What to do in the garden this week
Grow your own wine and table grapes
Every garden needs a grapevine and they can be grown nearly anywhere in New Zealand without much fuss. As well as delicious grapes (if you can beat the birds) they’ll also decoratively cover a fence or pergola. In summer they’ll shade the patio but come winter they’ll lose their leaves and let the sun in. Plus the long, flexible vines made beautiful wreaths and DIY frames to support other plants.
Table and wine grapes have the same growing requirements and many wine grapes make good eating too, although seediness and tough skins are a common theme chardonnay and merlot are two of the more easy-going wine grapes and both produce good crops of very edible fruit even if you’re not into home brewing. Other varieties, such as gewurztraminer, produce tasty fruit but are fussy, disease-prone plants, especially in warm, humid environments. If you want to fashion your own homegrown vintages, you’ll need at least 5-6 vines of each variety and eventually some plastic brewing barrels and a small grape press too. Wine yeast and other equipment can be sourced through home brew suppliers.
Grapes need full sun, well drained and preferably mildly alkaline soil. As they grow, the vines need good support and plenty of room to run riot. Let the vines grow unchecked in the first year then select two to four central leaders at pruning time the following winter. Water sparingly in summer, keep feeding to a minimum and use netting to foil the birds.
‘Albany Surprise’ is an extremely popular garden table grape in New Zealand. It produces very sweet, musky black fruit that pop out of their skins like lychees. Like most hybrid grapes (native American grapes crossed with European varieties), they are mostly immune to disease and seem to crop well even if thoroughly neglected.
In the vege garden this week
Cut off rhubarb flowers so all their energy goes into tender new stems rather than setting seed. Feed with a sprinkling of blood and bone, sheep pellets and compost. Harvest regularly from plants that are a year old or more. Let younger transplants get their roots established before taking more than one or two stems. The large leaves can be added to the compost bin (they won’t poison worms) or laid flat on bare soil as temporary barriers discouraging the germination of annual weeds.
Prepare garden beds for planting next month when the weather warms up. Remove all weeds and spread compost. If you did this a couple of weeks ago, there may be a flush of small weed seedlings. Cut them off at the knees with a sharp hoe on a dry day without disturbing the soil (which would uncover more weed seeds). If you do this a couple of times before planting, you’ll find weeds will be less of a problem over spring and summer.
Add lime to acidic soils, if necessary, except where potatoes, blueberries and other acid lovers are to grow. Liming is best done a couple of weeks before planting.
Put cloches over garden beds to warm up the soil (and dry it out a bit) a week or so before planting seedlings of hardier vegetables to get them off to a good start.
It’s still too early to plant beans, courgettes, tomatoes, chillies and pumpkins outside but they can be started undercover on a sunny windowsill, a heated propagation mat, or another warm spot such as the top of the fridge.
Plant early potatoes but be ready with the frost cloth in cooler areas.
Harvest peas regularly and plant more
Winter-grown peas should be starting to crop now. Keep picking to encourage continued flowering and don’t neglect your slug and snail control duties.
As temperatures increase, these pests become more active and have a particular love of peas. The damage a few snails can do has to be seen to be believed. A favourite trick is to rasp through the main stems at ground level so the whole row withers.
Peas struggle with powdery mildew during humid summers in northern areas but there is still time to plant some if you get them in before October. In cooler areas wait until next month.
Plant a short row every two to three weeks for an ongoing supply of garden snacks.
Give ponds and water features a winter clean
Whether you’ve got a lake, one miniature waterlily in a balcony pot, or a solar-powered trickling water feature, now is a good time for a clear out. Over the course of a year, a rather startling amount of sludge can form at the bottom of ponds and water features. This is mostly decomposing vegetation and/or fish waste. Scoop it out and leave by the side of the pond for a while to drain and to allow any frogs and other pond life to escape back to the water. Then shovel it under fruit trees, add to a compost heap or incorporate (small amounts only) into your worm farm.
Begin by switching off the power supply to any lighting and pumps before you get wet. Catch any fish and set aside in a bucket of pond water. Check pumps are in good working order, replace lights if they need it, wash filter pads, clear any blockages in hoses and cracks or holes in the pond liner.
Waterlilies and lotus will still be dormant but now is a good time to clear up old stems and dead leaves and wash the sludge from the top of their pots. Hold off adding fertiliser spikes until the first new leaves appear. Finally, don’t get hung up on having crystal-clear pond water. It’s supposed to be green.
Sow rocket, aka arugula
In northern districts it’s a good time to sow rocket directly outdoors. It can be sown yearround but tends to bolt during hot, dry summer weather so get it in early.
Arugula seeds are tiny and resent being crowded, so mix with fine, dry sand at a rate of 1 part seed: 100 parts sand. Sprinkle over weeded, tilled soil. Do not bury. This method ensures an even spread of plants without the need for much thinning.
Arugula grows anywhere but is happiest in full sun and rich, welldrained soil. Seeds can take a fortnight to germinate but growth is rapid. Seeds of three varieties are available from Kings Seeds: Organic Rocket, Runway, and perennial Wild Rustic.
Baby leaves are the tenderest but still have a peppery kick. Sow a pinch of seed every three weeks or so for an ongoing supply.