Handy hints for bed preparations

coming months and is eaten by fungi, bacteria and worms. Because we have a heavy clay soil which will take time to improve, we’re taking the easy route and growing crops in raised beds with organic vegetable mix. However, a frequently touted tip is that growing a crop of potatoes can help break up heavy clay soils. I’m curious to see if this works and am going to give it a go. It’s important to work in plenty of organic matter before planting them. different varieties, then swapping seedlings with friends. An ideal tomato for beginner gardeners is ‘Sweet 100’. True to its name, it produces hundreds of sweet-tasting tomatoes for months on end. If you want some drama on your plate, ‘Black Krim’ is a dark-skinned heirloom tomato with lots of flavour, which originates from the Black Sea area. Another dressed-toimpress heirloom variety which really shows its stripes of orangeyellow is the heirloom variety ‘Tigerella’. When it comes to yellow tomatoes, ‘Sungold F1’, a sweettasting yellow-orange cherry tomato, is an ideal lunchbox filler. Tomatoes need steady warmth to grow so remember that the golden rule is not to plant your tomatoes out until Labour Weekend or until the last frost is well over. is to pandas so sow swan plant seeds now. These black and yellow crawlers have massive appetites so you’ll need quite a few plants if you want them to stick around long enough to metamorphose. Raise seeds in seedraising mix or sow direct outside if frosts are over in your area. Swan plants like freedraining soil and a sheltered site, and will grow up to 2 metres. For find out more about monarch butterflies, visit www.monarch.org.nz. Rachel Clare