How to protect your garden during the summer holidays - Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden

Make sure you mulch well to lock in moisture and prevent your harvest from withering away. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Kem Ormond is a features writer for NZME community newspapers and The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she’s mulching and watering, keeping her vegetable garden cool.

OPINION

Summer is a wonderful time to watch everything in your vegetable garden come alive. It’s also the time you’ll be wanting to go on holiday, but you won’t want all that hard work over the past few months to sizzle up and die.

In my household, it is always a concern because wind and sunshine can really dry out your vegetable garden.

While having a good neighbour who will come over and water while you are away is ideal, sometimes that’s not possible.

Some of us may be lucky enough to have an automated watering system, but when water restrictions kick in, as they already have in some parts of the country, we need to turn to alternative methods to keep as much moisture in the ground as we can.

I am a huge fan of mulching.

The main reason is because it can reduce evaporation from soil by up to 70%.

I have written before about the chop-and-drop method I use to help put goodness back into the soil, but it can also help to keep the soil moist over summer.

I am doing quite a lot of weeding at the moment.

I pile those weeds up along the already-planted seedlings.

I have used saturated newspaper which I cover with mulch or compost, depending on what I have available, to keep the soil cool.

Keep surfaces covered by plants and mulch as often as possible to get the best from your soil. Photo / Meg Liptrot

Depending on how you garden, there are other options available.

These include the choice of vegetables you plant in the heat of summer, using shade cloth strung over your vegetable plot, using organic materials such as compost, wood chips, or straw, or even adding a layer of cardboard or shredded paper.

Adding mulch on top of any of these will help secure it and avoid it blowing away.

When watering, it pays to do it early in the evening, as this is the most efficient use of water and means it has the whole night to soak into the ground.

You need to water deeply to encourage plants to put their roots down looking for moisture, which in turn makes them stronger and less susceptible to drought.

Water early in the evening to avoid leaves staying wet overnight and leading to fungal diseases in the vegetable garden like powdery mildew.

Watering too late at night means foliage may not have time to dry, leaving them susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases.

Collecting water from your roof or recycling your grey water is also something you should consider.

There are some great small water tanks available that are quite easy to install, and you will really appreciate that extra water when restrictions come into force.

On a final note, although this is wavering the context of from my vegetable garden, here’s a tip if you have special plants in pots that you are concerned might dry out.

If you have one of those plastic storage bins you keep your chair squabs in; line it with polythene, put enough water to cover the bottom and place your pots into this.

Make sure you position it out of the sun.

It works a treat – I have tried it with orchids and came home to happy well-watered plants.

Remember your hat and sunscreen when out in your vegetable garden. Those rays of sunlight are ready and waiting!