Getting ready for Garlic and Kay Baxter

This week in the Backyard Vegetable Patch. 

It’s been a mixed bag for the whole country weather wise so far this season.  At the moment it is still warm and very very wet so the grass is still growing but the ground is  boggy. Take note of what is happening in your garden each month – as I have mentioned before it is really useful to have a 5 year diary to make notes in. This is a good way to get to know your garden and the microclimate you live in.

At the moment I still have sweet pea plants looking very lush and healthy on the fence.  These are ones that flowered late summer and into autumn but I am sure they should be well dried off by now.  Just watching them to see what is going to happen but then they will be a really useful addition to the compost. 

Corn stalks have well and truly dried off though. Yesterday I picked all the old left-over corn cobs and will store them on netting racks over winter to provide a bit of extra feed and entertainment for the hens.  I then pulled up the stalks and chopped into pieces with a sharp spade.  Dug a trench where they had been planted and put the old stalks on the bottom along with other suitable material for composting, a bit of blood and bone and sprinkle of lime. The old bean stalks that I had growing up in Indian style went in (after I had taken off the dried ones saved for seed). This is a good way to get the carbon back into the soil and is recommended by the late Prof Walker and also Kay Baxter of the Koanga Institute fame.  I have also planted a couple of rows of broad beans in the same bed – mostly as a green crop over winter but also to eat as a spring vegetable. 

When I swap to Year 2 of my Crop Rotation Garden Plan in spring, this will be the bed that I will next grow green leafy crops such as brassicas, silverbeet, spinach and salad vegetables. So that is what we are preparing for. Following this plan, you will actually have a bit of a cross over – autumn sown or planted brassicas will come to maturity in spring in Bed 4 (bottom left hand bed) and then we will plant new season’s ones in Bed 1. Autumn sown broad beans will still be in Bed 1 but we will plant new season’s ones in bed 2.  Hope this doesn’t sound confusing – it helps to have your copy of the poster handy. 

We are harvesting leeks, celery, carrots, beetroot, pumpkins, rhubarb(!), silverbeet, parsley, red cabbage.  Just the ones I can think of. Oh – and potatoes. I lost the name of the ones we are eating now – they are red skinned with white flesh and just delicious.  We have been treating them like a new potato and with Mothers Day just gone, enjoyed them for an outdoor lunch with a winter salad made of red cabbage, grated beetroot, grated carrot, celery, chopped apple and walnuts from out orchard. Followed by rhubarb pie made with my favourite short pastry (see recipe from my previous post)

Getting Ready to Grow Garlic. 

Next month will be the traditional time to plant garlic so now is the time to prepare the ground. I think I will plant mine in the Year 2 cycle of my plan though.  I could have gone either way but think that as most of the growing season will be in Year 2 and those beds are clear of the tomatoes etc from the previous Year 1 cycle, it makes sense to plant there. So that will be Bed 3 and I will grow them in the raised perimeter bed. Actually, as my garden is so new, this bed is not  raised yet – that will have to wait until we are living there – but I will build it up about the ground. I lost potatoes with the wet soil this year so don’t want to take chances with my precious garlic.  You will need well drained fertile soil. Dig over ground removing all weeds and adding compost, blood and bone and a bit of lime.  Leave for a couple of weeks and then plant your garlic. 

 Koanga Institute Fundraiser. 

Speaking of Kay Baxter, she is currently touring the country on a speaking mission to raise funds to purchase the block where they are doing a vital job of saving heritage plants and seeds. The block was leased and is now going on the market so Kay is urgently trying to raise funds to purchase this block.  Kay is one of the pioneers of saving heirloom plants and seeds in NZ and it is really important that we support this work.  To find out more go to  HYPERLINK "http://www.koanga.ort.nz/tour" www.koanga.ort.nz/tour or email  HYPERLINK "mailto:rachel@koanga.org.nz" rachel@koanga.org.nz. 

Here are some South Island Meeting dates. 

Christchurch June 3. 

Dunedin June 5.