The most important mission this month is getting long term crops like kumara, yams, pumpkins and peppers, in the ground. Yams need about 6 months to fatten up, kumara and sweet peppers need 4 – 5 warm months and pumpkins 4 – 6 months (variety dependant). They all need varying degrees of warmth to thrive, so if your place isn’t quite there yet, be sure to jazz up some heat for them.
With the long term crops sorted, turn your attention to the successional crops that can be drip fed in a little + often way throughout summer. These will differ according to your climate and your tastebuds – hit up your gardening neighbours, if you’re unsure, and ask them how their succession rolls. My Levin one goes something like this:
- Transplant a new lot of corn fortnightly until end of December
- Once a month through ’til January plant out one zuchinni, two cucumbers, half a dozen tomatoes and a row of dwarf beans
- Once a month until summers end; a couple dozen saladlings, beetroot, rocket, coriander, radish and basil
Slow and steady my gardening friends, turns your veggie patch into your veggie shop.
Yours in the earth,
❤️ Kath
I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get an analysis done of the soil in my veggie garden. The results of the home testing kit I bought were impossible to match with any of the colours on the chart provided and didn’t give me any information on what to add to my soil to help get a good crop of veggies.
Labs offering tests seem either to cater for farmers, civil engineers or the construction industry. Others are overseas. Is there anywhere in New Zealand where you can get a test done to show what specifically would help the soil in your veggie garden? I add compost and fertiliser, but the return from my garden is declining year by year and I would like to know what I’m doing wrong.
P.S. I’ve bought your book “The Edible Backyard” and am enjoying it, but haven’t read it all yet.
Hi Linda check out the soil health section in my book or find my recommended soil tests on the goods and gurus page on my website. Cheers