For
those following the crop rotation plan on the poster, February is high summer
for most parts of NZ, hot and humid in the north and hot and dry in Central
Otago. By the end of the month the nights usually start to cool down and Autumn
will be in the air. Should be lots
of harvesting going on and keeping up the watering is vital for growing
crops. I have been re-reading the
excellent book by one of the fathers of gardening in this country, Prof Walker,
in which he emphasizes the point that regular watering is vital for well-grown
veges. Plants can have their
growth checked at 2 points – once when transplanted as seedlings and again if
they dry out. The general rule is
that if it hasn’t rained for 3 days then water well in the evening. It is
better to water deeply once every few days than sprinkle a bit every day. Mulch is essential to keep the moisture
in and the weeds down.
Bed
1.
In
this first year of rotation I have sweetcorn with climbing beans going up, plus
climbing beans on poles, dwarf beans and peas. Keep picking beans so they will keep producing. Corn is
ready when the tassels turn brown.
If you have beans growing up them then leave the stalks. You can pull those out later in autumn
to bury and turn into valuable carbon.
Liquid feed as they will be hungry.
Bed
2:
That
old standby silverbeet should be doing well. It will be an early indicator of
dryness - if the leaves are looking a little sad and wilted then give the bed a
drink. Young brassicas for autumn and winter eating will be growing nicely. It
may be getting a bit hot for lettuces – keep planting in small batches down the
rows of brassicas – that will give them a little shade from the hot sun. Keep up the water and grow them quickly
and eat them every day! They can
get bitter if too long in the garden with not enough water. Keep planting and
harvesting your asian greens and spinach.
Bed
3. Summer in bed 3 is where a lot of action is taking place. Tomatoes should be ripening nicely,
courgettes, capsicum, aubergine, cucumber, basil etc. Keep harvesting to keep everything fruiting. Pinch out
the laterals on the tomatoes and keep stake well. Once your pumpkins have set
3-4 fruit pinch out the growing tips to allow those ones to grow. This mainly
applies to southern parts of the country where autumn cooling may prevent late
pumpkins from ripening.
Bed
4. If you have early potatoes in this bed then you probably have harvested most
of them by now. You can have new potatoes over the whole growing season of
course if you have a succession of planting – and they are lovely to have with
your summer salads. Main crop potatoes such as agria will be still doing their
thing under the ground. Water wisely – not too much in case they rot. In the
rows left bare by the harvesting of early potatoes you can sow either a green
crop of mustard to sterilize the soil or get in a punnet each of celery and
leeks. Dig over, add manure and a
bit of lime. Keep well watered
though. Continue to sow carrots and beetroot in soil that is friable. No manure
added for these root crops though. Your earlier
planted parsnips should be coming along for winter and will appreciate liquid
feeding and adequate water.
Bed
6.
I
have asparagus in this bed. We collected seaweed after a recent storm and
spread over the bed along with some manure. The ferns are waving in the breeze
but don’t chop back until later in the autumn. The outer edge of my bed is edged with lavender as it leads
onto a central pathway so that is providing some interest. I have an artichoke
standing sentinel beside the central entry into the main garden which is ready
to eat.
In
the opposite bed at the top of the garden we are eating strawberries. Have
harvested the blackcurrants and added them to the jams and jellies we have been
making. Recipe in earlier blog. Rhubarb will need plenty of water and manure to
keep nice fat stalks but will be past its best.
Enjoy
your garden.
