With the official spring season less than a month away there’s plenty to do in the garden. It’s time to start thinking about preparing and planning for spring planting, including sprouting seed potatoes to ensure a Christmas harvest. August is also the perfect time for a winter tidy up. Leading up to spring there’s plenty to do in the vege garden from planning your crops for the coming season, preparing the soil, and planting some cold hardy vegetables.
Most potato crops take about three months to mature, so your seed potatoes need to be in the ground in September at the latest for a Christmas harvest. So now its an important time to prepare your vegetable garden for this crop. Start off by ensuring that the soil has plenty of great organic matter. To maximise and to greatly enhance the organic matter include some organic humate. As you are now most likely all aware, humate is up to 20x more potent than regular compost so a little goes a long way. If you have a compost bin for example, blend humate in with this at the rate of approximately 8-10%. One of the key benefits of humates (and there are numerous!) is that the carbon in the humate is a form of carbohydrate – this feeds the fungi and bacteria giving them sustenance which then accelerates the whole composting process.
Another task in August is to start seedlings indoors: Many vegetables can be started from seed such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Use seed trays or small pots filled with seed-starting mix. Mix some organic humate into the seed tray to fast track the young seedlings. Trials done recently have clearly illustrated that by mixing humate into seed trays improves not only the germination but also the seed strike. Als remember to keep the soil moist and provide adequate light.
Protect from frost: In colder regions of New Zealand, frost protection is essential. Use frost cloth or cloches to cover tender seedlings during cold nights. Avoid planting frost-sensitive vegetables until the risk of frost has passed.