This is my second month as part of The Garden Share Collective. A monthly community of like minded garden enthusiasts who want to share their vege patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow – the trials and tribulations of growing your own!
Meet some of the locals … cute or what?
July’s weather was stunning … lots of gorgeous gardening opportunities, blue skies and mild days, only one more month of winter!
Last weekend we started pruning those messy olives and every opportunity since, I have been outdoors snipping away madly with my secateurs. The good news is that we have nearly finished. We still haven’t mulched the trimmings yet, but that’s on the agenda.
And that’s not the only thing that I am pleased about either, I have at last scribbled down my summer planting plan. Woop woop! Big job too … I have 6 beds (hill positioned) and each year I rotate my crops so that the same vege isn’t in the same bed year after year. The logic for this is quite simple, rotating gives the soil a chance to replenish itself, plus it should lessen the need to worry about pests and disease.
Planting in general is a big thing. If you try and do it by the book the suggestion is to group plants together with similar needs. Some plants are moderate feeders while others of course are on the heavy side. So with this in mind, if you can, it is a beaut idea to think about what you plant before a crop i.e.beans or peas (nitrogen fixers) before brassicas or, consider a root crop after them. Ah, there is so much to remember. I’m a firm believer, if you feed your soil then it in turn will feed you or should I say your vege. So at the end of each growing season, once all the spent plants have been removed, I always add back loads of organic matter – compost, animal manure, basalt rock, coffee grounds, mulch, wood ash and the list goes on. I endeavour to put back as much as possible …
Summer planting plan
Needless to say, bio diversity gets the big thumbs up at Frog Pond Farm so I always add flowers and companion plants into those vege gardens – lots of interplanting, shape, colour, aromas and varieties.
I started chitting my Whataroa Maori potatoes yesterday too. I literally dip them into a seaweed fert brew and then sit them in an egg carton. I’ll leave them sitting on the bench in the garage probably for the next 6 – 8 weeks. Not a super sunny spot though, I don’t want to cook those spuds just yet! And where are these going? These lovely seed potatoes will no doubt go into my spud hot box. But more on that later.
Whataroa potatoes – chitting time
My tasks for August ..
We will need to start pruning the feijoas and these will then get carted up to the house and mulched. Another of my favourite gardening endeavours. Then we must prune those apples, pears, crabapple and quince.
I must grab my seed box from the fridge (where else would you keep those precious things?) and work out what is missing and needs to be replaced. Where possible I save my own seed, but sometimes it is necessary to ‘buy’ some in. Towards the end of August I shall start sowing some seeds.
My wonderful garden plan was kindly done for me by our good buddy Dallas, so nice to present my summer planting in colour! More info coming soon.
The cherry blossom is out!
Happy gardening …