PHOTO: HEATHER CARSTON
THE weather is looking decidedly more promising and it is a good time to get stuck into the gardens.
I’m going to focus this week on the food gardens rather than those that are beautiful, simply because as the news emerges of the devastation of our food- producing regions, it will be up to as many of us as are able to try and produce as much as we can ourselves.
Luckily for us in the King Country, our relatively temperate climate allows for this and there are many crops that can be planted now ready for harvesting starting from as early as three weeks from planting.
A good way to start is to clear your gardens of anything that has been decimated by the storms of recent weeks. Aerate the soil using a fork and add nutrients such as compost, a bit of blood and bone, and sheep pellets.
Dig it in and over, leaving it for a few days for the worms to do their thing. If you have access to worm tea, get some of that on hand too.
It is ideal if your gardens can be raised because the soil temperature is higher in a raised garden than a ground-based one, which allows for a greater variety of vegetables to be grown throughout the year, including winter. It also provides a much greater drainage capacity.
It’s also easier to be able to cover those when frosts look likely.
This time of year, there is still a lot you can plant. Peas, carrots, brassicas such as cauliflower and broccoli (if using seedlings make sure you apply plenty of Derris Dust to keep the white butterflies away), lettuces, radishes, beetroot, silverbeet, spinach.
Radishes will be your kick starter, as these can take from just three weeks from seed to harvest and it makes them an excellent plant to pop in and around much slower growing plants (keep away from brassicas though as they are not good companion plants for each other).
You can use your space well by interplanting – lettuces grown in front of brassicas will be harvested well before the latter and the sprawl of peas can work with carrots and spinach – don’t grow peas with any of the allium family, such as onions, chives, leeks etc.
From a lettuce perspective, the cut-and-come-agains such as kos, red oak and other gourmet lettuces are great – you do not have to harvest the entire plant, just take the leaves you need. I like to keep three or four in a planter by the back deck for just such purposes.
