Vege patch to-do list
Robert Guyton’s guide to planting and sowing in harmony with the lunar cycle.
This month’s moon calendar, and edible crops to sow and tend now.
Let us sow, sow, sow without delay.
Spring is (finally!) here and after months of twiddling your green fingers it’s all systems sow! Sow brassicas (broccoli and cabbage), cucurbits (cucumbers) and solanaceae (tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants) in trays but keep them inside or in a heated tunnelhouse. If you are sure you have already had your last frost, you can direct sow carrots, beetroot, parsnips, swedes, leeks, peas, lettuce and silverbeet; and plant seedlings of asparagus, celery and salad greens too.
Give starting plants from seed a try.
If you don’t already do so, I encourage you to make this the spring that you try starting crops from seed. As I have written before (a few dozen times!), starting from seed is cheaper and lets you grow unusual varieties that are not available as seedlings. It’s pretty easy too, although for best results use a good quality, sterile seed-raising mix rather than general potting mix or garden soil when you are starting crops in trays. Seed-raising mix is light and free-draining making it easier for the new roots, plus it’s free of weed seeds, and contains both a fungicide to help prevent damping off (a fungal disease to which seedlings are prone) and a mild slow-release fertiliser. Potting mixes often contain slow-release fertiliser too, but it’s likely to be more acidic and will possibly burn your tender seedlings. Apart from that, just don’t sow too deep (fine seed should be just covered, larger seed buried no more than twice its diameter), keep the mix damp but not soaking wet, and move seedlings into the light as soon as they germinate.
Is it too soon to mention Christmas?
Early potatoes take between 60 and 100 days, so get some in soonish if you want new season spuds on Christmas Day. Spuds are subtropical, so a spring frost will see above ground foliage blacken and die off so either keep your frost cloth ready to hand to protect them outdoors, hold off until nights are reliably frost free or else grow a crop in your tunnelhouse. Just pop three or four seed potatoes in a 10-litre bucket of soil; they should be ready a couple of weeks sooner than the ones you grow outside. Often people put their main crop spuds in only after they dig their earlies up, but you can put all spuds in now and your main crop should be ready in January – hopefully avoiding problems with blight and tomato-potato psyllids in late summer.
Time spent on soil is never wasted.
Provided your soil is dry enough to work (walking on or working wet soil is a sure route to compaction) then pull out any spent crops that have done their dash and, unless you are strictly of the no-dig school, turn your soil over removing any old roots, stray plastic plant tags, stones and sticks. Then dig in compost, sheep pellets, slow-release fertiliser and worm casings. Don’t plant into this newly enriched soil straight away – not only is it too cold for most crops, it’s also better to let the bed sit for a few weeks so the manure and other organic matter starts to break down. Keep an eye out for weeds over that time, as you will have brought weed seeds to the surface. Hoe them out the minute they appear so they don’t get too comfortable.
Fill gaps with bee-friendly flowers.
Bee fodder can be scarce in early spring so don’t be in a rush to pull out winter brassicas that have bolted to flower; bees love the nectar- and pollen-rich blooms. Add more flowers now to feed these useful pollinators later in the spring and summer too: lavender, alyssum, borage or phacelia are all great for bees, although really any blue, purple, yellow or white flowering plant is pretty good (and look for flowers with a single row of petals for preference). With this issue you should have received a free packet of seed for a bee-friendly herb – basil, coriander, curly parsley, oregano or thyme. All of these will, in time, produce flowers that bees will love, as well as be edible foliage for you.
Do the Great Kiwi Bee Count.
September is Bee Aware Month so this year, for the third time, we will be running the Great Kiwi Bee Count which is basically like a digital census for bees and other pollinators, and over time the trends it reveals will help us learn more about how they are doing. Taking part is simple and it takes just two minutes but you need a smartphone or tablet. Go outside, find a flowering plant then go to stuff.co.nz/ GreatKi wi Bee Count. There are a couple of (easy!) questions, then you watch the plant for two minutes and record the number of the 12 bees and pollinator species we are surveying that you see. Not confident you can tell a bee from a hoverfly? Don’t worry! There are photos of the 12 species there to help you out.
Don’t waste any of your green waste.
Add that valuable organic matter to your compost heap. Don’t have a heap? Start one! Just put down a carbon-rich layer (such as untreated sawdust, woody twigs or any fallen autumn leaves you might still have), then a layer of nitrogenrich green waste such as spent winter crops, spring grass clippings or even some young weeds (in theory your compost heap should get hot enough to kill pests and diseases, and prevent weeds from germinating, but in practise it’s a good idea to avoid any weeds that have seedheads or perennial parts, as – obviously! – the last thing you want to do is introduce them into your garden). Chuck in a spade of compost from an existing heap (it helps kickstart decomposition because that compost is already teeming with friendly soil fungi and bacteria), a spoonful or two of blood and bone, and water the whole heap well. Then cover with something like an old piece of carpet to keep the heat in.
Stay safe when handling potting mix.
The bacteria that cause legionellosis and Legionnaires’ disease can be present in any bagged soil mix, and infection is most likely to occur when dust from the mix is inhaled. So always wear gloves and a mask when using bagged mixes, and only ever do so in an open and wellventilated space. Cut open bags rather than ripping them, and do so holding the opening away from your face. And wash your hands after handling any soil mix, even if you were wearing gloves.
Start a crop rotation system.
Different edible crops have different soil needs. For example, leaf crops like lettuce are nitrogen hungry, but too much nitrogen in the soil means fruiting crops like peppers and tomatoes will focus on producing foliage rather than the edible fruit. Gross feeders like corn and pumpkins like a rich soil, so you can pile on compost and manure but carrots will twist and fork if soil is too rich.
Crop rotation is basically shifting certain plant groups each year so you don’t strip the soil of any one thing. Plus, since specific plant families are affected by certain pests and diseases, rotating where you grow them each year will prevent those pests and diseases building up in one spot. This is the simple four-bed system I use (and you will need a fifth ”bed” for crops which stay in one spot, such as strawberries, rhubarb, globe artichokes, asparagus and bramble berries like raspberries and blackberries).
In bed one I grow legumes and brassicas. So that’s beans (runner, climber and broad), peas, cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi (swedes and turnips are technically brassicas too, but grow those alongside your other root crops).
In bed two, I grow herbs and heatloving solanaceae such as tomatoes, eggplants, chillies and capsicums (spuds are also in this family, but again grow those with your other root crops).
In bed three, I grow cucurbits (melons, zucchini, pumpkins and cucumbers) and corn, and pop lettuces in to any gaps.
Bed four is for root crops (garlic, spuds, carrots, radishes, beetroot and radishes) and onions. Kumara¯ can go in here too.
Obviously this is a rough and ready guide; feel free to adapt to your own garden. But as a rule of green thumb, try to avoid growing one thing in the same spot year after year.