Lately the crates heading up to the Pataka Kai have been bursting with greens, cabbage, cauliflower, silverbeet and spring asparagus.
A new vegetable that has been appearing in the garden is the green and red leafy radicchio. This is a cool weather vegetable common in Italy and other Mediterranean countries. It has a slightly bitter and spicy taste and can be eaten raw in a salad or cooked in a variety of ways. Many of the winter vegetables are now being cleared as they do not form well in the hotter weather and they attract the white butterfly.
We have been hearing that the farmers’ professional organisation’s have been issuing advice on how to prepare farms for the extreme hot and dry weather conditions due this summer. Most importantly for gardeners, no soil should be left uncovered. Bare soil will become dry and hard, unable to hold water. The community garden is fortunate to have access to a lot of compost. This can be used to mulch around plants and spread over the soil. We also get given fermented grasses and hay that become too old for farm animal s to eat. These materials, spread around the garden, protect the soil and also allow water to get to the plants.,
At our homes we can use lawn clippings finely sprinkled on our gardens, or newspapers spread around and held down with wood or clippings. Remember we need our mulch to allow water to get to the plants. The mulch will help to retain the water and keep the soil and its inhabitant’s alive and well when the heat strikes.
Summer requires us to add much more water to the garden than winter. Now is a good time to seek out buckets and watering cans for the collection of water for your home gardens. Put a bowl in your kitchen sink and collect rain water rather than letting it run down the drains and out of your sections. Also get a large bucket and put it in your shower to collect as much water as possible to carry out to your watering cans for the garden.
Keeping the vegetables growing in the summer will involve a lot of energy and physical exercise. So, as well as getting the health benefits of nutrition and fibre from the veges, we will also get the benefits to our bodies and brains from the activity of gardening.
Te Kauwhata Community Garden
