Gardening – Surviving climate with diversity

Plant diversity increases stability, pollinators and weed and pest suppression, and is an essential garden tool. 

Diversity also means there will always be something that will get through a weather system, and so it proved to be when the winds of Cyclone Gabrielle thrashed the corn, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, and most of the ripening fruit on the trees in our garden.

Two plants that withstood the strongest winds were Perilla, also known as shiso or Japanese basil (perilla frutescens var, crispa), and Magenta spreen. Perilla, an Asian herb and member of the mint family, is purple and very ornamental. It is used for wrapping sushi and giving the pink hue to pickled ginger. It is made into pesto and used to make umeboshi, the Japanese red pickled plum. Shiso can be used with noodles, pasta, mushrooms, pork, and tomatoes. In Chinese medicine shiso is used to treat asthma, colds, and flu.

Magenta spreen (Chenopodium giganteum) is a cousin of quinoa and out-produces both spinach and silverbeet. Even with its 1.7m height, it withstood the strongest gusts, probably because of its spreading root system, and will provide plenty of greens until the newly planted silverbeet, Asian greens and lettuce seedlings are producing again.  

Magenta spreen is incredibly useful as not only can it stand up to wind, rain, and heat, but it continued growing even during the overcast wet weather leading up to the cyclone.

Once the cyclonic winds passed and before the intense heat began, I ripped out all the damaged and dying plants and replanted seeds of dwarf beans, carrots, parsnips, and kohlrabi into the wet and warm soil.  I also put in seedlings of Chinese cabbage and zucchini.

I have a selection of bathtubs which I use for making compost, so was able to put a good layer of compost on top of the soil into which I planted the seedlings.

The warm weather of March continues, with shorter sunshine hours, but you should be sowing seeds of root vegetables, peas and broad beans and putting in seedlings of brassicas, onions, Asian vegetables, leeks, silver beet, kale and celery. Brassicas take 120 days to maturity, so it is better to plant seedlings.

Autumn weather is usually settled, so if you have plenty of compost ready, put in a crop of potatoes which will take 70-80 days to mature.