Landscape designer and gardener Anna Dadson has some great advice for getting your garden ready this spring. Photo / Jenny Ling
Landscape designer and gardener Anna Dadson has some great advice for getting your garden ready this spring. Photo / Jenny Ling
Today marks the first day of spring. To celebrate the change in season reporter Jenny Ling caught up with Northland landscape designer Anna Dadson to learn about getting the garden ready.
Preparing the garden for spring isn’t just about “getting the job done”, says Dadson.
The Kerikeri resident takesan ecologically sensitive approach to gardening, using permaculture and regenerative agriculture principles to produce sustainable yields.
Labour Weekend signals the prime time for planting, when morning frosts have abated and soil temperatures have warmed, but Dadson reckons with Northland’s warmer climate now is a great time for green-thumbed residents to put some vegetable plants in the ground.
But first, she encouraged people to “observe and interact”.
Through her business Abundant Landscape Design, she also runs workshops in seed sowing, fermenting, soil health, and syntropic farming principles.
She and her partner, videographer Simon Ogston, moved from Auckland to Kerikeri in 2019.
Anna Dadson uses permaculture principles to get the most out of her vegetable garden. Photo / Jenny Ling
They have a diverse range of fruit trees on their acre of land, including mature persimmon, apple, and plum trees, and an almond tree whose nuts are “so delicious”.
Her vegetable garden has, like most, been left to its own devices over winter, waiting for the emergence of spring.
Soon it’ll boast beetroot, leeks, parsnips, silverbeet, and potatoes, and in summer there will also be pumpkins, tomatoes, basil, zucchini, and beans.
She’ll also grow edible weeds like nasturtium, chickweed, herb Robert, selfheal and viola.
According to Dadson, it all starts with healthy soil.
“Winter is about rest and storing our energy, the garden can wait.
“Then spring emerges, and I’ll experience sparks of inspiration, heightened energy and want to garden more.
Prepare garden beds with compost or manure such as horse poo or sheep pellets. Fork it into the top 15cm of soil then cover with weed-free mulch and plant into it as soon as possible.
Give trees a light prune;
Fertilise fruit trees with seaweed, organic fertiliser, or a light sprinkling of manure.
Tend to your existing ‘green manure’ crop; plants like lupins, clover, oats, or mustard improve soil fertility and health. If you want to put a garden to rest as part of crop rotation, put in a green manure crop now.
Spring is a great time to propagate, so grab your secateurs and take cuttings from friends.
Plant pollinators; flowers like cosmos, calendula, allisum, and zinnias attract bees, parasitic wasps, moths and butterflies.
Dadson also suggests sitting in different spots in the garden at different times of the day.
“Enjoy rediscovering your garden; being in different places, and you’ll see it with fresh eyes.
“It’s having a relationship with nature, asking ‘how do we work together on this and have sensitivity?’.
“Slow down and be present ... it’s not just about getting the job done.”
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.
