was the edging of the gardens that were created entirely from inverted empty beer bottles neatly arranged like soldiers retaining the soil to a perfect 15cm height! I thought that was one for the books of kiwi ingenuity!  It is so great to see so many edible gardens in our communities.  If you have a special garden set up please send photos to me through my web site at www.edenliving.co.nz that I can share with our readers and keep us all inspired to keep growing.

Activity dates coming up for Moon Gardening

June 10 – 14 Forget about planting and get busy cleaning, tidying and mulch, mulch, mulch, compost, compost, compost!

June 15 and June 16 are another two days great timing for planting root crops.

Give your crops a drink, weed, sow root crops and Garlic

We are excited to announce that last week we moved to the beautiful suburb of Manly on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Auckland.  We thoroughly enjoyed our rural retreat but are very happy to be back by the sea and urban gardening.  Our home is perfect for teaching which has opened my doors to run workshops from our place.  With plenty of parking across the road I welcome you to come along and see my urban space develop amongst the mature Peach, Nectarine, Pear, Orange, Lemon, Mandarin and Nectarine trees. I see visions for Summer of my vege beds amongst the trees and me lying in a hammock picking peaches, yummy!! It’s a Mediterranean treat for us to have stumbled upon. I knew the right house would be waiting for me to share my passion with you while Simon takes the kids out for the afternoon!  Visit my events page for dates and workshop subjects beginning in July.  For now though I am welcoming you to Winter! 

There are so many things happening in the garden throughout the colder months; preparing ground for Spring, making liquid manure tea and compost are at the top of my list.  Your garden ‘eat’s 75% of nutrients in one growing year so if you don’t feed your garden and give varied compost it will affect your yield.  Green manure crops are another great soil boosting thing to do; at this time of year I sow seeds of mustard and lupin direct into weeded ground in some of my beds.  These green manure crops are later cut down and dug into the soil for a Nitrogen boost; I like to put some of my plots to ‘bed’ soon with this traditional technique.  The best thing is that these ‘bed’ crops will grow in low light conditions, which is an advantage for gardens that don’t get full sun through the colder months.  For the complete workshop on how to grow a green manure crop purchase the Easy Edible Gardens CD, it’s all in there step by step.  In areas of garden that still have 6 hours of sun each day, keep planting your Winter veges but be sure to plant as per my moon garden dates to grow strong and vigorous yields.   

I love home grown garlic and to get a good start pop it in next week, you don’t have to wait until the shortest day.  Don’t plant Garlic cloves where you have strawberries as neither will grow well.  Garlic loves to grow with Beetroot and Lettuce and they can go in the garden next week as well.  Garlic is grown by length of time in the garden so being a few weeks early you will have it plump and ready for lifting just before going away for Christmas or use it for the Christmas Chook stuffing or a tasty roast garlic dressing… But for now it’s a little early to be thinking about Santa!  Prepare the ground with a handful of sheep pellets every 40cm2 and a good handful of blood and bone mixed into the top 10cm of soil.  Garlic loves a good feed so preparing the ground is important.  Always use either Garlic from ‘seed’ purchase at your garden centre or use garlic grown organically from a farmers market.  Break off the cloves (but do not peel them) and plant them 5cm deep and 15cm apart.  Mulch over the top with Lucerne Hay or Autumn leaves that have been dampened down so your bed keeps weed free. 

While setting out my new garden beds I have been preparing to relocate some of my shrubs.  Not all things take kindly to moving so be sure to check first.  I have been out on snail check too as I have seen a few slugs about and some snails leaving their silvery trails.  I’ll never forget the evening last year when one of our sons found 201 snails in one night.  Since then we interrupted the breeding cycle enough to not have any snail invasion for the rest of the season which saved many seedlings from their greedy mouths.  Pop on a head lamp and go armed with a bucket holding a few tablespoons of salt and as you find them drop them into the bucket.  It sounds awful but it is a quick end I promise!

Dates to Garden By

1 – 2 June give your crops a drink of liquid Manure.  I have a great recipe on my Easy Edible Gardens CD.  Liquid manure is such a great way to give your plants a boost and revive the soil with more food for your plants.

3 – 7 June Weed only.  As much as you may wish to plant over Queens Birthday weekend, it will only result in poor spindly growth.  Prepare your ground with weeding and tilling the soil.  I love this look – it’s like a dusted and vacuumed house – so fresh and tidy looking.

8 – 9 June sow root crops and your Garlic can go in now too.

Happy gardening and Happy Queens Birthday Weekend!

Hope to see you at my workshops soon.  Booking essential as spaces limited, address supplied at time of booking.