Your Garden and Your Home

The Environment Centre is running an extensive programme of workshops and courses that cover a wide range of gardening and self reliance topics - check out the events page or the courses and workshops on our website. We also have copies of "How to Grow Your Own Food" - creating and maintaining an organic vegetable garden. these are normally $30 and in the month of February they are all in our 10% discount sale.

Tasks in the garden for the remainder of February

1. Keep picking cherry tomatoes daily. Cherry tomatoes ripen rapidly in late summer and, if you leave them too long on the plant, they split and rot (especially if it rains).

2. Sow onions. Onions are a great winter crop, but only if you plant the right variety at the right time. Early maturing onions can be sown now in warm areas.  In temperate areas, wait until March to sow your early onions; in cold southern areas it's best to leave sowing until April. Make a shallow furrow 1cm deep, dampen soil and sow your seeds. Cover with seed-raising mix and water. Onions should be thinned to 7-10cm. If your beds are well fertilised before planting, extra fertiliser is not necessary. Onions take between six to eight months from sowing to picking.

3. Sow parsley and  be patient. It can take anywhere from 4-6 weeks to germinate. There are two types of parsley: curly leaf or flat leaf (aka Italian parsley). Both are biennials but are best treated as annuals. In its second year, parsley leaves are tougher and slightly bitter. Parsley likes nutrient-rich, moisture-retentive soil. Dig in plenty of compost or rotted manure before planting. Ensure soil is free-draining.

4. Stuck for space? If your vege patch is still full of summer vegetables, or you have clay soil that drains badly in the coolers months, consider planting a few spare crops in pots. Janet Luke will be running workshops on container planting - see our workshops page.

5. There is a myriad of other vegetables for your winter garden that can be started by sowing seeds now. Beetroot, brocolli, cabbage, chinese cabbage. carrots, cauliflower, celery, leeks, lettuce,parsnips, peas, radish, silverbeet, spring onion, swede and turnips - happy seed sowing! The best dates for sowing seeds coming up in the next few weeks . Saturday 27th February - 2 days before the full moon, Sunday 28th in the afternoon, Monday 1st March - all day (full moon) and Friday 5th March.

6. If you are interested in planting by the moon - the Biodynamic calendar or Maramataka - the Maori planting calendar are good tools. We have the Biodynamic calendar, a copy of the Maramataka calendar and a simple $5 planting by the moon calendar available at the Environment Centre.

Pop in and see us or join up with one of our great courses.