Getting by vs levelling up
Alright! Lots of ground to cover. Let’s hurry in.
What are you planting this Spring?
It is finally time to start to plant whatever you like. Things I would recommend, if you like them and will eat them-
Tomatoes
Beans of all varieties except Broad Beans
Leafy greens of the more ‘cooking’ variety (Silverbeets! Kale!)
Peppers- capsicum, chilli peppers of all types- get in fast as they need a long season. I tend to buy mine large (not as seeds or small seedlings) because they take a little while to grow.
Cucumbers- remember that these climb and need a lot of water
Zucchini- these need constant watering and a calcium-heavy fertiliser (tomato fertiliser works well)
Potatoes, kumara, yams- anything of this type- bung em in!
Eggplant- I buy mine large as again they need a longer season.
Basil- yummm. Plant more than you think you will need. Consider that you will probably get about 1.5 cups of basil per plant if you are lucky- that for many people is two pizza nights or one pesto batch.
Pumpkin!
Things I recommend, if you have a shadier or at least cooler spot. What would that look like? You would be ok with a small child in that spot without a hat for the bulk of the day. The child would probably prefer a shirt. They would be better with morning sun but shaded for the afternoon.
Lettuces (need lots of water, easier to manage in a bit of semi-shade)
Peas only if they are in a cool, shady spot. They are not easy summer veg and should really be in by now.
Coriander. The thing with coriander is that it is the same as brassicas below (will bolt if the weather is changeable). The best way I have found is to grow it from seed in the place you want it to grow, and let it keep growing, going to seed, dropping seed, forever. Bump up the amounts with more new seed as needed, but coriander really prefers to ‘settle in’ in your garden and manage itself over a few generations before it will happily grow there.
Things I don’t recommend for Summer-
Controversial take, but I don’t recommend planting brassicas. This is cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower. Cabbage white butterflies are active in Summer and honestly they are such a pain that I don’t think it is worthwhile trying to manage them.
If I can’t dissuade you, be aware that Brassicas dislike a temperature change over their lifespans. So avoid planting them when the Spring weather alternates from cool to hot; and avoid planting them in early Autumn- wait till it starts to be consistently cool. If the weather changes substantially over their lifetimes they will ‘bolt’- when they flower before they are harvest-able. So you should be ok planting them now, just get some really good netting that the butterflies can’t get through.
Broad beans. Broad beans tend to get rust in Autumn, before they are able to be harvested. They also take far longer in the garden than other veg and the payoff is en masse in about 5 months time- you will want to use the space, and get frustrated.
I don’t bother with root crops like carrots and parsnip. They grow much better in cool weather and prefer to stay under 20 degrees celcius. I do however love a beetroot for Summer!
Spinach will grow, but isn’t so happy about it- maybe in a cool place. Consider silverbeet or beetroot instead.
Getting by
When you plant your seedlings, buy the fertiliser at the same time, and dig it in with the plants. This might be something like sheep pellets, or mulch and feed, or my personal favourite, Tomato Mix. If you are going to commit to liquid feeding, make sure you have lots of liquid feed and the container that you will use to perform the feeding! (watering can?)
Think about when and how the veges will be watered and water them in deeply when you water them. Set an alarm on your phone. It is best to water just before the soil gets too dry and definitely before the plants show signs of wilt. I always have my daughter counting to 10 on each plant. Don’t water the leaves- water the ground around them. This is a great activity to make kids do while you are doing other more, er, specialised stuff (like weeding!).
Levelling up
Omg strong opinions here. Want to do better than the bare minimum? Have a bit more mental energy?
Things to plant right now-
Everything in the above list right now
Things to plant monthly till January-
Tomatoes, zucchini, beans, cucumber (so leave space!)
Things to plant monthly till April-
Leafy greens, basil, any other herbs! (so don’t plant more than you can reasonably eat over a month!)
Beetroot! Not for the actual root veg, but because the leaves are incredibly good for you, and an easy sub for spinach.
Things to commit to-
A proper irrigation/watering system, even if it is “every 3 days I will water”
A good consistent liquid feeding in addition to digging in compost/worm castings/all sorts when planting.
Proper, good quality stakes for your tomatoes. Some sort of good quality trellis or growing tower for your cucumber and beans.
Spending once a week just in your vege garden, observing and supporting. Commit to keeping your tomatoes pruned.
Some foolproof things to do for your veges
Tomatoes, pumpkin and zucchini suffer a lot when there is not enough calcium in the soil. Basically the moment there isn’t enough calcium it is very difficult to encourage them to uptake it (ie, if there isn’t enough calcium in the soil when planting, you might be stuffed for the season).
Wood ash is a great thing to add to the soil (the ash from a fireplace). I ask in local facebook groups for mine and people clean out their fireplaces for me! I am haphazard at best so I put on gloves and just throw it all around without measuring, but I seem to use about a handful per square metre. I do this twice a year.
At this time of year, if I don’t have wood ash, I add ag lime to the soil. This is sold simply as ‘lime’ and it makes the soil less acidic. Most veges prefer a less acidic soil, and many of our nitrogenous fertilisers seem to make the soil a bit more acidic, so I like using ag lime to detract a bit of acidity. Info on the pack!
Gypsum is a pH neutral soil additive, so if you are all over your soil pH this is a good option.
Eggshells and all other shells are great, but they take a long time to break down, so don’t expect any benefits this season. You can also soak eggshells in water for 2 weeks and then use the water in the garden. Warning- it is smelly.
Olla pots are a good way to slow release water into your garden. You can make some easy ones by just poking lots of small holes into any vessel and burying it, or you can buy a fancy one. I like Olla pots because I can put liquid fertiliser in them and forget about fertilising aside from the weekly top up of the pot. ( appreciate it would be better for me to link to my own blog! But Epic Gardening is a great blog!)
Throw some snail pellets around all of your leafy greens. Make sure you get the ones that have “animal/child safe” all over them and not the ones that are still really dangerous for kids and pets but say they are “improved.” You want the ones that are just iron and not a complex chemical.
Throw banana skins directly onto the soil if you can stand the look.
Mulch your veges carefully, I prefer to leave pulled weeds on top of the soil, because if you use a carbon-heavy mulch it can attract slugs and snails. One thing I use quite a bit off and on is a product called ‘mulch and feed.’ An easier one is lawn clippings (about 5cm thick). Don’t let the mulch sit up hard against the plant stem.
I have put off this blog because I have been really annoyed at the weather here in Welly, but we are about to have a beautiful weekend, go get some veges in!
Have a great week everyone :)