Working with nature
GARDENING TO FEED A FAMILY WHILE WORKING FULL TIME ISN’T SOMETHING MANY WOULD ATTEMPT. UNLESS YOU’RE A BORN HORTICULTURIST WITH A PASSION FOR HEALTHY LIVING. SUE LINN LEARNS SOME TIME-SAVING TRICKS FROM SOUTH TARANAKI GARDENER, FAITH CARTER.
On weekdays Faith Carter can be found in Hawera’s town centre, in what she describes as ‘the best office in town’. Historic King Edward Park, with its formal structure, huge old trees, and magnificent rose gardens is rated one of National Significance by the New Zealand Gardens Trust.
Close by on the edge of town, her beautiful family garden keeps the household of four supplied in fresh fruit and vegetables all year round. The garden Faith shares with her husband Josh and their two teenage children,
Zoe and Darius, covers about a third of their 2000 square metre section. She’d like it to be bigger!
Clearly, Faith knows a thing or two about time management. For the most part, she reveals, it comes down to one big thing. “Mulch, mulch, mulch! It does so many good things. Of course it takes time to save time. We can spend a few days throwing mulch everywhere but it reduces the amount of time we’d be taking to weed, feed and water the gardens.”
Faith follows the philosophy that gardening is easier when you work with nature, not against it. “Even though we’re blessed in South Taranaki to have rich volcanic soil, the more we mulch, the more we build our soil, and the less we need to dig.”
Constantly digging and turning the soil compacts and dries it out, killing soil life. Faith prefers to let earthworms do the digging. Their burrows aerate the soil, making it easy for plant roots to grow through while providing drainage channels for water. Worm castings feed plants and help bind soil particles.
Taking care of earthworms is an important part of Faith’s strategy. The garden layout allows for easy access to garden beds, minimising the compaction that is harmful to soil life. “Mulching and composting helps protect worms from temperature extremes. Plus we do our best to care for the earth and life by not spraying insecticides and minimal use of herbicide.”
Faith doesn’t waste her energy transporting barrowloads of compost. “We have heaps of compost bins, drums and buckets around the garden. These do their own thing and eventually get tipped out onto the beds that they sit in. I refuse to turn compost!”
Feeding is mainly left to nature. “Occasionally we’ll throw some blood and bone around but generally the mulch feeds the soil as it breaks down. Our compost makes its way back to the ground. We have a drum full of pig poo tea (courtesy of Chewy, the neighbours pet kunekune) that we’ll water the plants with every now and then.”
"The chickens deposit their fertiliser as they forage under the fruit trees,” adds Faith. “They eat a lot of slugs, snails and weeds too.” Except for the fenced off vegetable beds, the garden is a scratching ground for six happy hens.
Fruit trees are planted in mulched beds and underplanted with colourful companion plants. Faith chooses self-seeders like calendula, borage and phacelia. “The only seed propagation
I do is leaving a plant to go to seed and do its thing.”
The self-sown pumpkin patch is the epitome of efficiency. Faith dedicates one of the in situ compost piles to summer’s pumpkin crop. This receives all the pumpkin scraps from the kitchen, then the seedlings that pop up in November are left in place to grow into delicious big grey pumpkins. “I guess we have our own
"I love the satisfaction in weeding a messy bed and stepping back to enjoy the beauty that was hiding underneath. I find peace while I garden.”
heritage variety,” she muses, because they reproduce true to type every year.
Yams are another family favourite. This high yielding tuber is harvested in autumn and winter. “They can be weedy, so it’s a good idea to grow yams in containers,” advises Faith.
Her vegetable beds reveal a range of interesting salad greens. “Our summer greens are a bit different; as well as loose leaf lettuces we grow amaranth, native spinach and lambs quarters.” Lamb’s quarters is an ancient wild plant that is highly nutritious and can be eaten cooked or raw. For summer, Faith recommends growing greens that don’t mind the summer heat. “There are plenty of options so that you’re not fighting the season. But do keep thirsty plants well watered so they don’t bolt. And harvest often to enjoy the new sweet leaves!” Faith also grows plenty of cucumbers over summer and bunching onions are a favourite perennial.
Planting longer-lasting crops is another time saving strategy. Perennial herbs and salad greens like sorrel are more drought tolerant because their roots reach deeper into the soil. Popular veges that provide months of picking are silverbeet, sprouting broccoli and runner beans. Other perennial crops include artichokes, rhubarb and asparagus.
Perhaps the ultimate perennial crop is the fruit tree. This family gets to graze on raspberries, loganberries currants and the many different fruit trees which crop every year without needing to be replanted. Many of them are dwarf varieties that give big yields on small trees.
When the Carters opened their garden this year for the Taranaki Sustainable Backyards Trail, 13-year-old Darius and 15-year-old Zoe were assisting their mum. The two obviously proud and engaged hosts confidently answered visitors’ questions. Not a single electronic device in sight. The day I visited, Zoe showed visitors how to make her mosaic pavers, which are a charming feature of the garden (see page 24). Darius showed me the secret garden he has created on the way to the berry house. Is this nature or nurture I wondered? “Well, I have one very green child and one only mildly green one,” replies Faith. Even though they both grew up following me around while I gardened."
"The more we build our soil, the less we need to dig."