Kem Ormond’s vegetable garden: October is planting time

October is the time to get out and about in the garden and start growing your own fresh produce.

Kem Ormond is a features writer for NZME community newspapers and The Country. She’s also a keen gardener. This week, she’s sharing the dos and don’ts of October gardening.

OPINION

Spring is certainly a wonderful time of the year and watching the new growth appear is nature at its best!

There is a lot happening in the vegetable garden, with plenty of planting to be done, areas to be dug over, compost to be spread, bean fences to get ready and more seeds to sow.

In some regions, you may have your garden already partially planted and seedlings ready to be transplanted.

A vegetable garden can give you so much enjoyment, as not only can it supply food for the table, but you can make pickles and relishes to give away for gifts and surplus produce can be shared with family and friends.

This year I have taken the time to grow most of my plants from seed, mainly because I have taken an interest in growing some heritage varieties.

Do not plant too soon

You need to be careful not to rush into your summer planting too early, especially when those sunny days start appearing!

I always use Labour weekend as a guide to start a lot of my planting and, if in an area that can get flash frosts, it pays to use some cloches in the early weeks for anything that won’t survive the frost.

You certainly need to wait until your soil temperature rises or your seedlings will just sit looking miserable.

You need to keep your garden productive by sowing or planting a new crop each week and replacing any gaps in the garden that have been created from a previous crop finishing.

By keeping your vegetable bed rotating all the time, it will lessen the chance of weeds getting a chance to take off.

Greenhouses, DIY grow houses and cold frames boost year-round vegetable garden productivity. Photo / Doug Sherring

You can directly sow dill, parsnip, carrot, rocket, radish, coriander and mizuna straight into the soil.

When it comes to tray sowing, I always tray-grow pumpkin, sweetcorn, cucumber, zucchini, climbing and dwarf beans, parsley, spring onions, brown and red onions, leeks, peas, sweet peppers, chillies, tomatoes and aubergine.

Beetroot can be sown directly into the ground or tray-grown, as with salad greens or spinach.

If you are short of time and growing seedlings is not your thing, pop to your local garden store, they have a wonderful range of seedlings and some even have some heritage varieties.

Ever thought of a heat pad to raise your seedlings?

If you decide to get serious about growing your own seedlings, an investment in a heat pad may be well worth looking into, it certainly will speed up germination.

Heritage/heirloom seeds

Heirloom or heritage seeds are open-pollinated and have been passed down from generation to generation.

They are true to type, meaning you can save seeds from a plant and expect to get the same thing when you plant the seeds next season — unless they are cross-pollinated by other plants in your garden.

New to vegetable gardening?

Raising your small plants in the warmth of a cloche or windowsill gives them a head start. Photo / Supplied

If you are new to vegetable gardening, I would recommend investing in a good vegetable-growing book: one that will advise you what to plant, when, how and when to harvest.

Yes, you can use the internet, but there is something about flicking through the pages of a book, writing little notes here and there and you can take it out to the garden with you.

Feed your soil

You can’t expect to take all the goodness out of the soil year after year without putting something back.

Everyone feeds their soil in a different way, some gardeners plant a winter crop that they dig into the soil, some add compost, blood and bone or worm tea and casings from their worm farm.

If you live close to a mushroom farm, they may sell mushroom compost - it is great and boy, the vegetable plants love it.

Try having a small compost bin tucked into a corner of your garden, so you have ready-made compost on the go all the time.

During the growing season

As summer is when we grow most of our vegetables, you need to watch out for slugs, snails, white butterflies and any leaf-eating insect.

There are some great cloches you can buy that will prevent damage from happening to your vegetable plants.

Make sure you keep your plants well-watered and remember to use mulch to help with moisture loss.

Growing frames

You will be surprised by what you have around your home that you can use to build climbing frames.

Long bamboo sticks are perfect to make into frames for your beans, cucumbers, peas and the like.

I have seen beans, peas and even cucumbers growing up an old umbrella frame.

Have a good scout around, you will be surprised by what you can find and use.

Preserving and drying

When you have worked hard producing vegetables, you want to make sure you don’t waste any of them.

You are of course going to have a surplus, so bottle, freeze, preserve, dehydrate and turn into jars of deliciousness.

You will be all set for the cooler months and think of the savings to be made!