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A Year in my Garden, Hamilton (2026)

10/06/2020

It is wonderful when a garden can feed us but what about feeding all the other critters that share our space. This is a tension, as sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough to go around. For me the challenge are those snails that can make a meal of all your seedlings in one night.
On the other hand when we create diverse garden environments and diverse crops there is more chance that an equilibrium is achieved so you can get healthy harvests with fewer losses.
This year the persimmons took a hammering from all the birds and I had to pick most of my crop early. I still left plenty on the tree and was rewarded with plenty of white eyes and even a tui. I remembered that when we want urban biodiversity we have to plan for it even in our gardens.
It is wonderful when a garden can feed us but what about feeding all the other critters that share our space. This is a tension, as sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough to go around. For me the challenge are those snails that can make a meal of all your seedlings in one night.
On the other hand when we create diverse garden environments and diverse crops there is more chance that an equilibrium is achieved so you can get healthy harvests with fewer losses.
This year the persimmons took a hammering from all the birds and I had to pick most of my crop early. I still left plenty on the tree and was rewarded with plenty of white eyes and even a tui. I remembered that when we want urban biodiversity we have to plan for it even in our gardens.

02/06/2020

Carrots
I really like to have a continuous supply of carrots and have found that a mid summer sowing can provide me with carrots for most of winter. They grow very slowly over winter and as long as the garden bed is not too wet, the carrots sit there happily and can be harvested as needed. I used to choose a carrot cultivar that was quite short and stubby but now prefer Scarlet Nantes. They are long and uniform and seem to cope very well with my haphazard thinning regime, they taste good too.
Carrot germination can be tricky and slugs and snails are an absolute challenge as they can munch through all your tiny seedlings in one evening. I have found this method from Koanga a really helpful to help with the germination and growth. I try to avoid the slug bait and if I do use it, I choose Quash and ensure that none is scattered in the open for other animals and birds to eat.
https://www.koanga.org.nz/growing-tips/growing-tips-apiaceae/

28/05/2020

This is the time of year we enjoy roast vegetables. All those crops are harvested now to provide us with warm energy rich nourshment for the winter. In this meal the garden has provided us with kumara, chokos, Jerusalem artichokes, kuri pumpkin, tomatillos, and pink fir apple potatoes all tossed about with olive oil and our own garlic. Yum!

27/05/2020

Many years ago I sowed some tomatillos. They grew very successfully as an annual, seeded down and I have had them ever since.
Tomatillos are from the same family as Cape Gooseberries, with a papery husk round the fruit. The plants are similar in growth to tomatoes, will cope with cooler weather than tomatoes and are happy spreading themselves around. The fruit swells to fill the husk as they ripen. They are not demanding in the garden and provide another crop in autumn that I haven’t had to work for.
Tomatillos are the key ingredient in many fresh and cooked Mexican dishes providing that tart flavour in green sauces and are the main ingredient of green salsa. To be honest I haven’t really found a recipe that uses the amount that grows wild in the garden. We add them to red kidney bean casseroles and absolutely love them in roast vegetable medleys. Just throw them in whole with plenty of olive oil, garlic and rosemary, roast vegetables are my go to warm and filling winter dish. The tomatillos often stay whole and are a wonderful burst of tart and caramel, offsetting the heavy flavours of the root vegetables

26/05/2020

Jerusalem artichokes are another perennial vegetable that is ready to be harvested in autumn. The artichoke name can be confusing and there are plenty of ideas around explaining it came to be named. The Jerusalem artichoke is a relative to the sunflower and in March this family resemblance is obvious as the artichoke grow 2m tall with multiple yellow daisy type flowers. It looks very dramatic at the back of my section. I have often picked some flowers to bring their cheer inside and they have lasted well in a large vase.
In May the flowers have gone and you are left with thick brown stems, each one sign posting a bountiful crop of roots ready for harvesting. The roots are creamy brown and if you have a nice cultivar, smooth and easy to wash. We love Jerusalem artichokes roasted, they develop a creamy slightly nutty flavour, we also add them to stir fry and if you only lightly cook them I think they have a similar texture to water chestnuts. When raw they are a sweet crunchy addition to salads.
One of the reported benefits of the artichokes is that they are good for gut health. They contain inulin, a carbohydrate which isn’t digested by us but by our intestinal microflora. Sadly the gut bacteria repay us by producing plenty of gas. This is not welcome by most and some of us are afflicted more than others. I am not going to confess my afflictions but my experience is to be very wary of your first meal of the season and do not over indulge. After a few modest meals of the tuber the gaseous effects seem less disturbing.
Jerusalem artichokes are very hardy and will grow from any small tuber left in the ground. I don’t want them to spread so I have a contained garden and I only compost any peelings or discarded tubers after they have spent a few days in the freezer. You can harvest the tubers over winter as they seem to store well in the soil, by August the tubers are starting to sprout again for spring. I recommend growing Jerusalem artichokes and if you want some to eat or grow please contact me.

