Organic gardening: Action stations! Summer has arrived

Get planting now to take advantage of sunny summer weather. Photo / Supplied

Organic gardening: It's all happening out in the garden. Summer has arrived, night time temperatures have risen and it's all hands to the pump as plants spring into life. If your soil is good plants can double in size each week.

Now is the time to crack on like something possessed in the garden or finally act on that new year's resolution and start a vegetable garden.

Ripe for the picking
Asparagus, the last of the broad beans, carrots, spring onion , spinach, strawberries and the first of the cherries are all available from your garden.

In the veggie garden
As plants' growth is racing ahead it is important to keep their nutrition up, just like any athlete. I have a constant supply of fertiliser pellets, thanks to my rabbits. I just sprinkle their droppings around plants. A certified organic garden fertiliser I have been using lately with my tomatoes and strawberries is Fodda General Fertiliser. This product is made in Northland and contains natural rock phosphate, fish waste and seaweed. My plants are loving it; in fact whenever I walk past them they scream out for more!

You could also make your own homemade liquid fertiliser by placing fish skeletons (from the fish mongers), cattle manure, lawn clippings and comfrey leaves in a pillow case (one you don't want anymore) and placing in a large sealable plastic drum. Fill with water and let is stew for a couple of weeks and then sprinkle the diluted liquid over your plants. They will love it, your neighbours maybe not so much! (the comfrey can cause a stink).

Dig in any old spent broad beans directly into the garden bed. Their roots are chocka with nitrogen and you want that returned to the soil. I just lay the stalks on the soil and whack them into smaller lengths with a spade. Great to do when you are feeling stressed!

Plant seedlings/seeds of; beetroot, French beans/climbing beans, lettuce, pumpkin, chilli, courgette, eggplant, kumara, sweet corn and tomatoes.

The urban orchard
Stone fruit needs lots of water now as they develop their crop of fruit. Mulch around each trunk with compost and lawn clippings. Just be careful not to let this organic matter touch the trunk. It is also the time that codling moth becomes a problem for apple trees. An organic way to control them are with pheromone traps which lure the randy males to a sticky death! A spray of pyrethrum or neem will also help.

Citrus will also be flowering and developing new fruit. I happened to brush pass my trees last week and was greeted with a cloud of white fly! I am now at war with these little critters. I have been seen by the neighbourhood vacuuming my lemons! Yes you can actually suck the whitefly off your plants this way. Freeze the detritus and then gift to the worm farm. Another way is to get some laminated yellow card, spray with cooking oil and hang in the tree. Whitefly are attracted to yellow, go figure?

If this all fails make up a witch's brew by stewing garlic, chilli, and onions in a little water for an hour. Strain and add a dash of washing up liquid and spray all over the leaves.

Rabbits
A disease that is always on the minds of any rabbit breeder, farmer or pet owner is Rabbit Calici virus, sometimes known as Rabbit haemorrhagic disease. The virus causes haemorrhaging into their internal organs and is spread by nose to nose contact with an infected rabbit, by flying insects, on infected vegetation, bedding or food containers and even can be spread on the soles of shoes and car tyres.

There is no cure but a vaccination is available from vets. During spring it is most prevalent. Prevention includes keeping your rabbits isolated from wild populations and providing insect mesh over the hutches.

Worms
Some food that worms love that you may have not thought about before include the hair off hairbrushes (including the pets) paper tissues, even the boxes and the dust from your vacuum cleaner bag, then move on to another plant nearby. Hopefully their natural instincts will keep them safe but it is surprising the number of common garden plants which can be poisonous.

To be safe I only feed plants and grasses which I know and can identify. Here is a list of common plants that are poisonous to rabbits; buttercup; daphne; daffodil; eggplant; elderberry; foxglove; oleander; rhododendron; rhubarb; sweet pea seeds; tansy; tomato leaves; tulip; wisteria.

NZ heritage plants under threat
The Koanga Institute, a charitable trusts which has tasked itself with preserving New Zealand's rare heritage food plants, is under threat.

The institute has launched an appeal to raise money for the purchase of the neighbouring hill block, which has been earmarked for spraying to remove its native vegetation, something which the institute believes will threaten its 800+ seed lines and 400+ fruit tree and berry varieties.
Check out the appeal at bit.ly/1bKNZCz

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