Spring Garden
Spring is my favourite time of year with the retreat of winter and the start of the warmer weather, which means I can get into the garden and look forward to the bounty of summer.
Spring is also the time when the hard slog needs to happen in the garden because it sets up your garden for the rest of the year. There is some debate about whether a no-dig approach is best with gardens or not, but I find with my soil that it needs to be dug over in the spring to at least about half a spade's depth to avoid compaction.
If you are starting your garden for the first time, you will definitely need to dig the soil over and loosen it up with a digging fork. After this, apply dolomite lime and organic compost and gently rake it into the surface of the soil.
It is generally always best to have the compost on the surface of the soil because this is where the most biological activity takes place that will make the nutrients available to the plant roots.
Spring can be a precarious time of year for new plants. The weather can be so changeable, and here in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) you always need to be careful of a late frost until early November. However, a wide variety of vegetables canbe planted outside at this time of year – from September onwards; for example, lettuce, silverbeet, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, broad beans, onions (spring, red and white), spinach, peas, carrots, parsnip, radish and beetroot. The last four of these are root crops and are best grown by seed.
A general rule of thumb for planting seeds is that they need to be covered in soil to a depth equal to their height. Once in the ground, it pays to give the seeds a quick watering to help germination.
For the rest, you are best to plant them as seedlings if you are planting in early spring. From late spring they can be sown directly into the soil as seeds. A beginner may want to buy seedlings from a garden shop rather than trying to grow them from seed at home. If possible, plan your garden so that you have multiple plantings of the same vegetable over the spring so you have a steady supply of vegetables rather than a glut of one vege and then nothing at all. For example, plant lettuce every few weeks so you have a constant supply (see web link for a growing calendar).
Green and Red Lettuce.
Potatoes can be put in the soil before the threat of the last frost has passed as they take some time to appear above the surface and can tolerate a light frost. However, it can be a risky business. My early potatoes got killed off by frost last year, but the later main varieties survived. After the threat of frost has passed, varieties like french beans, pumpkin, sweet corn, cucumbers and tomatoes can be planted out either by seed or as seedlings.
I normally buy tomato seedlings to speed things along and have found that you can't beat the Money Maker variety for a plentiful supply of disease-resistant tomatoes. Tomatoes grown outside need to be staked securely and require close attention with watering, pruning of lateral tips and liquid fertiliser, but are well worth the effort.
Soil in a new garden can take a few years to become healthy enough to support plants that are naturally free of pests and diseases. With my home garden, it took a few years before I eliminated pest problems. But these days I hardly ever have to use organic sprays to control pests. For the first-time organic gardener you can now buy certified organic sprays at most garden centres (see web links).
Pests that are harder to control are of the two and four-legged variety. When establishing a garden it is of paramount importance to decide who is in charge of what. The setting of healthy boundaries is of particular importance in relation to your partner. In our household, I take care of the fruit and vegetables and my lovely Danish wife takes care of the flower gardens and the chickens. Unfortunately, she does have a tendency to want more and more land, hence the need for a picket fence!
Garden pests chicken and dog.
She was kind enough to inform me that the garlic I had planted was growing, but upon inquiring as to how she knew this I found it was because she was stealing soil for her pot plants and was digging them up.
Garlic.
A good sense of humour and hard work (gardening and therapy) can go a long way in establishing a thriving garden and a healthy relationship with your loved ones.
HEI MAHI MāRA
A beginner's
guide to
growing
organic veg
nā
TREMANE BARR
Tremane Barr is Ngāi Tahu/Kāti Mahaki. He has been gardening organically for more than 20 years. He currently works as a storeman and a part-time contractor helping to develop a pounamu resource management plan for Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio.
Useful Websites
the Great organics debate
Book Competition
Inside Issue 44
Holly's Got Spirit
Iwisphere
Marks Of An Ancestor
Return of Mo Tātou
Tāne Ora: recover the man
Artist Tai Kerekere
- Keri Hulme
- Hei Mahi Māra / Gardening
- He Whakaaro /
Tom Bennion - Ngā Take Pūtea /
Whānau Finances - Kai / Recipes
- Te Aitaka A Tāna Me Ona Taonga
- Te Ao Te Māori
- Reviews
- He Tangata
- Letters
Issue #44 Published Sept 2009
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