Even when its cold and frosty there’s plenty of food to be had from the garden. Here’s a quick round up of what we’re harvesting to inspire you to a four seasons vegie patch.
Leafy greens abound – chard, spinach, parsley, kale, chickweed, cress, miners lettuce, endive, chicory and rocket. Bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage ripen at steady intervals and we pick away at the stash of leeks, carrots, parsnips and yams that store so well in cold winter soils. Celery, beetroot, coriander, bok choy, gai lan and salads galore grow in the protection of the greenhouse.
Yip, I’d say July’s pretty bountiful. Worth a bit of late summer/ autumn legwork don’t you think!
Sow
Direct Sow
- Greencrops after brassicas or leeks
- Mizuna
Tray Sow
- Spring onions, red or brown onions
- A mix of brassicas
- Peas into plug trays or toliet rolls
Direct or Tray Sow
- Broadbeans – tray sow on heavy, clay soils
- Spinach, coriander, bok choy and beetroot in the greenhouse
Plant
Mix it up! Plant a variety of varieties in mixed plantings to avoid big blocks of one. Diversity is the name of the game! It’s what brings us dinner – no matter what the weather does. It is the cornerstone of our gardens resilience.
- Broadbeans, peas and brassicas
- Garlic, spring onions, shallots, potato onions, red or brown onions
- Asparagus
- Horseradish – under fruit trees is a great place for this keen grower
- Salads, bok choy or beetroot in the greenhouse
Regular + odd jobs
This month, wander your land and notice all the spaces that could be more diverse, ergo more resilient – more food and habitat for bees and beneficials, more groundcover in spaces where weeds rule the roost and more variety where there is only one. Then have fun, go shopping and get planting while winter is still here.
Gather OM (organic matter). Your monthly forage is one of your most important garden missions. Find seaweed, manure, leaves, pond weed, old hay – what ever your neighbourhood can spare. Pick up the excess, leaving enough for nature to fulfil her cycles. It’s not about grabbing every last bit – there’s no need when you forage in a little and often way.
Create new gardens. A no dig beginning is the strongest start.
Divide herbs and perennials, these are the backbone of the garden in so many ways. Spread them far and wide throughout to strengthen your soil, retain water, increase your biodiversity, your homemade mulch supply and bee fodder.
Let all your favourite leafys go to seed. Year on year the seed adapts and grows in strength. And strong is what we seek in this wild climate we find ourselves in.
Sort your seed stocks and make sure you have plenty of greencrops, flowers, greenhouse crops, spring crops and all your favourites because next month we get back into seed sowing.
July in the Greenhouse
The chickens are in the greenhouse!
Come July, when the mustard is thigh high and the tomatoes and peppers are done, its time for the chooks to do their bit. I open the wee door in the back of the greenhouse, and let them amongst it. A new adventure (chooks are curious – they love new places!), clean ground (so important for top chook health), and heaps of fresh bugs to eat, is fair trade for weeding + pest control.
I toss in crop debris, organic matter and weeds from the garden for them to incorporate into the soil, along with the greenhouse crops, mulch, green crops + their poop: compost making with chooks – hello beautiful soil! With these guys on the job, I don’t need as much compost for my spring plantings.
Birdnet hung from the overhead wires with clothes pegs and secured at the bottom with planks, protects our winter greenhouse crops of saladings, bok choy, beetroot and celery. The nets keep the chooks exactly where I want them.
In this simple, but effective way I can move them round the greenhouse as needed – kind of like mob grazing. As they finish in one area, I sow/ plant it up and screen them into another.
Kath my message in the coffee buying space doesn’t make sense as I was hoping to put more than $5 in your account! Pay Pal got ahead of me! I am sorry!
Lucy T
No worries Lucy – was a kind thought. And its given me the idea of options – a coffee, a glass of wine, a whole bottle!!!! Be great to share one in real life though next time I’m down 🙂
Hi Kath,
Which type of loppers do you get from saw makers,I have bought a few from other places and they just don’t cut the mustard!
Carina
I’ve had them so long I cant remember the name of them but they are blue and I call them super loppers – perhaps called this in real life – or perhaps I made it up. I agree though – they are by far and away the best. Check out levin sawmakers website – you’ll find them there. Happy pruning!
Hi Kath I’m looking at getting some EM but am a bit baffled by their list of products. What would you recommend for someone starting out with only 6 raised beds (1m x 2m)? And do you always mix it with molasses? Thanks!
I agree Alana! I’d love to rewrite their stuff and make it easier to navigate! Expanding it (adding molasses etc) makes it super cheap and if that kind of brewing up/setting up pumps etc floats your boat then do it – it reduces the cost by a heap, but even with the financial reward that doesn’t do it for me – I just want to buy it and use it right away, so I get the plain EM1 concentrate. I use it at 1ml per litre making it go a long way. If you are just trying it out probably best to get the 1litre bottle of EMgarden and see what you think. Such a great way to build biology quickly in a new garden. best Kath
Thanks Kath!
Hi Kath,
I have bought your pruning book and it has helped me immensely but I have a Question. We have a new property with 47 fruit trees about 5 years old. The pear tree branches are all narrow crotches so a really tight tall tree with little openness. If I chopped off the narrow crotches there would be nothing left! What would you recommend?
