Garden Notes for the Family Vegetable Garden: December

“Let your soil keep its clothes on” Robyn Guyton,

“Nature abhors a vacuum, just as I abhor the vacuum cleaner”         

Lynda Hallinan

Watering, weeding, mulching and ….eating!

December in the back yard vegetable garden is an exciting time. Everything you sow or plant will be enjoying the warm conditions and growing with great vigour. Get the kids outside helping especially once school has finished for the year – entice them with self-harvested peas and strawberries. If you got your new potatoes in early enough you should be starting to harvest them as well – even if you just reach in and pull enough from the soil to have for Christmas dinner. Early potatoes can be harvested once the flowers are fully open. Main crop ones take longer to mature and are harvested once the foliage has died down.  They will store over winter whereas early salad potatoes will not.

Keep moisture up to your garden and the weeds down. This is the month when your weeds can get away on you and compete with your food crops.   I hope you enjoyed the quotes above from a couple of great New Zealand gardeners.  Both remind us that bare ground is not the norm in nature so cover your bare ground in the garden with mulch, companion plants or green crops. Give the garden a good soak then mulch with whatever you have at hand – even grass clipping will work.  Planting companion plants or green cover crops in any gaps will prevent weeds, increase the good insects in your garden and look very pretty as well.  Then if you go away on holiday you won’t need to worry that you will come back to a shriveled weedy garden.  If you do go away arrange for someone to pop by once or twice  to soak the ground if needed and pick the crops which of course will be ready just while you are away! 

Jobs for this Month

Sow:  Beans, green leafy vegetables such as lettuces, spinach and winter brassicas.. Winter root crops such as carrots, parsnips, beetroot,  Swedes, turnips (for the southerners) can go in now.  Need well worked friable soil for the carrots, parsnip and beetroot. They have a tap root that needs to go straight down into the soil. Avoid fresh animal manure too as that tends to cause conditions such as club root.

Plant: Cabbage, Cauli, corn, celery, leeks, lettuces, spinach, courgettes, pumpkins, capsicums, chillies, tomatoes, (hothouse or in the north) Corn can still go in for warmer gardens.

Stake: Beans and peas. Dwarf beans and peas are a good idea for those starting out as they don’t require a frame like the others. They will benefit however from having twiggy sticks poked into the ground around them for support. This means they can put energy into fruiting rather than trying to stay upright.

Cultivate: Thin beetroot to 15 cm apart. Mound up main crop potatoes. Mulch along rows well with straw or whatever you have available.  Liquid manure green and fruiting crops such as courgettes, tomatoes, corn,  pumpkin etc but as it gets closer to harvest hold off on roots and tubers like garlic, onions and potatoes. They will need to be dry for harvesting.

Harvest: Garlic – traditionally starts on the longest day (21^st Dec). If you planted it around the shortest day or earlier it may be ready so if it looks close, stop watering now.  Pick peas and beans regularly to keep them producing. Asparagus: usually finish harvesting around mid-December to allow spears to grow out and store food for following season. Weed, mulch and leave to grow.

Eat: Lots of lettuces, herbs, spinach, potatoes, asparagus, beans, peas,  strawberries and other soft fruits.

Most of all have a lovely Christmas and hopefully your dinner will include some home grown produce!