Jules suggests growing NZ native spinach vine plants. “They are a little-known vegetable that is really fast growing, provides huge volumes, keeps weeds down, and is incredibly delicious. Simply pluck the leaves from the vine and it continues to sprout. Three to four plants will easily keep a family fed for the winter. It grows […]
Jules of Napier writes: “Save seeds from supermarket or market purchased vegetables. If the seeds are moist such as tomato, pumpkin etc, space them out onto paper towels or toilet roll sheets. Write the date and variety on the paper. I love checking out farmers markets for unusual varieties of vegetables that contain seeds to […]
Trish from Tauranga says, “To keep slugs and snails away from newly planted seedlings, just make a small flat container out of tin foil and put 3 or 4 slices of cucumber on it. The cucumber and tin foil together seem to give off an unnoticed smell which slugs and snails don’t like. I put […]
Those living off the smell of an oily rag are usually keen gardeners – because fresh is best, it’s a great way to save money, and it can be a very fulfilling. So let’s head off into the oily rag garden, to show that it’s never a bad time of the year to be active […]
Carole from Auckland writes, “I have had a worm farm for a number of years now – in an old Auckland Council recycling bin (and on this matter the Council should be ashamed of itself with wheelie bins discarded and abandoned on sites around Auckland City – I could name a few which could be […]
Annette from Auckland asks, “How do I get rid of whitefly in my garden?”
We have received a great letter from Karen in Northland who has worms, well, we mean keeps worms, in her garden, to make compost and liquid fertiliser for the vege patch. Karen says it’s much better than putting kitchen scraps into the compost bin because the worms do the work and the by-product is much […]
With spring in the air it’s a good time to start seedlings for the garden. A reader has this suggestion for re-using egg cartons. “Fill with top soil and use to propagate seedlings. When the seedlings are ready to plant, cut the carton into portions. The cardboard will disintegrate and the plant will not suffer […]
Spring is a good time to think about starting a garden so you can enjoy the harvest for Christmas. Here are some tips. An oily rag garden need not be any larger than six or seven metres square (it actually can be a lot smaller). It would have four or five garden beds bordered with […]
Those reusable fabric bags from the Warehouse and the like are just the thing for storing potatoes in. They let the air through which helps keep them fresher for longer.You can also fill a bag with a 50-50 mix of compost and peat moss and plant a couple of seed potatoes in them if you […]