As the vegie garden missions slow down, get into a bit of compost making. Make as much as you can for your spring gardens – there’s nothing more satisfying! Then when all the doing is done, segue into a bit of garden dreaming. Are you putting in new beds or trees this winter? Where will they go? For the best outcome, spend a bit of time pondering.
Sow
Direct sow
- Greencrops – lupins, broadbeans, phacelia, wheat, oats, mustard or barley. Kings Seeds Autumn Manure Mix is awesome. Grow as many greencrops as you can fit.
- Corn salad an miners lettuce – sweet little winter/ spring cut and come again greens. Sow them once, let them self seed and have winter greens every year.
- Coriander and rocket may need to be undercover (ie in the greenhouse or on a porch) if temperatures get too cold at yours.
- Mizuna is a super handy, easy, cold hardy green to sow now. Let it self seed ever after.
- Calendula and poppy
Tray Sow
- Globe Artichokes, spring onions, red or brown onions
- A mixture of brassicas. They’ll grow slowly, but are still worth it for late winter/ spring eating.
- Peas into toliet rolls or plug trays
- A mixture of salad greens
Direct or Tray Sow
- Broadbeans are best tray sown where soils are heavy + wet, and slug populations high.
- Spinach, coriander and beetroot can be direct sown in the greenhouse as the weather and soils cool. Though they all handle cooler soil, they grow faster and therefore sweeter in the warmth.
- Good companions like calendula, poppies, cornflowers, larkspur and sweetpeas (must have sweetpeas!)
Transplant
- Broadbeans, peas, beetroot and brassicas
- Loads of leafy greens like parsley, kale, perpetual spinach and rainbow chard.
- Salad greens that don’t mind cooler weather like endive, cos or “Merveille de quatre saisons”. Or grow salads in warmer places like in pots on the deck or in the greenhouse.
- Garlic, spring onions, red onions or brown onions.
- Celery – either outside or in the greenhouse to prevent rust.
- Lots of flowers like stock, primula, larkspur, cornflower and snapdragons
- Strawberries. If you raised your own plants from runners now’s the time to plant them out. May plantings have all winter to grow lovely big roots. Big roots = bigger plants = more cropping.
Regular + Odd Jobs
- Fill every spare space with crops, greencrops, herbs, flowers or at the very least mulch: let no earth be bare. For a strong soil, protection from cold, wind + rain and to help slow weed growth down – cover your soil.
- Liquid feed broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, leeks and leafy greens to boost them along. Once temperatures dip below 10 degrees, soil life shuts down and there’ll be no more point to liquid feeding.
- Weed and thin carrots, kohlrabi, fennel, parsnips for good sized crops.
- Gather OM (organic matter). It makes our gardens sing, it’s shopping free, plastic bag free and all around us. Use this slower pace of May to get collecting – hay, sawdust, leaves, manure … whatever your neighbourhood yields. Make piles about the edge of your garden – handy for when you need a bit of mulch.
- Make lots of compost! Theres heaps of finished summer crops/ flowers/ perennials about, providing a bounty of ingredients. Chop them down, cut them up, toss together and pile them up. Pour on some liquid seaweed or EM and leave it all to nature to make some magic. There is nothing cooler than starting your spring crops off with the rotted remains of your summer crops.
- Harvest kumara if not done already, Often recommended to wait till the tops die off, but in all these years I’ve never got to that stage. This instruction is for hotter climates I think. It’s more important to get them up before the frost hits it. The gamble is yours!
- Refresh tired old kale or chard plants by cutting the tops off back to a 20cm-ish stump. Use the big old leaves to make yummy chips or use to mulch a bed with. The stump will re-sprout and if you pick it regularly will supply lots of small, sweet leaves.
- Prepare your asparagus bed for winter. When the ferns are brown, the carbs have gone to the roots and it’s time to lay it down.
The Greenhouse
Greenhouse soil will be tired about now and need a generous layer of compost or well rotten manure before sowing or planting salad greens, celery, spinach, beetroot or coriander.
Sow greencrops alongside your crops to further nurture the soil.
Have a go at growing potatoes in buckets in your greenhouse this winter – such a handy spring crop!