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.
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