What to do in the garden this week
Weekend gardener Trench Warfare
A big kia ora to the gardeners who donated greens and tomatoes after hearing about my plant loss recently. I’ve been inundated with tomato plants.
The loss was due to an over enthusiastic digging dog helper in our garden. It’s not the first time, and I’ve been told by Mrs Gardener and colleagues that I need to invest in dog training.
Now here’s a thing, what to do with all the gifted tomatoes? They’ve grown tall, thin and weedy in their punnets and are falling flat along the ground.
It was with great curiosity that I came across a solution at the Whenua Warrior food paddock while visiting their grounds in Ma¯ngere. They call it trench gardening, where you dig a trench and lay the plant horizontally on top and then bury it up to the first leaves. You can remove the laterals and leaf stems and lightly bury the main trunk right up to the tip.
It looks odd, but the plants do turn upright again. I’m promised that roots will grow deep along the stem and tomatoes flourish.
The greens and herb donations are going to be grown randomly around the tomatoes. And in pots and containers at the kitchen door.
This is one of the philosophies of Whenua Warrior gardening. Planting greens and herbs in containers on patios and in courtyards so that you have something at hand to eat. Even if it’s just plucking a couple of leaves to throw in a salad or two-minute noodle soup. Swapping plants, sharing and koha are gifts that help build communities and healthy neighbours.
Our kitchen doorstep is a sun trap, so I’ll be leaving basil and other heat lovers oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage there. I’m planting coriander on the shady side of the citrus grove and basil on the side drenched in sun all day.
Pest control and digital warfare
I was alarmed to see the amount of whitefly on my citrus trees and especially the lemon, but then I remembered something home orchard and pest expert Bill Brett said.
Brett is the author of Garden Pest & Disease Control and The Home Orchard.
Brett says there are many alternate host plants for the insects that attack citrus and nasturtiums can be the perfect host for whitefly.
Climbing 2m up the side of our fence and across the lawn to the base of my citrus grove is a scrambling nasturtium . I’ve never really liked the orange flowered weed-like plant that can be found in abundance on council and railway wasteland.
It tends to take over, and many gardeners contain it in pots to use the smaller peppered-flavoured leaves and flowers in salads. Give me rocket or cress any day of the week.
So the nasturtium had to go. There’s a lot of it and I spent a good hour pulling it out before scouring the ground with the lawnmower. I’m sure the nasturtium will work its way back. My neighbour has taken to his with glyphosate, I’m not ready for such drastic measures yet.
My former horticulture lecturer from England once asked why Kiwi men ‘‘scoured’’ their lawns with the lawnmower. I’m not sure of the answer to that, but it seemed like a good way of telling the nasturtium to bugger off.
As for the whitefly, I’ve been wiping the citrus leaves with a rag and soapy dishwater. I’ve tried neem oil and other eco remedies in the past, but I’m sorry to say they don’t seem to work in my garden and the pests are multiplying as temperatures climb.
We have 10 citrus trees in our grove, they’re fruiting at the moment and are looking a little ragged, despite regular feeds. It’s quite labourintensive trying to get rid of the whitefly by hand, but I’ve been able to find and leave a plethora of ladybugs, which eat pests.
I’ve used commercial insecticides in the past and this proved effective, but I’m all about the environment and natural controls, so I won’t go there just yet. But it is one extra tool in the box that I may yet have to use.
Liquid lunches for fruiting plants
I’ve never seen so many flowers on our feijoa, citrus, apple and pear trees. Is it because I’ve been feeding their insatiable appetites?
Compost and organic matter are great at providing the nutrients your soil needs, but many plants need regular feeds over the spring and summer months.
General-purpose fertilisers tend to be high in nitrogen, which is great for getting fruiting plants off to a good start and for salad greens, but can result in lots of leafy growth at the expense of fruit.
Once your fruiting crops – strawberries, beans, chillies, cucumbers, passionfruit – are flowering and have set fruit, switch to either a liquid or granular fertiliser for fruit and flowers, or feed them with a tomato-specific fertiliser like I have been.
Liquid fertilisers are brews of seaweed, fish scraps, weeds, comfrey, compost
or manure teas and the run-off from worm farms. There are loads of great liquid fertilisers on the market, or you can make your own. Steep your ingredients of choice in water for a few weeks to several months. A lidded container with a tap is ideal, but a bucket will do. It’ll be whiffy, so place away from your outdoor living areas – and the neighbours! Drain off some liquid and dilute to the colour of weak tea before using.
For a quicker, more direct method, recommended by former Get Growing editor Barbara Smith. When planting out young plants, fill the pot they were growing in with sheep pellets. Bury this beside the plant. Water into the plant pot so the roots get a rich drink of nutrients at every watering.