Author Archives: Innermost

Tips for Spring time planting.

September 22, 2011 by Innermost | 0 comments

Now is the time to plant your seeds: Capsicums, chilli’s, tomatoes, leeks, cabbages, lettuces and salad greens, basil, coriander, spring onions are all goodies for October.

Seedling need sunshine so grow them in a sunny spot. When you plant your seeds into seed trays it can be a good idea to put damp newspaper over the top of them until the seed sprouts. (you need to check each day as you will stunt the plant if the newspaper is still over the top when it starts growing.) The important thing is to keep your seed trays damp, a small amount of water each day is ideal.

When the seedlings are large enough to plant out 4-6 weeks later, it is a good idea to soak them for 10-20 minutes in a seaweed tea or we sometimes use biofeed compost tea, this help them to get over their ‘transplant’ shock, and gives them some extra nutrients for strong growth.

Vegetables need a minimum of 6 hours of sun and 8- 10 is ideal so chose a sunny spot to plant them.

To prepare the bed for a spring planting it’s a good idea to dig it lightly to aerate it after winter and mulch it with fresh compost. If you don’t have a compost bin at home, now is the time to start one. The compost from all your food scraps is invaluable for your vegetables once it’s been composted down. This is a great way to recycle.

When you plant your seedlings it is important to ‘firm’ them in, that means making sure the soil you place back around the stem is tightly compacted down. This help the seedling to have a better foundation and enables it to grow strong roots quickly.

As the weather is always topsy turvey at this time of year, putting the cut off tops of large juice or milk bottles over them, works like a mini glasshouse and concentrates the sun that they receive. With milk bottles you can cut the top of the handle and put a stick down through it to stop the bottle blowing away. You need to lift these when you are watering to ensure that they still get water regularly.

If you only have space for some containers the vegetables that do best in containers are: Tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums, beans, salad greens and herbs.

To grow Capsicums, eggplants, and chillis successfully in Wellington these really need to be under a cloche throughout their growing life as they need a lot of heat to grow well. If you have a small tunnel house to grow these and lots of sunshine you can get some great crops from these. We have been making tunnel houses out of bamboo and recycled plastic from the Sustainability Trust – check out our facebook page for images.

Carrots, beetroot, radishes, pumpkins, zucchinis and potatoes can be directly sown into your garden in Spring, we have had more success with this in early November when it is a bit warmer.

Happy Gardening. With a little bit of attention it is amazing how much food you can grow in just a small amount of space. Have fun and enjoy eating all your fresh veges!

This gallery contains 0 photos

Fruit Tree Planting on Sunday

August 16, 2011 by Innermost | 0 comments

TreePlumSantaRosa

TreePlumSantaRosa
TreePlumSantaRosa

We have Fruit Tree Planting at Mt Vic on 10-2 Sunday the 21st. We dug all the holes a couple of weeks ago, so its the easy work now. We’ll be putting seaweed, compost, some nutrient enrichment’s and a fruit tree into each of the holes. There will be a shared lunch about 1. Most the food comes from the garden but a few bits and pieces to complement is always appreciated.

The following Saturday August 27th 10-2pm we will be back in the Newtown garden.

This gallery contains 2 photos

The Rhizome Effect – Urban Food Hui

August 16, 2011 by Innermost | 0 comments

Innermost recently co hosted ‘The Rhizome Effect Urban Food Hui’, this was a world cafe event to discuss how to grow the urban food sector in Wellington, the questions asked where ‘what working?’ ‘What links can we make to strengthen the sector?’ and ‘If you had $100, 000 to grow the urban food sector in Wellington what would you do?’It was a fun and fast event and everyone left with a smile on their face, here is a link to a write up about it:

http://www.newswire.co.nz/2011/08/urban-gardeners-get-together-to-work-together/

This gallery contains 0 photos

Garlic

May 14, 2011 by Innermost | 1 Comment

This year we are experimenting with planting garlic in mid to late May. The rule of thumb is the shortest day, but from the advice and research we have done, May seems like a good time to plant Garlic in Wellington. Guess I’ll let you know around Xmas how it goes.

The Tuesday gardeners at Newtown planted the first batch on the 10th. Which was probably a bit too early but it fitted into what we were doing and decided to try. To do this we cleared and dug over the bed – we are usually no dig gardeners but garlic likes well aerated soil. We then dug in compost, we have brew of seaweed fertiliser on the go, so we poured some fertiliser in with this.

The garlic bulbs were planted with the bigger end, which attaches to the bulb, about 4-5 cm under the soil and about 15cm apart. They are planted at such a distance so that they can grow roots and not entwine themselves with their neighbours. We then mulched around the bulbs.

Garlic needs full sun,  well aerated soil, to get regular fertiliser whilst they are growing as they are ‘big feeders’ and to be mulched to keep weeds etc to a mimimum.

One of our concerns is the Wellington rain, the ground can get so sodden and the bulb will rot. I have heard of someone who plants her garlic in August to miss the really wet period. However all our beds are raised, we hope that this will keep the garlic well drained.

On Sunday 1-4, rain allowing, we will plant a crop of garlic at Mt Victoria using all the same techniques. If you are around we would love to have you come and help out.

