Your to-do list for the Autumn Garden
Minette Tonoli is a herb enthusiast and horticulturist, a true Earth Mother, who gets excited about sharing her love for the plethora of food and medicine plants she grows and uses at her home acre in Waikuku.
Garden tasks this month
While there may still be some produce to harvest from summer crops, most warm season annual edibles have done their duty for this season. Clean up and feed empty garden beds before sowing or planting cold season crops. Mulching helps keep in soil moisture, and keeps plant roots safe from surface frosts.
PLANT OUT SEEDLINGS: Cauliflower, Celery, Collards, Florence Fennel, Kale
SOW SEEDS: Corn Salad, Lettuce, Mizuna, Mustard, Pak Choy, Peas and Snow Peas, Radish, Shallots, Spinach, Turnip
PLANT: Garlic
PLANT OUT SEEDLINGS IN WARMER AREAS: Kohlrabi, Leeks,
PLANT OUT SEEDLINGS OR SOW SEEDS: Onion, Silverbeet
Sowing and Planting
The Canterbury region is rather large, with quite a few different climate zones scattered about – even the microclimate in your own garden can make a difference, so be sure to use the following as an ideas list only, and check seed packets or seedling labels for more information specific to your exact growing conditions.
Top Tip:
Plant garlic early! You can plant your garlic into prepared beds in May. Many growers have found that starting garlic earlier than the traditional “shortest day” in June, means that by the time pesky rust issues lay the plants low in summer, when it comes to harvest time around Dec/Jan, the heads of garlic have well-formed cloves and are of a better size.
Did you know?
Tomatillo, Physalis ixocarpa grows well in Canterbury. This annual makes green (or purple) tomato-like fruit encased in a papery “lantern”, similar to groundcherries aka Cape Gooseberries (just bigger). Harvested before the frosts, the fruits can be roasted to perfection and blended with other key ingredients like chillies, garlic, onion and lime to make Salsa Verde.
Herbs, Flowers and Fruit
Herbs that can be planted now include chives, coriander, mint, oregano, parsley, rocket (warmer areas), rosemary, sage and thyme.
Flowers for the veggie and herb gardens to plant in May are calendula, cornflower, phacelia, poppies and viola. Bareroot roses are in store soon for winter planting, so prepare beds for new roses.
If you still have not put in your spring flower bulbs, this is probably the very last chance to get a good show this coming season.
A good number of fruit trees and berry bushes can be planted in May. Look out for delicious cultivars of apples, pears, citrus, feijoa, raspberry, blueberry and strawberries. Remember to check pollinator partners if your fruit tree needs cross pollinating. Bareroot fruit trees should start appearing in garden centres soon.
Top Tip:
It’s always better to plant more than one blueberry – even the ones that are self-pollinating will end up giving a far greater yield if they have a pollinator partner.
Final thought
Before raking up all the leaves from your deciduous trees, or ripping out spent flowers, take a moment to investigate the critters that may live in your garden that need those leaves or twigs as hide-outs over winter or who perhaps lay their eggs in the leaf litter. Biodiversity is important in an organic garden.