SOW & GROW

Jo McCarroll suggests jobs to do in the edible garden.

Growth will be starting to slow down, so plant lots!

It starts to get noticeably chillier in April, especially in southern and inland regions. In warmer, northern places you could still plant seedlings of slowgrowing winter vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower but remember that these take months to reach maturity – and given growth is slowing down, they will take up a lot of vege-growing real estate for a long time, giving you nothing to eat meanwhile! If you have limited growing space, as I do, focus on planting seedlings of faster-growing spinach, silverbeet, lettuces especially red lettuces, Asian greens bok choy, gai lan and tatsoi, and salad greens such as rocket, miner’s lettuce and mizuna. These should be big enough to start harvesting from over winter, plus you can pick leaves from them again and again so they provide you with fresh food over an extended period. But because growth is slower, you won’t be able to pick a few leaves every few days like you can in summer as the plants won’t produce new growth as quickly – just plant more plants though, so you’ll have enough to give them all downtime.

Cover any bare soil with a green crop

If you have any annual summer crops still limping along at the start of this month, consign them to the compost. It’s satisfying to pull them out but Wellington gardener Elien Lewis, in her book Homegrown Happiness, makes the point that hauling them out can break up the underground soil networks, so you are better cutting them off at soil level and leaving the roots in situ and that’s how I have started doing it. Either plant more in the gaps you create, or fill in unused space with a densely sown green crop. You won’t see bare soil in nature, and you shouldn’t see it in your garden either. In fact, as Elien points out in her book, even a cover of (certain) weeds is better than nothing at all as they still prevent soil erosion, provide organic matter to the soil (provided you chop and drop before they set seed of course) and provide habitat for beneficial bugs. Some weeds have other good qualities too – dandelions and dock have long tap roots that aerate soil, while clover is a nitrogen fixer. I’m not suggesting you plant them of course… but if you have them, look on the bright side!

I am excited about my quince crop

Years ago one of the pears espaliered against the fence at my place was ringbarked by a bit of over enthusiastic weed-whacking, and up and died. Three or so years ago, I replaced it with a quince, which I espaliered by cutting the trunk at the level I wanted the first tier, then training the branches that formed immediately below that point so I had two horizontal tiers and one vertical stem. The next winter I repeated the process at the point I wanted the second tier. This year I finally have a fruit-bearing espaliered quince! I love quince jelly (check out Annabel Langbein’s excellent recipe which makes both jelly and paste from the same fruit) but it does contain a bit of sugar. You can also just quarter the fruit, remove the cores and cook overnight in your slow cooker with a little water. When the fruit is more pink than yellow, turn off heat and when cool blitz with your stick blender. That puree can be frozen and added to apply pies and crumbles, or mix it with strawberries or raspberries to make a sensational jam.

In warmer regions, you can “chill” bulbs such as tulips and hyacinths, which need a cold spell for the flower to form, in the fridge. Start chilling your bulbs in early April – any sooner and they aren’t ready to enter winter dormancy. Keep the bulbs in a breathable container and away from fruit as ripening fruit releases ethylene which can damage developing flowerbuds.