It’s easy to grow produce in NZ, but especially if you are in the North Island. If you don’t grow your own produce, plan for next spring now.
My Auckland garden has very poor soil, and a previous owner skimmed off the top soil when the house was built so we have been left with very heavy clay soil. That being the case I grow all my produce in containers.
I found a source where I could buy 200 litre barrels for $10.00, cut in half give me two 100 litre containers. I also buy containers from either Warehouse Stationary or the Warehouse depending on which has the best price. They are the type that has different bright colours and two handles. Just drill some holes for drainage underneath. Some of my containers are now 5 years old and they are still fine in spite of the Auckland sun.
In the 15 litre container I grow lettuces, parsley, coriander, basil, and capsicum. The larger sizes are 30, 42 and 60 litres. I use the largest for tomatoes and they will also hold 3 capsicum plants and potatoes in winter.
In summer I grow lettuces, herbs, silver beet, eggplants, beetroot, courgettes, strawberries, beans, chilli, tomatoes, capsicums, beetroot, snow peas, cucumber, bitter melon, rock melon and beans. I grow three types of tomato, Roma (acid free and great for cooking), cocktail (which has tiny salad tomatoes great to freeze), and beef steak.
In winter I grow silver beet, potatoes, broad beans, pak choi, coriander, baby carrots and lettuce. If you find a sheltered corner you should also be able to grow parsley.
The containers are too small to grow cabbages or broccoli so I buy them. I have a greenhouse so I can grow tomatoes including Sub Arctic Plenty, which was apparently grown in the poles so it is very hardly indeed, and also capsicums. I grow as much as I can fit into the greenhouse in the 15 litre, 30, and 42 litre containers.
I also have a compost bin and use that every 6 months to top up the containers. When on sale I buy bags of sheep pellets and blood and bone, usually it’s on sale in the off season, and I stock up for when it’s needed. I add both to the soil and only do a complete refresh every 3 years to stop any diseases. Potting mix is also stocked up when on sale.
Following on from the above, growing in containers does mean that you need to water more often, but I have a solution for that!
Hubby worked out a system at little cost to redirect the water from the down pipe into my 200 litre containers which are used for watering the garden, as well as things like washing windows, outside of house and cleaning the car.
Our system enables us to collect the water and when the barrels are full it goes back to the down pipe.
It was the purchases for collecting water that gave me the idea of halving them for my plants.
We have a two story house so we invested in a water pump from Bunnings for about $150 so the water can be used on both levels of the house.
Just before Christmas we purchased a 1000 litre barrel from trade me so now have 2000 litres in total to use.
Thanks to cyclone Lusi I harvested 1800 litres (in less than 24 hours!) which was very timely as I was about out of water.
In the peak of summer I use about 200 litres a day so I am saving heaps of money collecting for free what would only go out to sea.
There are 3 of us, and our water bills are between $34-$40 a month in summer, now saving us a lot of cash.
We discipline ourselves to a 5 minute shower, sufficient time we think and we shower daily.I have a dishwasher but stopped using it. Our water bills are now about half the cost they used to be especially in summer when I have all my containers full to use.I think the water pump has already paid itself off!