What to do in the garden this week
Pot up crops in large containers
Unless you covered your garden beds with a plastic grow-tunnel or cloche, any residual summer warmth will be long gone by now. And cold, wet soil equals slow germination and seedling growth, so there’s little point planting out punnets or sowing direct between June and mid-August, as the plants just sit there and sulk.
It’s far more productive to plant filler crops in containers instead. Not only is a bucket filled with potting mix a couple of degrees warmer than the ground it sits on, it’s also quicker to drain after heavy rain (and portable, so you can move your potted crops under shelter when bad weather is forecast). Plant a punnet of seedlings per bucket.
Recommended crops to plant now include: perennial rocket (sow or transplant); baby beets and baby carrots; spinach and silverbeet (including ‘Perpetual’); all types of kale; bok choy and kai lan. Keep your potted crops in the sunniest, warmest corner of your plot. When growing crops in containers on a covered balcony or deck, feed with liquid fertiliser diluted in warm water.
Plant spuds under cover
Potatoes hate frost and can’t be grown outdoors in winter… but indoors, it’s another story! If you have a glasshouse or tunnelhouse, you can plant them now for an early spring crop of gourmet baby potatoes.
It’s best to plant winter potatoes in large buckets of garden soil, or in big piles of pea straw or hay mixed with compost. Make a 30cm mound and simply bury the seed potatoes in the middle of it. Keep moist, but not saturated, and expect to see the first leafy shoots emerge within a month. Warmth is key, so don’t let the green tops touch the glasshouse panes or a tunnel’s plastic sheeting as they can get frosted.
In my frost-free Auckland garden, I’m growing potatoes in tall terracotta planters lined up along a north-facing brick wall. To space out the harvest, I’m planting two chitted ‘Rocket’ seed spuds in a new pot every two weeks (if you try this, plant one seed potato per 10 litres of potting mix).
Earthing up as the shoots form is fiddly in a confined planter so I don’t bother. I place the seed potato on about 10cm of potting mix and then fill the pot to about 10cm below the rim, sprinkling in a handful of potato fertiliser as I go. As the planters are under the eaves, I’ll need to make sure they get watered, but judging by the driving rain we’ve had recently this won’t be a problem.
‘Rocket’ is an early variety that matures in 60-70 days. With luck I’ll be unearthing new potatoes from early August onwards.
When it’s too wet or cold to venture outside, take the time to clean, sharpen and repair your tools. The good news is that it’s
not hard and there are plenty of helpful how-to videos online.
If spades, trowels and forks are very dirty and clogged with mud, scrape off the worst with a hand trowel or similar and give them a rinse with the hose. If they are made from stainless steel, just let them dry in the air. If they are made of a metal that rusts, dry (in the sun or with an old towel) and rub over with an oily rag. If the handles are wooden and not sealed with polyurethane varnish, dry and rub over with linseed oil on a rag. I certainly don’t do this every time I garden – only if they are really mucky or I won’t be using them for a while.
I don’t sharpen my secateurs every time I use them. If necessary, I give the blade a rub with a small diamond file. It’s small enough to fit between the blades without taking the secateurs apart. About once a year I take my secateurs apart for a thorough clean and sharpen with a whetstone.
Spades can be sharpened with a hand file or an angle grinder. It’s easiest if you can put the spade handle in a vice, so you have both hands free to hold the angle grinder. You can do the job with a hand file – it just takes more effort and time.
I keep my smaller tools (hand trowel, Niwashi, hand fork, weed knife) in a bucket of oily sand to keep them clean and sharp. Use river sand (not sea sand which is salty and will rust nonstainless-steel blades). You can buy river sand from garden
centres and hardware stores.
I used a light motoring oil purchased from the garage, but you may be able to get some used oil from a mechanic. Decide where you want the bucket to live before you put the sand in as it will be very heavy when it’s full, so you won’t want to move it. I brush soil off the tools before putting them in.
Jobs such as sharpening chainsaws and servicing power tools, are best done by professionals.
Cover your compost heap
Chuck a cheap tarpaulin over the top of your compost heap to keep the rain out and the warmth in.
Tie it down, or weigh it down with rocks. You should also cover finished compost heaps to prevent nutrient leaching over winter.
If your compost is crumbly and ready to use, but you’re not yet ready to use it, cover it with a thick layer of pea straw or 5-10cm