LAST QUARTER May 1st
Garden
- Double dig or prepare all remaining beds for winter crops or compost crops
- Empty chook straw yards onto garden and give chooks fresh material for the winter
- Manure brassica beds as they are gross feeders
- Pick and store main crop apples, pears, potatoes, kumara, pumpkin and dried beans
- Clean out kikuyu barriers
- Transplant last seedlings
Perennials
- Prepare strawberry beds for May planting, they do very well with ramial woodchip as mulch or pine needles
Temperate Forest Garden
- Feed the fungi and microbes in the soil now to ensure tree health next season, with ramial wood chip, and or fert, compost, mulch
- Great time to inoculate ramial wood chip with King Stropharia mushroom spawn, so long as no chickens around to scratch it all up
- Tie up boysenberries, loganberries, blackberries and raspberries
- Trim blueberries and Chilean cranberries
- Begin collecting fallen leaves to make chicken manure compost in the chicken house, leaf mould, hot beds etc.
- Great time to chop and drop and also make ramial wood chip
NEW MOON May 8th
Garden
- Prepare garlic, shallot and tree onion beds if you are doing May planting, and compost well, make sure the beds are very free draining. These crops are heavy feeders and require high amounts of calcium and phosphate , so either ensure you have bone sh or char in your compost and add regular Fish Hydrolysate
- Turn over any last beds to carbon/compost crops This is a good month for bed preparation to help avoid stress in spring. The better your compost crops do, the healthier the soil will be in Spring and th emore compost material you will have available to make compost.
- Direct sow rocket, Asian Greens mesclun Mix, Miner’s lettuce,corn salad, ruruhau, Borecole, Mustard lettuce and mizuna under cloche to eat as fresh salad greens (mesclun) over winter
- Sow violas, pansies, heartsease, poppies and snap dragons for Spring flowering
- Last chance to plant carbon/ compost crops
- Plant broad beans into trays and transplant when first leaves appear in very warm areas only
- Last planting of brassicas now – broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauli etc for early Spring transplanting
- Transplant last of the winter veges and flowers
Perennials
- Now is a good time to go onto the Koanga website shop to order perennials like potatoes ( perennials but grown as annuals), garlic, perennial alliums, strawberries etc before they run out
- Prepare beds for strawberries and transplant
Temperate Forest garden
- Great time to chop and drop evergreen legumes and nitrogen fixers
- Last chance to plant Perennial Patch Seed mixes in beds or Forest Garden/Orchards
- Last chance to get drainage, fencing, shifting of compost and mulch in preparation for tree planting next month done
- tree paste tree trunks
FIRST QUARTER May 15th
Garden
last chance compost/carbon crops for winter
- Plant strawberry runners
- Plant winter salad greens under Microclima or cloches or cold frames
- Transplant flowers for early spring flowering, heartsease, snap dragons, calendula larkspur, love in a mist, hollyhock
- Feed all brassicas, celery, beetroot salad greens that need it while the soil is still warm and active
Temperate Forest Garden
- Compost or mulch citrus well now
- Clear drains now to facilitate good water flow in winter
FULL MOON May 24th
Garden
- Feed three days after full moon if required
- In warmer areas this is the last chance to sow carrots and beetroot before spring
- Plant Garlic, Tree Onions, Shallots, Potato Onions (or in early August)
- Make compost heaps with all the Autumn carbon, weeds and material available to be ready for your Spring garden.. remember to add Bone ash or bone char if your compost inputs are coming from your garden
Temperate Forest Garden
- Finish planting spring bulbs
- Begin wrenching any trees for shifting this winter after the first rain, wrenching one side only this month
- finish chopping and dropping any evergreen legumes and nitrogen fixers, ready for the Winter Coppicing and dropping or chipping
LAST QUARTER May 31st
Garden
- In warmer areas last chance to weed beds and prepare for winter, transplanting last seedlings or sowing the last compost crops
- Cover compost heaps to avoid water logging over winter
- Make sure all chooks, ducks and small animals have adequate housing for winter, and ensure you are only keeping breeding stock or laying birds over winter. The rest should be in the freezer now
- Drag out your cloches and cold frames to cover salad crops or keep them growing over winter
Perennials
- Plant strawberries if not already in
Temperate Forest Garden
- Second root wrench now in preparation for removing any fruit trees that need taking out before it gets too wet
- Begin preparing ground for planting fruit trees next month
- Make sure any necessary orchard fencing is finished before planting starts
- Finalise winter planting plans and tree orders or you’ll miss out on the trees you really want
- Good time to plant support species if you have them now