This gallery contains 0 photos

The Lowdown on Fertilisers

May 11, 2011 by Innermost | 1 Comment

Here is some basic info on fertilizers. We have a problem with White butterflies and as well as spraying the plants to protect them from bugs, we need to build up the soil. Its been suggested we use a mix of 6 part lime, 5 parts soft rock phosphate and 3 parts gypsum. Thought I’d check out what these do along with seaweed, as we put some down about 6 months ago……

Seaweed Soil

* Prevents soil borne disease and unlocks the soils own micronutrients.
* Builds up plants own immune system and encourages vibrant healthy growth.
* Excellent for plants under stress

Seaweed/kelp can contain 60 trace elements, many growth hormones, and disease control properties in it! Basically every nutrient that any surface plant can ever need!

Seaweed is also an excellent food source for beneficial fungi in the soil.

When seaweed, or indeed any undecomposed organic matter, is put into the soil, it is attacked by bacteria which break down the material to decompose it. To do this the bacteria needs nitrogen, and they take this from the soil. This means that after seaweed has been added to the soil, there is a period during which the amount of soil nitrogen available to plants is reduced. During this period seed germination, and the feeding and growth of plants, can be inhibited to greater or lesser degree. This temporary nitrogen deficiency is brought about when any undecomposed vegetable matter is added to the soil.

Soft Rock Phosphate

Soft Rock Phosphate is highly soluble and is perfect for soils that have been depleted of minerals. It is a great addition to any soil lacking this vital mineral.

Some web site suggests using bone meal instead as:
Bone Meal is not only easier to find, but also it is already being produced as a byproduct of the beef industry. Rock phosphate is mined.

Lime

Lime is ground limestone. It raises the pH of soils (to be more alkaline). It also adds calcium to the soil, which can make stronger plants.

Ideally, lime should be applied only after you’ve had your soil tested and the results require an application of lime. Because too much lime can have negative effects on our drinking water and it can damage plants when over-used, the yearly application of lime is not a very good idea. If you are not willing to get a soil test, then reducing your lime application to once every other year is a good compromise.

Keep the dust off plant leaves. Always err on the side of caution. Water well so that the lime doesn’t burn the leaves of plants.

Lime takes a long time to work it’s way into the soil. It works slowly; you won’t see result for a while.

Gypsum

Gypsum is one of those rare materials that performs in all categories of soil treatment, as an amendment, conditioner and fertilizer.

Amendment

  • Corrects soil alkalinity, lowers high pH conditions.
  • Counteracts acid soils, raises low pH conditions.

Conditioner

  • Generally improves soil structure and tilth. Creates friable soil and builds deeper top-soil.
  • Breaks up soils compacted by its two worst enemies – sodium and clay, compounded by farm animals and machinery.

Fertilizer

  • Supplies needed calcium nutrient and strengthens cell walls, making plants and trees more resistant to insects and disease.
  • Provides necessary sulfur nutrient.
  • Amends nutritional tie-up and makes essential nutrients more available, such as nitrogen, phosphate, potash, iron and zinc.

Water Savings

  • Gypsum promotes water infiltration, retention and conservation
  • By allowing water to penetrate the soil without forming puddles or water logging, gypsum conserves water by stretching intervals between irrigations

 

What You Should Know about NPK and Fertilizers

Chemical fertilizers and organic fertilizers show their nutrient content with three bold numbers on the package. These numbers represent three different compounds: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash (Potassium), which we can also describe with the letters N-P-K. The three numbers listed on fertilizer labels correspond to the percentage of these materials found in the fertilizer.

What does each nutrient do? In addition to other properties,

  • Nitrogen helps plant foliage to grow strong.
  • Phosphorous helps roots and flowers grow and develop.
  • Potassium (Potash) is important for overall plant health.

Be aware that high nitrogen fertilizers will make for quick growth but weaker plants that are more susceptible to attacks by diseases and pests. Fast, showy growth is not necessarily the best thing for your plants.

It is clear that Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium are not necessarily the most important elements you need for your plants to grow well. In fact, elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, magnesium, copper, cobalt, sodium, boron, molybdenum, and zinc are just as important to plant development as N-P-K.

This gallery contains 0 photos

Uses for Red Clover

May 11, 2011 by Innermost | 0 comments

Red-Clover

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

It is widely grown as a fodder crop, valued for its nitrogen fixation which increases soil fertility. For these reasons it is used as a green manure crop. Several Cultivar Groups have been selected for agricultural use, mostly derived from var. sativum. It has become naturalised in many temperate areas, including the Americas and Australasia as an escape from cultivation.

Red clover restores and balances hormonal function and nourishes the uterus. Red Clover contains isoflavones (estrogen-like compounds) which promote estrogen production and which may enhance fertility in women and boost estrogen levels in women with estrogen deficiencies. In addition, the Red Clover contains calcium and magnesium which can relax the nervous system and improve fertility. Traditionally, Red Clover has been administered to help restore irregular menses and to balance the acid-alkaline level of the vagina to promote conception.[1]

The isoflavones (like irilone and pratensein) and phytoestrogens from red clover have been used to treat the symptoms of menopause.[2] It has also been reported that red clover has been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, such as bronchitis, burns, cancers, ulcers, sedation, asthma, and syphilis.[3]

This gallery contains 2 photos