Vegetables

A collection of 58 posts

Monthly gardening advice

September In The Vegie Patch + Greenhouse

Septembers plate is refreshingly green: saladings, celery, parsley, leeks, cress, silverbeet, kale, nettle, broccoli shoots for Africa, the last of the cabbage and - joy oh joy the first of the peas and asparagus. There's so much cool stuff to do in the garden right now, so much

Monthly gardening advice

Spring Seed Raising with Setha

NZ heritage, open pollinated, organically raised seed is the best of the best! We’re so lucky in New Zealand, to have Setha and Roddy at Setha’s Seeds, doing the hard yards to provide us with high quality veggie, herb and companion flower seed for our gardens. Growing from

Monthly gardening advice

August in the Vegie Patch + Greenhouse

The trick to a healthy, productive vegie patch is to keep momentum up - little and often is the way, even when its cold out! Get out there at least once a week to * remove spent crops. Chop them off at ground level then crunch or chop them up for

Harvest

July In The Vegie Patch + Chooks In The Greenhouse

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,

Monthly gardening advice

June In The Vegie Patch + Greenhouse

I'm not the only one who loves winter. Garlic, onions, all the brassica's, chard, endive, parsley and all manner of leafy greens love winter too. Salads and beetroot survive it, but very slowly, so if you live in cooler places best grow them under cover from

Monthly gardening advice

May In The Vegie Patch + Greenhouse

As the vegie garden missions slow down, get stuck in and make compost. There's heaps of finished crops/ flowers/ perennials/ homemade hay about, providing a bounty of ingredient - right there in your garden! If you want to make and use your own compost this is the way,

Featured

How to Finish Asparagus + Prep it for Spring

Asparagus ferns will likely be tall and green and ferny, and getting in the way of everything - corral them behind a string-line so as they can finish in peace. Letting the stalks wither and go full cycle is a nourishing and important step in the process towards an abundant

Monthly gardening advice

March In The Vegie Patch + Greenhouse

Clear starry nights, cool, dewy mornings and that special golden hue in the evening sky are all signs that Autumn is moving in. The cooler mornings and nights slowly begin to cool the soil, which in turn slows soil life and eventually plant life. Make the most of the warmer

Featured

3 Simple Ways to Revive Soil

In an ideal world, our soils don't end up hungry and tired. We take care of them in a little and often way so they stay juicy + wormy in order to sustain the demands of production. But - hey, it happens.... life happens! And when it does, here&

Featured

How to Grow Basil

Basil is a queen, and needs to be treated just so - her tolerance for anything other than perfect is low and if you dish it out she'll let you know with fungus-y foliage, black streaks, pale leaves, tough leaves, poor growth or by rushing off to seed.

Monthly gardening advice

December In The Vegie Patch

A December planted zucchini, cucumber + a few tomatoes are awesome when late summer rolls around. Keep the harvests flowing in, in a regular way with regular, little plantings and sowings this month. If it's hot at yours, shade comes to the rescue. I plant all my summer seedlings

Featured

How to Grow Awesome Tomatoes!

It's entirely possible to grow abundant tomatoes without artificial tomato food, or tricky fertiliser brews. Here are my very simple, tomato growing strategies - each one is a key thread, and success comes when they are all in action, together. Set your tomatoes on the road to glory

Monthly gardening advice

October In The Vegie Patch + Greenhouse

The October vegie patch is pretty dam exciting with seedling raising in full swing and crops boosting away in the warming soil and air. Do your best to keep your head and don't rush into planting summer loving crops on the first fine day! Its hard, I know,

Featured

The Perfect Soil Temperature for Seeds + Seedlings

What a difference when we sow seeds, and transplant seedlings, into soil that’s at the perfect temp for each crop - seedlings boost away with strong growth! Use your trusty soil thermometer along with my chart below that shows the ideal temperature range. Most crops will germinate outside this

Featured

How to Grow Celery

Homegrown celery is so efficient (and delicious!), gifting a lot of crop, in a small space. By regularly harvesting the big, outside stalks you inspire fresh, new ones to come. In this way, a happy celery plant can perpetuate for years, and that's the trick - to keep

Featured

An Easy, Nourishing Winter Food Garden

Today is especially for those of you who dream of eating a fresh picked bowl of goodness, like this one - every day, but dont have much time to garden. You can do it, if you focus on the most efficient crops - one's that are highest nutrition

Vegetables

How to Grow Broccoli

Broccoli is the easiest, quickest and most productive brassica to grow. Easier than cabbage, heaps faster than cauliflower, and waaaaay more productive than both on account of all the side shoots that come after the main head is cut. In order to grow lots of broccoli shoots, you first need

Vegetables

5 Tips for Transplanting in Hot Weather

Abundant crops begin with seedlings that grow steadily onwards, with no growth checks. Transplanting is a key part of the operation! Thing is, most of the crops we're planting in late summer (winter brassicas, carrots, leeks etc), aren’t fans of intense heat. Add to that, the garden

Featured

Are Raised Beds Your Best Bet?

Timber edged, raised beds aren't a garden essential! For sure, they have their place, but in most cases - yes most cases! - your soil, your body, your plants + your wallet are better served without them. Simple, no-dig beds, without timber edges are easiest by far to work

Featured

How to Prune Cucumbers + Melons

For best health, plus the joy of a small footprint, grow vining small fruit cucurbits (melons, cucumbers, small squash) up strings or frames rather than along the ground. Pruning them as single leaders, as per tomatoes, makes for an easy life - easy to pick, to spot pests, and to

Featured

How to Prune Tomatoes, Peppers + Aubergines

A single leader tomato is a very fine thing. Easy to support. Easy to pick. Easy to spot pests. Easy to spray. But most important of all in my high rainfall not reliably hot climate - plenty of airflow and sun for best health + ripening. A single leader best suits

Featured

How to Grow Green Beans + Shell-out Beans

Beans have a bad rap. I mean who lists beans as their fav crop?! People who grow their own, thats who! Fresh picked is the only way to go, and there are so many awesome varieties to try. And then theres dried beans, or shellouts. Homegrown are worlds apart -

Monthly gardening advice

How To Plant Kumara Shoots

You've nurtured your mother kumara all spring long and now that the shoots are 20cm or so its time, for them to leave mum, and go make their own babies. Planting time is upon us! Prepare the bed The key to a boomer crop of kumara, is warmth.

Vegetables

How to Grow Potatoes

Spuds are so easy that you can accidently leave a tuber in ground and grow a whole new crop. Rogue potato seedlings turn up all over the place - I leave these where they are by the way. Every extra kilo of delicious homegrown potatoes is most welcome in my

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How to Grow Kumara Shoots

The journey to a boomer crop of kumara begins with shoots or tipu. Start them growing now, in early spring. Shoots are grown on a kumara, and this kumara is so special its called the mother. Choose your mother with care. Select a firm, organically grown kumara with no rots.