Your Garden and Your Home June and July

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 June they are on 10% discount.

Matariki is now in view which signals the beginning of the Maori New Year, the end of harvest and a time to look to the future and plan for the growing season to come.

The winter has certainly arrived  and it has become noticeably colder. It's only a couple of weeks until the shortest day of the year, which traditionally is when you plant garlic. Now is a perfect time to grow  wonderful herbs, plant strawberry plants in July- August and lastly, even if you're not a winter gardener, to keep your garden soil working during winter.

Great Winter Herbs

With the basil is on its last legs and a lot of the salad greens being too frost tender to survive (although you can grow winter lettuces etc.) there are two amazing herbs that just thrive at this time of year. Coriander and Dill, often find it too hot in the summer and are prone to wilting but come winter and they are in their element. Easy to grow from seed, just sprinkle seeds in some good quality seed raising mix and water regularly (depending on rainfall). Keep them close to the kitchen door so you're more likely to pop out and get them even on rainy days!

Grow your own Garlic

Traditionally, garlic is planted on the shortest day of the year (June 21st) and harvested on the longest day. You can pop it in a couple of weeks early or late - up until early August. Just put a label where you plant it with the date on. Lime and add manure to soil a couple of weeks before planting. Plant healthy looking cloves that still have their skins on with the pointy end up. Plant 3-5cm deep and about 10cm apart. Don't use the garlic that you get in the supermarket most of it is imported from China and sprayed so it will never sprout. Use garlic cloves from your local organic shop, from a gardener friend  or contact Koanga gardens and get some fantastic heirloom organic varieties posted to you. Keep the surrounding area weed free.

Succulent strawberries

Plant Strawberries in July and August and they'll be ready to pick in summer. One of the beauties of strawberries is that they will grow just about anywhere, although if you have the choice opt for a raised bed or hanging basket in a sunny spot. As a rule of thumb buy four plants for each family member to ensure there's enough to go round. Prepare the soil during June by making rows of mounds with trenches in between. Dig chicken manure and compost into the trenches to encourage the roots to spread as they reach for nourishment. When planting, you want to plant into the row of mounds (rather than the trench), placing plants approx. 15cm apart. Ensure the crown of the plant is above the soil level and surround with pea straw. Some people put black plastic over the mounds and make holes to plant into. This helps to keep the soil warm and keeps weeds (which will fight for root space) at bay. Water regularly and feed with worm castings.

Crucial cover crops

If winter gardening isn't your cup of tea, keep the soil working by planting a cover crop that will grow over winter and improve the soil. You can plant one or a mix of the following. When planting, scatter seeds on soil, cover with a thin layer of compost then water. Cut the crop down before it goes to seed, lay cut debris on the soil and cover with compost, allow time to break down. If you have too much debris then put the rest in your compost bin, mix with mature compost, which works as an activator to help new materials break down.

Alfalfa-Lucerne  Great for soil that needs breaking up (clay)

Broad Beans - Put lots of nitrogen back into the soil

Buckwheat - attracts beneficial to garden and suppresses weeds

Lupin- Puts lots of nitrogen back into the soil

Peas - puts nitrogen back into soil, grows peas and supply of pea straw

Winter vetch - Puts nitrogen back into the soil

Get feisty against the frost

Frost causes the water in the plant cells to freeze, prevents roots being able to take in water and the cell walls can become ruptured by the morning sun then heating them up too quickly. Don't let the frost take you by surprise this winter. Here are a few ideas you can use to protect your plants.

- Small to middle size seedlings can be housed under upturned large bottling jars overnight; flower pots will also work but take off any coverings in the morning.

- Invest in a frost cloth; you can get them from your local garden centre or hardware store. Set up hoops for tunnels so you can just throw the cloth over and pin it down when you need to- the plant has less protection if the cloth touches it.

- Protect the heart of your cauliflower by bending the outer leaves over the top so it isn't exposed to the elements.

- Wrap newspaper around celery to protect the frost tender stalks.

- Make or buy cloches for small seedlings. To make, take a large drink bottle and cut in half around the middle. You can use both halves to protect seedlings by placing them over seedlings at night. If you want to leave them on during the day too cut some holes in the bottles to allow rain through and make sure you water them as well.

- Cold air and frost always head for the lowest part of the garden making it a frost pocket, so avoid planting there.

- A thick layer of mulch will protect the soil underneath from freezing.

- Lastly, play it safe and take action when the temperature is forecasted to fall to  4C or below.

 If you do get caught out by frost, give plants the best chance of recovery by doing the following;

- Block out the morning sun with black plastic so plants don't defrost too quickly

- Feed plants to encourage healthy new growth

- Transfer small plants to a greenhouse for a recovery period

What to plant in June

Bok Choy, Broad Beans, Broccoli

Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chinese Cabbage

Garlic, Onion, Peas, Radish, Swede, Silverbeet. Perpetual Spinach, Turnip

What to plant in July

Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chinese Cabbage

Garlic,Peas, Radish

Silverbeet, Perpetual Spinach, Turnip, Strawberries

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 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 workshops or courses.

Happy Gardening