Oh yes -pears are famous for this! Being an older tree how I’d approach it is to completely remove a few of the tallest branches doing your best to leave the tree in a balanced well spread shape. Head back remaining scaffolds by about a third, then remove a portion of narrow crotches to stimulate new growth from which you can start to rebuild your tree with next year – repeat the reducing and thinning out of height and narrow crotches and eventually in 3 or 4 or 5 years you’ll get a nice shaped tree. From then on you’ll be removing narrow crotches when the wood is pencil size – easy peasy aye! It is possible to take the tree off at the knees and begin again – I know people who do this but I cannot 🙂 Best Kath
Hi Kath
I’m planning my garden – also following Kay Baxter’s method. Just wondering – after heavy feeders is it ok to just have the lupin greencrop over winter and then back to heavy feeders? Or do I need a legume/roots in there too?
Also, I’m sure I read on your blog somewhere that you separate brassica, allium and Solanaceae by at least 3 years. Do you mean tomatoes need to be separated from broccoli by three years for example? Or do you mean just tomatoes from something in the same family?
One other thing – is there anything I should keep potatoes away from? Can you point me to a good guide on what not to plant near or successively to each other?
Thanks and thanks for the great blocg- if I had the time I would read it for hours!
Julia
Just keep the families separate from each other ok Julie. Use my rotation as a guide to develop your own alright. Take into account your soil type and do your best to not tire it out. Your crops will show you how well you are doing – learn as you go is the very best way. 🙂
Thank you!
Hi Kath, I have been looking for chickweed all the time I have been in NZ, firstly north of Auckland, now in Dannevirke and haven’t seen any to use as salading. This will sound crazy to those who are infested with it, but do you know where I can obtain seeds please or seedlings. I used to regularly get in trouble in UK for refusing to weed out chickweed from my allotment, but its ground covering capacity for such a small root is amazing..
oh yes – chickweed is the cats pajamas! but sadly I cannot help you with seed or seedlings – I doubt there will be any commercially available rather it’ll be about finding someone in your hood to snaffle a chunk of it from. nga mihi Kath
where are you? I have plants…
Chickweed grows rapidly if you dig in horse manure. I could harvest the amount that grows in my garden. All the bnest
awesome Issie! Chickweed is a sign of good fertility and so delicious… I love it as much as my chooks do!
Hi Kath,
for an Asparagus bed: while the asparagus roots are resting below ready to grow up early summer, I wondered if worth growing something else on top to make use of that space? and if so, what in your option would work well? At the moment I just mulch the top of asparagus bed but feel that that space could be better used….
Hi Gina, Love your thinking but asparagus is the one crop best left alone. Its roots are super fibrous making it pretty unfriendly, not only that but when the spears start coming up they are easily knocked off. Instead pile up loads of seaweed and compost and mulch on top ready for a bumper season in spring 🙂
hi Kath, we are in the Waikato, I have a thorns little carpet rose and have planted it in the sandy ‘soil’. We will be shifting at some stage and am wondering if now would be the best time to plant cuttings, how and would it be worth it. Ie do roses support the vege garden that I will be focusing on at my next place. I love your style. Regards Aileen
Whoops thorny, I will leave the rose here when we move on. X
Hi Aileen, all plants contribute! Roses too! Best time for rose cuttings is early autumn, but if you are still there in spring try cuttings of the new shoots and see how you go. Good luck!
Hi Kath, I planted out Kings Autumn mix in a couple of my beds about 3 months ago, I’m quite new to green crops so just wondering if I should be chopping them off at the roots now or wait? I don’t plan on using those beds for anything until late spring. Thanks
Hey Paula – depending a bit on the weather at your place ie whether you have snow or sun and your soil base. The rye grass in that mix is easier to manage when its younger – you can just slash it all down and either spread compost on top the stubble and use all the tops as mulch or make pockets of compost amongst the slash to plant into. Once its older you may need to lay black plastic on top of it – as in over the tops and everything, to kill it all off for a few weeks before continuing. 2 options to get you started! Both awesome results. You’ll get used to incorporating them in your own way that suits your particular environment. Hope this helps!
Hi Kath,
Thanks so much for the great info you put out there! I am wanting to plant some asparagus but can’t find any plants to buy anywhere. Do you know where I could get some?
Thanks
Kay
Find an asparagus grower and buy some crowns in late winter or spring.
HI Kath, I’m loving reading your book and blogs. I would like to grow green crops in my not so productive garden to give it a boost for spring and summer planting. I’m I’m northland, is is possible to direct sow now? Is it best to sow a mix of seed? Thanks for your help.
Hi Libby, yes you sure can sow greencrops year round. Esp where you are in the winterless north! And yes – a mixture is awesome!
Hi Kath, Im sorry if you have already replied to this question…..where can I buy potato onion seed from? Love your book and Insta! C Ariana🌻
hop onto Sethas Seeds and go from there – good luck 🙂
Hi,
I’ve moved my rhubarb plants out of a garden space I am wanting to garden in but the soil is really hard & dry, any Ideas on what I can plant? I’ve covered it with mulch and green crop seeds in the mean time.
Hey michelle – vegie garden am presuming? Repair your soil first!!https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/how-to-rehydrate-dry-soil/ Hard and dry is not the ticket to long term fertility. Greencrops and mulch are a great first step. Once your soil is back to awesome plant whatever you like.