Serious winter! Cold and rain. Keeping indoors is the most sensible thing to be doing at the moment. Although we did get involved today in a local native tree planting for Matariki (forgot to take a photo though!). As the authors of ‘The Future We Choose’ write on imagining the world in 2050:
“The air is cleaner than it has been since before the Industrial Revolution. We have trees to thank for that. They are everywhere. It wasn’t the single solution required, but the proliferation of trees bought us the time we needed to vanquish carbon emissions…. On every sensory level, the ambient feeling of living on what has again become a green planet has been transformative, especially in cities.”
At our place we’ve weeded the onion and garlic beds and planted violas as a companion plant – to keep the weeds down going forward. Violas don’t compete for nutrients so they work well.
Our leeks are less advanced than they were this time last year, and we’ve just given them the first hilling up. This is to encourage long white stems.
The asparagus is ready to be cut down to ground level. After that, we add our organic fertiliser and compost to the bed, and in a couple of months’ time, we should see some sweet spears shooting up. If you’re starting a new asparagus bed, July is the month to plant out crowns.
The plants in our strawberry bed are pulling away and some are even putting flowers out. Trying to produce fruit in winter is too stressful for the plants, so we nip the flowers off until around September, when we can let them go.
The first lot of broccoli is all ready and we’re loving eating it. I give the smaller brassica plants a bit more chicken manure to boost them up during these harsh months when they’re growing more slowly.
Lastly, when there’s not much around for the birds to eat, consider leaving out food for them to keep them in your garden. This is just a bought one, but there are loads of creative ways to make your own on the internet.
Keep warm and dry!
From Jan and Rob.
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6 Responses
Is it ok to move 4 established asparagus crowns at this time of the year? We inherited them dominating the raised veg bed, but could leave them there if they’d die on moving!
Thanks for all your informative tips and photos 🙂
Fine have sifted them in Feb
Yes agree with John. They are fine to move as long as they’re not too big. You’ll know they’re too big if you can’t get them out easily. All the best 😊
Is it ok to put used tea leaves in the compost
Regards Derek Thank you for all your useful information
Yes no problem. And thank you! 😊
Thank you 🙏🏻 Where the Farmers Markets are, it says Ohoka Market open on Saturdays. It’s not open on Saturday, it’s open on Friday mornings.
I find your website so user friendly and with the best advice for a healthy flourishing garden 🪴