Your garden
Vegetables
Jerusalem artichoke tubers (Helianthus tuberosus) will be ready to harvest. A new crop can be planted at any time from now until early spring. They are not to everyone’s taste but make excellent soup and can be roasted, too.
If you want to try this North American native, look in the supermarket or farmers’ market for large, lightcoloured ones without deep eyes in the tubers. Artichokes respond well to liberal manuring and their top growth, which can reach 3m, provides a useful shelter for tender crops from strong, early summer winds.
The drawback with this member of the sunflower family is it can spread rapidly and become invasive but growing this root vegetable in a stack of old tyres or old washingmachine bowl can solve the problem.
For the best tubers, grow Jerusalem artichokes in rich, cool soil. One plant should yield about 1.5kg of tubers. They are almost bulletproof, although tubers close to the surface can be attacked by grass grubs.
Flowers
From now until August, once foliage has died, lilies can be lifted and replanted. Unlike most of the genus, Lilium regale and the true Christmas lily, the nowrare Madonna (L. candidum) will tolerate some lime in the soil.
L. regale likes its roots shaded from sunshine during the summer and autumn months but Madonna lilies love to be baked, best achieved by planting in dry soil with the top third of the bulb above the ground.
A rarity in the lily family, the Madonna is never dormant, so is best planted when it finishes flowering after Christmas.
Bulbs transplanted now may take a season to adjust to the change. Save any scales that come off, place point up in damp, welldrained soil and small lilies should appear within a few months.
The tiger lily (L. lancifolium syn. L. tigrinum) is a species of lily native to eastern
China, Korea and Japan. There are single and double forms in the familiar orange colour, as well as yellow, gold, white and pink forms. All can be grown in most soils and are very hardy. The small, black bulbils on the stems can be collected to develop into new bulbs. Plant them in sandy soil, enriched with leaf mould and plant out after a year. They normally start flowering after two or three years.
Fruit
Like gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and whitecurrants belong to the Ribes genus and although the American mildew (Sphaerotheca morsuvae) has been found on them, it is not as devastating in its effects as it is on gooseberries, for which there is no cure. The golden currant (Ribes aureum), often seen growing wild in Central Otago, is more usually cultivated for its nutmegscented yellow flowers but the tart fruit is edible and was popular with Native Americans.
Highyielding varieties of blackcurrants include Ben Mapua and Ben Rua, while Myra McKee is a recommended redcurrant.
Whitecurrants are not widely available but a bush is worth growing for jellymaking, superior to jelly made from redcurrants.