Preparing the soil is essential for a successful vegetable crop. Photo / Supplied
If your vegetable garden is not already active, now is an ideal time to begin.
As well as the enjoyment and satisfaction of harvesting your own produce, there are also economic benefits to growing your own vegetables. Not to mention the proven fact that all vegetables are more nutritious when they are eaten fresh.
When preparing for a vegetable garden, the first step in ensuring success is preparing the soil. The removal of weeds is imperative. If the area is infested with oxalis, paspalum, couch or another invasive rhizomatous spreading-type weed, you will need to use a systemic weedkiller to ensure thorough removal of weeds; otherwise you will likely have a losing battle with your vegetable garden. Many weeds can be successfully cleared by hand and even dug into the soil, creating more organic matter. If you are unsure whether the weeds you have are invasive, you can bring in samples to the garden centre and check with the staff.
Depending on the soil type, the addition of mushroom compost or poultry compost is highly recommended. A balanced fertiliser, such as Ican Organic Vegetable Food, is also a great product for use prior to planting and as a side dressing later.
These products will help with soil structure and fertility which need to be addressed regularly for a successful vegetable garden. Vegetables take a lot of nutrients from the soil so ongoing regular additions of products such as compost, Tui Sheep Pellets and Ican Organic Vegetable Food will replace these as well as produce a more friable soil suitable for vegetable growing.
Most vegetables prefer a neutral pH to alkaline soil - pH 7-8. It is recommended to dust the soil annually with garden lime to maintain the slightly alkaline soil and improve the soil structure. An alkaline soil increases the availability of many nutrients in the soil and makes them more readily available for plant uptake.
Vegetables plant now
Cabbage: Plant in full sun in well-drained fertile soil. Purple leaves are a sign of being short of nitrogen – feed with a sprinkle of Ican Organic Vegetable Food or Yates Dynamic Lifter.
Kale: This has become recognised as a "superfood'. Its requirements are like other brassicas (cauliflower, broccoli etc). It matures in 60-70 days and can be used cooked or fresh when finely chopped into salad or coleslaw.
Broccoli: An easy vegetable to grow. Plant in full sun in well-drained fertile soil. Be wary of slugs, snails and caterpillars. Broccoli matures to its best in 40-70 days, faster than cabbage and cauliflower. Plant 30-45cm apart. Most broccoli will continue to produce an abundance of shoots after the main head has been harvested so don't be hasty in pulling out the plants.
Cauliflower: Plant in full sun in well-drained fertile soil. Like cabbage and broccoli slugs, snails and caterpillars can be a problem but are easily treated with slug pellets and derris dust. As your cauliflowers start to develop, snap some outside leaves over the heart to prevent burning and discolouration from the sun.
Celery: The flavour of homegrown celery is hard to beat. Plant 20cm apart, water and feed regularly. Matures in 100 days.
Lettuce: A number of varieties are available including the hearting and frilly varieties, which you can harvest a leaf at a time, allowing the remaining plant to keep growing. Lettuce can be grown in pots and troughs if you are limited in space, and of course in the garden. Plant in fertile well-drained composted soil or potting mix. Space 30cm apart, water and feed regularly. Good also in a glasshouse.
Spinach: Has become very popular. It grows easily like silverbeet and will be ready to start harvesting in 6-8 weeks.
Silverbeet: A very tough vegetable that requires little attention. Also in stores is a coloured selection that has stems shaded red and yellow. A colourful addition to the vegetable garden and often grown in the flower garden, these varieties taste the same as traditional silverbeet.
Carrots: Best grown from seeds and sown directly into the garden. They like to grow in nitrogen-poor soil, so a good tip is to plant after a crop of lettuces or other varieties that will have depleted the soil's nitrogen levels. This is the same as with growing parsnips. Avoid using fertilisers with high nitrogen levels, which will cause the carrots to "fork".
More that can be planted now and is available in stores include onions, spring onions, garlic, parsley, coriander, celeriac, rocket, spinach, mizuna, chinese cabbage (tatsoi), broccoflower and chicory.
Tomatoes and other heat-loving summer vegetables, such as capsicums, chilli, courgettes, cucumber and pumpkins, are all available at garden centres now. Many people are planting these out now into glasshouses, cloches, pots and in sheltered parts of the garden where protection can be given from any late frosts and cool overnight temperatures.
For those with more exposed garden, wait a week or three to plant your first tomatoes, depending on weather conditions and soil temperatures. Generally in Whanganui, the last week of September is regarded as a safe time to start planting tomatoes outside. The same timing applies to beans and corn, which are best sown directly into the garden where they are to grow. The most common failure with beans is from sowing too early when the soil is not warm enough.
Vegetables in pots
A great way to get vegetables growing before the weather is warm enough for outside planting is to start them off in pots. Try growing an early tomato in a pot. It can be a great way to get ahead of the game and allows you to move it inside if the weather turns cold.
Growing vegetables in pots is great if you are limited in space. Container vegetable growing is increasing in popularity with specialist potting mixes available, such as Tui Vegetable Mix for general vegetable plants, as well as specific blends such as Tui Strawberry Mix and Tui Tomato Mix.
The key to growing in pots is watering and feeding. When the plants are getting large and the roots have filled the pot, a warm day will quickly dry them out. At this point, the addition of a saucer to the bottom of the pot can be of help, or simply half-submerging the pot into a garden bed so it can suck up water from the surrounding soil through the drainage holes.
As the plant is limited to the nutrients in the potful of mix, these can be quickly exhausted. Fertilising little and often, reducing the opportunity for the leaching through of nutrients, gives the best results.
So give it a go, growing your own vegetables is rewarding and fun.
For more gardening information visit www.springvalegardencentre.co.nz.
• Gareth Carter is general manager of Springvale Garden Centre.
Landscape architect Brittany Smith took out the senior title.