Lessons I Learnt From Last Spring/Summer 2009

The herald of spring last year was an exciting time for me, it was a culmination of years of hard work and I have to admit I was stressed and excited all at once…

I was time to get productive for my first growing season, and now it’s over and I have had time to sit back and digest how things went.

I would like to share with you some of the lessons I learnt along the way, some lessons you will only learn from experience.

Overall it was a really great time and the kitchen garden is STILL producing for us and I have patted myself on the back, several times, for a job well done and as spring is meant to be here, I will be doing certain things a little differently this season.

So what lessons did I learn:

Old Seeds:
I am afraid to say the majority of seed I purchased from a ‘popular’ New Zealand organic garden didn’t germinate. I found the seeds lying where I sowed them. I have a feeling they were old and perhaps not stored correctly. After all, in the case of a retail outlet, if they are not on the shelf you cannot sell them.

Collecting and storing seed requires careful handling.You need to ensure you gather your seed from the best heirloom plants, remove them from the plant correctly, dry them throughly.Then you need to store them in a cool, dark place in a paper envelope away from any mice that may need a winter feast.

This year I have sourced the seeds I have lost or ones not germinated from Kings seeds, who over the last year or so have fantastically, increased their range of heirloom seed. I have brought from this supplier for two reasons:

i) I know the seed will be fresh and stored in vacuum sealed foil packets

ii) They have a huge variety of new varieties imported from overseas and this means a new gene pool.

We are desperate for new heirloom gene pool in New Zealand, since 1990 we have not been allowed to replenish our any of our seed with seeds from overseas, due to MPF’s strict regulations.

The rest of the seeds I will be sowing I have saved myself, so I only have myself to blame!!!

Chicken and Bird Raids
This was another reason for non-germination, the little darlings stole my capsicums, aubergines and sweetcorn. My fault for thinking I could keep the chickens out of the kitchen garden they helped create…NO!!

I put stop to the garden birds stealing the seed with wire netting put over the beds like cloches, but the chickens were more determined. So, they now have a beautiful coop with a big free range area where they cannot get into (or out of) any trouble.

I am putting a compost processing area around the sides of half of their area, this gives them a ‘job’ to do and they do make great weed free compost and I will put in some horse manure for them to process.

I have also planted two grape vines, on red and one green, into two separate tyre stacks at opposite ends of the ‘work area’. The idea behind this is to grow the vines up wooden posts and along wooden roof struts. This keeps the chickens from escaping over the walls and gives them some shade. And the vines will be protected from the garden birds and sun by shade cloth. Great idea if it works…

They have flax, comfrey, grasses etc for shade and to attract bugs, they have a huge grassy area, (grass makes the yolks the brightest orange) and finally, it’s win win for me, I can actually FIND the eggs! YAY!!

How To Use Seed Beds
I used my empty red asparagus bed as a seed raising bed late spring and mid summer. This allowed me to plant seeds directly into the ground as I was running out of room to put the seed trays, as I hadn’t got my glass house up and running then.

I sowed the seeds in wide bands across the bed, I includes a wids variety of mainly ‘winter’ vegetables.

I found this worked well, it has given me the confidence I needed in handling very young seedlings, I have built up confidence with interplanting several varieties in one bed, and I cna guage the room mature plants need.

The only thing I will say is, I just left some of the transplanting very late. I just found getting around to it a little difficult, but, I did and we had a great supply of cabbages, Brussels sprouts and carrots to see use through the winter.

Seed beds can be used to germinated seedling that can be carefully transplanted and to grow cultivars that take more than a few months to mature and cannot be successfully transplanted, like parsnips.

It kind of makes up for what some gardeners call ‘wasted’ space, I don’t know why they call it that, any space that grows food cannot be a waste??

Related posts:

1. Going Organic Your Questions Part One Organic produce, like fruit and vegetables have become big business,...