19/05/2020

Chokos
I think they are amazing, ready just when all the other cucurbits, like zucchini and cucumbers have finished for the year. We love them in stir-fries, roasted with a medley of other vegetables and raw with dip or in salads. I even call them winter cucumbers. It is a shame that they are not held in such high regard by lots of people because they are so easy to grow. Well they could even be considered too easy to grow, even verging on noxious w**d territory. They are a rambling vine that seems to take all summer to get going and then in late summer threatens to take over your whole backyard. If we were organised we would train the vine over a very large structure but instead it creeps over fences and trees. The fruit grow and ripen mid to late autumn and once the fruit has started you can harvest a bucket worth every third day! Then when you think all is lost and you have run out of people to give chokos the frost comes and the vine dies right back to ground. The leaves and stems are easily composted. Before long I have forgotten and forgiven the choko for its rampant and prolific habits and in summer the cycle begins again. This year we have decided that we will need to shift the plant and build a frame…we will see.

18/05/2020

Don’t be too quick to decide that your seeds won’t germinate! I gave up on these cornflower and chives and put them aside. Thankfully I didn’t toss them out! Germination times are just a guideline, cornflower seeds are 7-10 days and its obvious these cornflowers took a lot longer that. The chives looked as if I had very poor germination but when I looked more closely, I noticed that many of the seed is just starting to pop up, so they are just doing their own thing in their own time. Some seed seems to be able to wait until the conditions are favourable. This makes sense when you think about a seed dropping to the ground and waiting there until the next growing season. That is what happens every year for my annual endemic crops of corn salad and miner’s lettuce. In winter they germinate, grow, flower and seed down. By spring, the plants have all disappeared, the seed has fallen and waits dormant in the ground until the following winter when they will germinate and start the cycle again.

15/05/2020

Winter is the time to prune your fruit trees. For many of us that is a daunting task. While you don’t have to prune, I believe there are some good reasons to attempt a yearly prune. Firstly most of us don not have huge spaces to grow our plants. Secondly all our trees, shrubs and canes benefit from removing, what I call the THREE Ds – Diseased, Dead and Deformed. From there it is only another step to prune to increase fruiting and desired shape.
The Waikato Permaculture Collective has created this resource that you may find helpful or at least encouraged to experiment, as they say, trees given enough time are very forgiving. As for me, I am still learning from my mistakes but I still get plenty of fruit and have trees that are pruned short to suit my lack of height! https://mailchi.mp/6c3848d1464c/growingfoodathome-1357728

14/05/2020

It's not too early to plant garlic. Plant early and avoid the rust! Well that is what we are hoping to achieve

We used to plant our garlic mid year but because of garlic rust we are now planting early May. This year it was 2 May! Already we can see the sprouts.

Garlic wants well drained soil rich in compost and enjoys a monthly addition of blood and bone or worm wees. In September we stop feeding to encourage the bulbs to swell. Unlike my other beds we keep the garlic bed well w**ded as they don't like competition. This year, due to lock down and poor planning on our part we only had our garlic from last season to plant. It is a hard-neck heirloom variety but we have forgotten its name. We chose the biggest healthiest cloves. This requires discipline, as the rule of thumb for seed saving is, don't eat the best but save it for planting!
Stuart is convinced that the wet Waikato spring encourages rust, so he will be creating a little clearlite shelter for the beloved plants, later in the season. For us onions and garlic are one of the few crops we just cannot grow enough for our needs. This year we are doubling our crops of garlic, shallots, bunching onions, and potato onions. I have also been given 3 plants of Egyptian walking onions and I am very interested in how they fare.

14/05/2020

All you need are a few fruit trees and some hardy vegetable perennials and you can feed yourself and your friends. Though you may need to convince your friends about the deliciousness of Jerusalem artichokes and chokos.
https://www.vegetables.co.nz/vegetables-a-z/chokos/
https://www.podgardening.co.nz/jerusalem-artichoke.html

13/05/2020

In winter there is less to plant and everything slows down but it is the time to enjoy what has been stored away or preserved. Do you think 13 jars of pickled jalapino will last us through to next year?
https://cookfasteatwell.com/pickled-jalapeno-recipe/

A Year in my Garden

10/06/2020

02/06/2020

28/05/2020

27/05/2020

26/05/2020

19/05/2020

18/05/2020

15/05/2020

14/05/2020

14/05/2020

13/05/2020

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