Ask Wellington: spring gardening?
Sometimes we at the Wellingtonista must admit that even we, strange though it may seem, do not know everything about our fine city (and in this case, its climatic peculiarities). So periodically we must call upon the mighty and erudite collective wisdom of our readers to fill in the gaps.
Many of you may have noticed the arrival of springtime, if only to observe the marginally warmer temperatures, a sustained breeziness, and an increased rate of sneezing experienced between your front doors and that of your air-conditioned workplaces. But not all of you fall into this category, and it is of you in particular we are enquiring today.
You see, some in the Wellingtonista (and again, this may be a little shocking) live in the suburbs. And some of us actually have areas of flat ground reserved for the growing of things that can be eaten (it is true that some apartment-dwellers have a couple of terracotta pots on their balconies for the same purpose – the following may apply to them too), called “vegetable gardens”.
And so the question we have for you today is: What should we be planting in our “vegetable gardens” right now?
We suspect that potatoes are good at the moment. But we wonder: what else is good, assuming that it’s both legal and tasty? If we were to get planting this coming week, what’s best?
Answers, please, dear readers.
If you want to get some seakale in the wellington region you may be out of luck I have seldom seen any except once in Seatoun. However the council has planted a big display of colourfull curly kale at the bottom of Taranaki st as you drive past Rialto look to your right. Its tough and fibrous you are better off with silverbeet.
Peas, broadbeans, bok choy, silverbeet, beetroot, all brassicas, carrots, parsnips are all go at the moment.
Imagine my surprise to see a photo of my own veggie patch on this blog as I was searching for Eco Seeds today! My parter took this photo back in the summer when you actually needed to spray water from a hose (seems like a crazy thought this week). In my late winter garden at the moment is a heck of a lot of sprouting broccoli, lettuce, silverbeet, radish and I just put some peas in. Ooh, and I put some garlic cloves in a couple of weeks ago and they are already like 10cm high! At my kids school we just planted some broad beans that are looking very healthy. And just did some Jersey Bennies in buckets – hoping for a xmas harvest.