Welcome to autumn and March in the Garden. It’s been very hot and mostly dry up here in Northland so we have been carefully monitoring our irrigation and watering requirements. With the hot days we’ve actually not been out in the gardens or food forest alot (so we don’t stress the plants out even more) so everything is looking a wee bit shambolic. We will do a big catch up in the garden and food forest as the autumn weather gives us a repreive from the long hot days (as wonderful as they are). Next season we should be much better prepared and ready to go, this year has just been super hectic for us with getting all the infrastructure in at the farm. This includes our 90m2 tunnel house which was supposed to be a ‘weekend’ job but has stretched out and we’re finishing it off as we get spare moments in our day.
During this abundant time, get harvesting and preserving so you have lots of fruit and vege ready for the winter months. Let some of your crops go to seed so you have seeds for next year. Just remember to label everything really well and store seeds in a cool dark place.
My biodynamic calendar didn’t arrive in time for this newsletter so I’ve just gone with my moon planting calendar which is still a great guide. My moon calendar is from Vital Harvest.*
March 1st – 7th
To begin the week, you may want to think about pruning to thin out your plants/trees to stop wind damage (before the winter storms) and maximise air flow to reduce fungal issues over the damper months. Be mindful as to what stage of growth your plants and trees are at as you don’t want to be pruning off any off any of next years buds or fruiting stems. You can start pruning off any dead, damaged, or diseased stems. I am going to wait for the next last quarter moon here in Northland as we are still experiencing some quite high temperatures and dry weather.
Towards the end of this week is time to sow all your root crops like beetroot, swedes, carrots, parsnip, potatoes, radish and onions.
March 8th – 12th
Dig and cultivate. This is the time to be out preparing garden beds, getting all those odd jobs finished, weeding (we don’t pull out our weeds generally, just cut them off at surface level), working out your planting plans and what liquid feeds you need to make or buy, ordering seeds as required, checking all your garden tools are clean, oiled, and in good condition.
March 13th – 22nd
The first quarter moon is the time to get into the garden and start sowing and planting anything that produces above ground. You can be sowing and planting things like Asian greens, blueberry, cover crops, citrus, broad bean, brassicas, celery, fennel, kale, leeks, parsley, feijoa, silverbeet, spinach, and spring onion.
This is also a good time for gathering cuttings for propagating and grafting.
The 21st and 22nd are the best days for applying liquid manures to your garden. I like to use products from the Tui Performance Organic range. I have been using the sheep pellets, seaweed tonics, and citrus and fruit fertilisers as we don’t currently have access to any organic animal manures. I have just found some info about ‘chicken poo tea’** so I will start saving our chicken poo in sacks and give this a try.
March 23rd – 29th
Full moon time means cultivating in the garden only. Great time for maintenance and tidying up. From the 27th to the 29th it’s time to start sowing root crops again – plants like beetroot, carrots, onions, parsnip, and radishes.
End of the month.
We will be heading back into the last quarter of the moon again (until April 5th) so it’s back to harvesting, cultivating, weeding, and pruning. This is when I’m going to get stuck into my food forest with a big chop in drop of the grasses in particular (our system is still quite young) and pruning for propagation material and general tidy up.
Happy growing and alchemy awaits you in the garden!
* If you want a copy of your own calander head over to Nicki’s shop https://www.vitalharvest.co.nz/shop. She also offers some great in-person workshops and permaculture services if you need some extra help with your garden project.
** HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN POO TEA (by thisNZlife)
Fresh manure can be used to make chicken poo ‘tea’ which can be watered around plants. The ratio should be about one-third manure to two-thirds water.
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place freshor partially-composted manure in a hessian sack or old pillow case
• immersein a drum or rubbish can, weighing the sack down with something heavy
• tie the mouth of the bag with string, leaving long ends which you can hang over the side of the container, then fill the drum with water
• you need to agitate the mix to aerate the contents and prevent the growth of anaerobic bacteria – use the long ends to dunk the bag up and down a few times, preferably daily
• let it mature for around 3 weeks
• remove the bag and transfer its contents to a compost heap or dig into soil; use the liquid to water around the base of growing plants as required.