Happy Valentine’s Day to our gardens which produce so abundantly!
This week being Full Moon I’ve managed to find some Agria seed potatoes at Newton’s Seeds (email or call them as they do have them and will do online sales even though they’re not on their website). The plan is to store these for use over winter.
I only had time to do a couple of liquid seaweed baths before this moon phase, but I’m keen to get them in now so as to have them cropping before winter. I did ask Newton’s Seeds to send me ones that had heaps of chits already.
So alongside the phacelia (which I finally have growing and flowering), in go 12 potatoes. Trenches dug as deep as I can manage to keep the hills stable. Chits go towards the top. Still a bit of comfrey around under my fruit trees to pop in – not much, but better than none. And some all-important Neem Tree granules to ward off a psyllid attack. Light layer of soil over the top, a water, and nets go up to stop the birds having dust baths.
If you haven’t seen the video of Rob planting potatoes, here it is.
Next job, even though it’s not exactly the right time of the month, is pulling out the borage, which has done so well for the bees, and replacing it with zinnias – I’m hoping for a bed of riotous summer colour! The zinnias that were in this bed, in amongst the borage, are tall and straggly, so I’m bumping up the nitrogen content with a layer of chicken manure to boost the green growth and will water them assiduously and hope to create what I have in my mind! Netting over the top too to protect them.
I’m also sowing my onion and leek seeds. If you’re in a cooler climate, you could be planting yours now.
There are specific Day Long onions which are thin-skinned, sweeter and planted in spring, ready in mid- to late-summer with a short storage time. In New Zealand, though, most of our onions are Intermediate-day ones (neither Day Long nor Day Short) which are thick-skinned and can be grown during the summer or in warmer climates, in the winter and they can be stored. I’m sowing Intermediate-day onions called Italian Longkeeper and Californian Red. My leeks are Carentan Giant.
You’ll need a deeper container than a normal seed sowing tray as onions and leeks have long tap roots. Bore holes in the bottom of the container, then all the usual sowing instructions, and finish off with a cake rack and a damp tea towel to keep up the moisture content and assist germination. All the details are in this video with Rob.
This week I’ve made a very nice Tomato Sauce – took ages but tastes delicious.
And our eggplants are coming on stream. I did have to buy a capsicum as ours are not quite ready, but the rest of this Ratatouille is from our garden. I cooked ours for 1 1/2 hours to make a real stew, but if you want it crispier and crunchier or don’t have the time, you can cook it for around 30 minutes.
And I’m making Nadia Lim’s quick beetroot relish out of our first Detroit Dark Red beetroot for dinner tonight! We’ll mix some of the green tops which are still lovely and fresh in with our lettuce for added nutrients.
Hope everyone in the North is coping with the dry. I’m thinking seriously about how to capture rain water for next summer’s garden.
Have a great week in the garden!
From Jan, Rob and the Team at OEG
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4 Responses
Cake rack and a damp tea towel – genius!
🙂
try sowing Japanese onions in March, these are short day onions and will grow through winter. Seed is hard to get though. Senshyu Yellow is the variety.
Great, thank you 🙂