May is about succession planting and caring for your crops in the ground.
First batch of carrots are up.
Too small yet to thin out and weed around – weeding will disrupt the roots. The next crop is in alongside some spring onions which are a good companion plant for carrots.
I’m sowing beetroot and Florence fennel in punnets this time as these two root crops can be transplanted unlike carrots. Florence fennel obviously somewhat slower than the beetroot! It’s less wasteful transplanting beetroot and Florence fennel, particularly when you have limited space.
Other good root crops to get in now are radish, daikon and Tokyo White turnips.
I’ll sow one more lot of root crops in the Full Moon in June and that’ll last until spring.
The onion and leek bed is going well. I’ve made a few replacements so we’re looking on track. The bed is quite weedy too but I’m leaving it for now as I fear weeding will dislodge the little seedlings.
Our first brassicas are getting away. The bed has needed weeding and while I was there, I hilled the plants up as they get leggy and can be whipped about by wind if not firmed in.
The second lot of brassicas is also in. I used some of our homemade compost when making this bed up and while it’s chunky, the plants do love the lightness and support of it.
I’ll sow one more lot of brassicas in the upcoming New Moon phase and that should see us through the winter.
Then it was time to take a look at the strawberry bed. While there had been gaps and I had made a few new plants in pots, I hadn’t factored in that the existing plants were also putting down roots from the runners in the bed itself. So there were no gaps and in fact, I had to weed out quite a few good plants, just because they were too close to each other. If you’re in this situation, make sure plants are no less than 25-30cms apart as they’ll rob each other of nutrients and the crowding can set the scene for fungal disease due to air not being able to circulate round the plants.
The new little plants have been cut away from the mother plants now, and these guys will just need to be re-homed.
As the weather is reasonably warm at the moment, you may find strawberries appearing on your plants. Our advice is to pick them off and give the plant a rest. Without true summer warmth, the fruit won’t be as tasty and you may deplete the strength of the plant by allowing it to fruit.
I also gave my patch several good handfuls of our multi-mineral fertiliser to encourage strong root growth.
Loads of little silverbeet plants coming along – sowed a lot so they could be planted at our community garden as well. They are Rainbow Lights, Ford Hook Giant and Margaret Dale.
And just about to pick the first fruit from our young mandarin tree. Love the taste of mandarins in winter!
Happy gardening!
From Jan and Rob
7 Responses
Awesomeness, thank yuz xox
😊
Hi Jan/Rob.
Not mentioned in the latest post but can you please advise what you think of growing potatoes in planter bags. Photos show copious numbers, however, is it that simple or not.
Thank you
Hi Mike It’s definitely easy enough to do, but in our experience, the yield is not as rewarding as planting in the ground. If you have limited or no garden space, if you want to plant now (ie out of season) and have a very sunny spot, if you’re prepared to feed the planter bag or container well and often, then you will get a crop, but we think all root crops do better and yield more prolifically planted directly in the ground 😊
Kia ora OEG OGs,
Passion pending: Any intel on how I could get the last of my passionfruit — still hanging green on the vine in full autumn sunshine — to ripen? Perhaps a brown paper bag in the hot cupboard or something? We harvested plenty and froze cubes of them at the height of the season, but there are some late developers who need your help.
Ngaa mihi nui.
Hi Cameroni If the passionfruit on your vine is totally green, it won’t ripen if picked. If it’s green but changing colour, the fruit can be picked and put in a fruit bowl or warm place and it will slowly ripen. All the best 😊
Thanks for inspiring me to keep going with trying to grow carrots. I sowed them in two places. So far so good. They’ve germinated evenly at one site and a bit patchy at the other site. I think Quash made the difference. Also used Biochar. They’re taking their time though.
Have also harvested the pumpkins and given them the baking soda scrub. I used 1/4 c baking soda in a large bowl. Now looking very clean and the weather’s been great for sunning them to harden the skins. This is the first time I’ve grown so many – 59! We’ll give away half at least.
Happy gardening!