Gardening – Real wealth starts in the backyard

New research is simply telling us what many of our grandmothers and great grandmothers have always known – even without having heard the word nutrition, that there is a connection between growing and eating good food and healthy living. Hopefully, your vegetables survived the weather bomb we experienced on November 11 with the horizontal rain and wind gusts of over 100kph. 

Luckily, I had my exposed vegetable beds well mulched with compost, seagrass, chicken manure and piles of grass clippings, so the huge amount of rain we had should have soaked down into the soil very well. All this organic fertiliser is vital for providing the micro-nutrients needed in the soil necessary for human health. As my garden is no-dig, the organic matter will improve the soil structure while feeding the soil microbes that need a slow and steady diet of essential minerals, while also providing a moist growing medium.

If your water tanks are full and your garden soil well soaked, now is the time to get those summer crops established. Build some structures for the beans and cucumbers to climb.  Stake the tomatoes and plant the corn. Try some of the new corn varieties available like the Blue Hopi corn that I have planted.

Zucchini, watermelons, peppers, chilli and eggplants can be planted now and will benefit from the moist soil as well as the summer heat. And, if you have room, also plant some kumara slips. Turmeric and ginger will provide you with an interesting crop, when buying the roots for use in the kitchen, look for some that are sprouting and plant them in a warm sheltered spot. Need a new plant to catch the children’s imagination? Try peanuts, sunflowers, spaghetti squash, or get some of the Lady Godiva pumpkin seeds and grow your own pepitas.

Nature has been keeping a balance between insects and plants over thousands of years without the use of synthetic chemicals and remember, pesticides were developed as an off shoot of the chemical weapons developed in war. They are now found in water, air, the ground and our food, not only killing insects but also toxic to our environment as well. So, plant up a beneficial insect garden, plenty of cleome, flowering herbs like thyme, sage, lavender, and let some of your winter vegetables go to seed like turnips, rocket, and parsnips. Not only will they attract the beneficial insects that eat many of the pests, but also the seed eating birds will follow, and they also eat some of those pests which provide their high protein diet.