Gardening in North Otago 18th May 2011

Not a bad week, once again North Otago missed all the bad weather predictions. Just enough wind to help dry the ground out a little and help finish off the leaf drop. I have too many leaves now and have been piling them in heaps in areas where they are out of sight and away from where the wind can lift them and spread them about. I will let them decompose in their own time and revisit them in a couple of years when I can then add as leaf mould to the compost heaps.
I guess because we are smack bang in the middle of compost making time that is what takes up most of my gardening time just now so I thought I would go on about compost, yet again!
Compost is humus made from organic matter, decomposed plants, manure, old stack bottom straw, anything non toxic that will break down.
Start a compost heap up against a wall or inside straw bale walls on bare ground, so moisture can be drawn up.
Start layering:
1. Animal manure, (worms are sure to work their way up if a fresh layer of manure has been spread on bare ground)
2. Grass clippings
3. Leaves
4. sawdust or straw (if you have on hand)
5. A sprinkle of lime between the layers.
6. Most important, water as you layer.
Repeat until heap is the size required.
The best time to do this is while there is still heat in the sun to enable the heap to heat up and start working. Winter is the only time to use hen manure which will assist in the heating.
Heaps of autumn leaves will not make compost without the addition of nitrogen in the form of green waste, the manure will bring needed worms and help create the heat needed.
If you have no room for a compost heap you an put leaves into large plastic bags, add a little fertiliser then leave them in a warm place. By spring you will have great leaf mould. Leaf mould is especially good for adding to the soil when planting vegetables and annual flowers.

My lawns have slowed down at last, I will leave the bare patches now and resow with grass seed in spring.
Lime and gypsum can be spread on lawns now, lime to sweeten and gypsum to soften hard compacted ground which has a lot of clay content. No more cracks in the lawn if gypsum is applied and watered in at this time of the year, for two or three years in a row.

Vegetables
Growing carrots is not always easy, the ground needs to still hold a little heat for them to germinate and continue to grow, if they stop and then start growing again the regrowth ends up as a hard core and the carrot stops growing down into the soil.
Carrot fly is also a problem which also attacks celery,dill,fennel,parsley and parsnip.
The pest overwinters as pupae in the soil or in old host plant roots. The adult flies are long and black with yellow legs and irridescent wings.
Females plants by smell, normally in the evening, laying eggs in cracks in soil adjacent to plants. Avoid thinning early evening as the female is attracted by damaged plants and plant carrots in a different spot each year.
Companion plants for carrots are lettuce, onions and tomatoes. never plant dill or parsnips beside carrots.

May 19th to 22nd is the time by the moon to plant garlic, board beans, cabbage, carrots, and spinach here on the coast.
Further inland forget about the vegetable garden apart from planting a green crop to be dug in and left to break down over winter.
Cheers, Linda.