The November Garden

So far this month I have turned my surplus of cabbages into fermented sauerkraut. (This is my excuse for being a week late with my posting.)

This may be the busiest time in the garden, harvesting spring crops, seeds for saving and getting prepared for summer. All the hot season crops are going in now, the zucchini are thriving already, finished spring crops are pulled out and fed to the chickens. The other important task is to feed everything and to mulch now before the weather heats up and the rains start – this will protect the soil and nutrients. Hopefully we won’t have a repeat of last year’s torrential downpours. To prevent losing my crop of carrots this year I decided to plant them in a deep planter box filled with organic soil.

Many herbs and vegetables are flowering now and setting seeds which I will save for next year. So far I have collected broccoli, kale, daikon, marigold, echinacea, purple cauliflower, beans, snowpeas and broad beans. 

Nigella – Love-in-the-mist

Gardening Guide (following Moon Planting)

☽ Waxing Moon 3 November at 2:39 am

Sow direct: eggplant and sweet corn.

Sow or plant out: capsicum, tomato, watermelon, bush and climbing beans, rockmelon, spring onions, summer squash, zucchini, African and French marigold and verbena.

Sow direct: pumpkin, cosmos, nasturtium and sunflower.

Prune: climbing roses, ramblers and species roses after flowering.

☺ Full Moon 11 November at 6:17 am

Sow direct: radish and sweet potato.

Chamomile

Sow or plant out: passionfruit, pawpaw, dandelion, lemon grass, banana, pineapple, beetroot (pre-soak seed), carrot, pyrethrum, watercress, banana passionfruit, pelargonium, bromeliad, gerbera and frangipani.

Take cuttings of rosemary, thyme and watercress.

Harvest crops for storage on non-fertile days.

☾ Waning Moon 19 November at 1:10 am

No sowing or planting this phase, but weed, dig or plough, prepare beds and prune back unwanted growth, if required. Check roses and citrus for ‘suckers’.

Prepare beds for: a late crop of potatoes.

Dill

☻ New Moon 25 November at 4:11 pm

Sow or plant out: sweet and purple basil, parsley, spring onions, African and French marigold and verbena.

Sow direct: cabbage, lettuce, silver beet (pre-soak seed), NZ spinach (pre-soak seed), cosmos, nasturtium and sunflower.

Grow a green manure or cover crop of adzuki bean, cowpea, lablab, pigeon pea, soybean or millet. ln suitable soils, grow amaranth, mung bean, Japanese millet, or sorghum.

On damp soil, apply fertiliser tea to: young rhubarb, melons sown in October. Also to cabbage, lettuce and silver beet and young passionfruit, if necessary.

Apply seaweed tea to: young grapes, citrus. Apply at half-strength to kiwifruit.

The April Garden

The new fence and gate for the vegetable patch is almost finished

Since ‘Blaze’ the Rhode Island Red rooster arrived, I’ve been letting the chickens free range most days and had to build first a provisional, then a permanent fence around the vegetable patch. My first lot of winter vegetables are in the ground and more seedlings are on their way. This month I’ll also cut back the asparagus growth, feed and mulch the patch and plant some herbs around the edge, until the green asparagus shoots reappear in spring. The asparagus was the first planting I placed when I moved here eight years ago because the crowns have to gain strength for a few years before they produce decent shoots for harvesting. Now they return each year with little attention apart from a good feed once a year.

Strawberries planted alongside red raspberries in a raised container

The strawberries need some preparation this month too. I have to replant runners from last years plants. As last year, I’ll plant them in soil mulched with paper and straw and the two red raspberry vines in the centre will continue to use the vertical space at the same time (and contain the running raspberry roots to stop them from invading the garden).

Apart from this, this month will see more cabbages, cauliflowers and lettuces go in. The intermittent rain keeps moistening the ground and the Snow Peas and Sweet Peas went in today as seeds and seedlings to turn the lovely new fence into a green trellis.

Mini greenhouses for my seedlings

For the newly planted brassicas I find a little greenhouse-cover stops the snails and bandicoots from taking advantage too early and also keeps the little plants warm and moist.

Gardening Guide (following Moon Planting)

☻ New Moon 4 April at 12:33 am

Sow direct: cabbage, headed and open Chinese cabbages, grain crops, lettuce, mizuna, radicchio, rocket, silver beet (pre-soak seed), spinach, tatsoi, coriander and nasturtium.
Sow or plant out: celery, leek, spring onions, parsley, calendula, cornflower, pansy and viola, Iceland poppy, snapdragon, statice, verbena, bulb fennel, chamomile, annual lupins, stock and sweet pea.
Grow a green manure or cover crop of strawberry clover, cereal rye, Japanese millet, oats or triticale. In suitable soils, grow fenugreek, vetch, amaranth or buckwheat, grow chickpea, faba bean, field pea, white clover or wheat.
On damp soil, apply fertiliser tea to: young mango and pawpaw, also cabbage, celery, leek, lettuce and silver beet, if necessary. Apply at half-strength fortnightly to spinach, until thinned.
Apply seaweed tea to: mango, lemon grass. Apply at half-strength to strawberries planted in March.

☽ Waxing Moon 11 April at 10:06 pm

Sow direct: fast-maturing broccoli, grain crops, peas, snow peas and nasturtium.
Sow or plant out: leek, spring onions, chamomile, ageratum, aurora daisy, calendula, cornflower, nemesia, pansy and viola, Iceland poppy, snapdragon, statice and verbena, broad beans, chamomile, annual lupins, nigella, stock and sweet pea.

☺ Full Moon 18 April at 12:45 pm

Sow direct: carrot, radish, swede.
Sow or plant out: yarrow.
Plant: lemon grass, strawberries, pineapple, carnation, gerbera, frangipani and evergreen trees, shrubs and vines.
Divide chives, pyrethrum, gazania, shasta daisy and take cuttings of rosemary and thyme, early-season onion, turnip, garlic, olive, lavender, lemon balm, mint, rosemary, thyme, watercress, globe artichoke suckers, beardless iris, camellia, herbaceous perennials and potted roses.
Lightly fertllise: globe artichoke, also Hawaiian hibiscus and mature pawpaw in the north.
Prune: cut back globe artichoke. Remove unwanted suckers. Cut back herbaceous perennials as they die down, and divide, if necessary. Tidy up pelargonium except for scented leaf, if necessary.
Harvest crops for storage on non-fertile days.

☾ Waning Moon 25 April at 12:48 pm

No sowing or planting this phase, but weed, dig or plough, prepare beds and prune back unwanted growth, if required.
Prepare beds for: asparagus and deciduous planting.
Mulch: globe artichoke and herbaceous perennial bed with compost and/or manure after aerating.