Birds and their place in the garden

crisp sunny days and retreat undercover to clean out the shed when it rains.

Treading all over sodden soil just compacts it so stand on the path and reach in with a hoe or other long-handled tool to tickle up the weeds and aerate the soil.

In warmer, frost-free gardens, sow broad beans, peas, radishes, turnips and spinach directly into the soil. Brassicas and lettuce seed are more reliable in containers under cover or plant out seedlings instead. Raised beds are warmer than in-ground garden beds and soil can also be warmed (and dried out a bit) by putting a cloche in place a week or so before you plan to plant.

This year the winter solstice or shortest day of the year is Thursday, June 21. Traditionally it’s the day for planting garlic but any time up to the end of July is fine.

Shallots and onions can go in too. Give all the allium family full sun and well-drained soil. If you planted them last month and they’re sprouting away, hoe around them gently to remove weeds as they don’t like competition.

Potatoes do very well in large containers which have the double advantage of being warmer than the ground and they’re easier to cover if there’s a frost. Keep planting spinach seedlings every couple of weeks. Spinach is so versatile it’s handy to have a continuous supply for daily harvest.

Broad beans planted over the last couple of months will need staking. Ideally the supports should have gone in at planting time but better late than never – just be careful not to damage the roots when putting in stakes. Run garden twine around and between the supports and the plants so they support each other. Remember the leaf tips are delicious steamed or stirfried. Judicious picking helps keep plants compact.

Don’t wait for celery to look like a supermarket bunch. Treat it as a cut-and-come again crop by picking the outer leaves of celery for a longer harvest period. You can use a copper spray like Grosafe Free Flo Copper if you’ve had problems with septoria leaf spot or rust in the past. However, disease affects the oldest leaves and stems first. If you pick the outer stems often (before they show brown spots) you can stay ahead of the disease for a while. The same goes for silverbeet.

Here are some indoor jobs and fun activities if you need a gardening fix on a rainy day.

Get your garden diary up to date.

Hands up if January is full of entries but there’s not much since then.

Sort your seed stash. Cruise online seed catalogues (Kings Seeds, Egmont Seeds, Owairaka Seeds, Southern Seed Exchange) for your spring wish list.

Clean old plant labels ready for seed sowing or make some crafty new ones.

Tool time. Wash off the mud, dry thoroughly to prevent rust, remove rust with wire wool, rub wooden handles with linseed oil to prevent cracking. Sharpen spades and hoes with a file. Clean and sharpen secateurs. (Pro tip: take photos as you take them apart so you can put them together again.) Store metal hand tools in oily sand to stop rust.

Rescue the glut. Remember that heap of tomatoes that you hid in the bottom of the freezer because you couldn’t face bottling them on the hottest day of summer? Now’s the time to turn them into sauce, soup or pasta toppings. Ditto the chillies, apples and plums.

Garden indoors. Start microgreens on the kitchen windowsill, titivate your house plants and take begonia and African violet leaf cuttings.

If you’re new to pot plants, get inspiration from Lynda Hallinan’s 20 hard to kill houseplants in the June issue of NZ Gardener.

Fire up the slow cooker. Make a batch of curried kumara soup or turn your dried beans into baked beans.

Gourd intentions. Get crafty with those ornamental gourds you grew last summer. Turn them into works of art, bowls, bird feeders, candle holders and more. Look for inspiration on Etsy, Pinterest and YouTube. This column is adapted from the weekly e-zine, get growing, from New Zealand Gardener magazine. For gardening advice delivered to your inbox every Friday, sign up for Get Growing at: getgrowing.co.nz

Window planning. Take a long critical look out each window. What could be improved? A boring border, gaps in the hedge, looming trees blocking the sun, an unwelcome view of the neighbours? With a bit of luck, whatever you need can be purchased online so window planning can become window shopping.

Study time. Swot up some of your hazy areas of garden knowledge. Finally get to grips with pruning summer- and autumn-fruiting raspberries, when to prune clematis and how to tell the difference between pelargoniums and geraniums.