NEW MOON
September 3
Garden
- In warmer areas time to plant early vege to be planted out under cloches, e.g. courgettes, bush and dwarf tomatoes, early cucumber and beans, beetroot
- Do loads of weeding and compost making
- Get a copy of the Koanga Booklet The Art of Composting to ensure your compost is capable of growing soil and nutrient dense food,or do our online Making Great Compost workshop
- Feed 3 days before full moon if necessary
- You should be beginning to take out all compost crops and preparing beds for major plantings next month or so
- Make sure you have a good plan for how you will nourish your soil and your plants this season to ensure you are regenerating the soil, the plant health and your health.. If you aren’t then you are degenerating all three.. Time to make a choice.. maybe time to get your copy of Koanga Booklet How To Grow Nutrient Dense Food or Online Workshops Growing Nutrient Dense Food and Make Your Own Fertiliser
- Check out these amazing Koanga Heritage Crop Guides for pumpkins, tomatoes, beans and corn to help you select the best cultivars for your garden this spring
- Sow seed into trays of early spring flowering plants, sweet pea, calendula,
- Plant loads of early Spring vege seeds, into trays ready to prick out when first leaves appear..lettuce, coriander, parsley, purple leaf mustard, ruruhau, tatsoi, Red Coral mizuna,, corn salad, Miner’s lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, kale
- Scatter sow into trays, ready to plant into garden as soon as they have any sign of green tips appearing, peas, broad beans,
- Direct sow rocket under bird[protection in the garden
- Scatter sow ( last chance) onion seed into trays onions (onions need to stay in tray until 10 cm high)
- Sow ( last chance) eggplants, peppers in an even warm place. These seeds really need 20 degrees day and even nights to germinate well. I recommend you build a small plastic cloche, over a seed tray with these seeds in it, inside the green house.. or wrap your seed tray in bubble wrap plastic
Temperate Forest Garden
- good time to chop and drop tagasaste, tree lupins in warmer areas, as they finish flowering
- last time to plant fruit trees or support species, great time to plant legumes
FIRST QUARTER
September 11th
Garden
- Sow any seeds you missed last week and take good care of all seedlings
- Watch for slug and snail damage, may need to do some night patrols
- Prick out all seedlings as they emerge; as soon as second leaves appear
- Weekly feed seedlings in the greenhouse to promote strong roots, healthy growth, and loads of microbial action, if they look as though they need it. They will not if planted into an amazing alive seed raising mix, commercial mixes, even organic ones don’t do it. Maybe add your own vermicast or compost to them and seedling Inoculant, or BioBrew
- Preparation of garden beds is very important – apply 2cm of compost to all beds just before planting, forked into top few centimetres. Check out our Growing Nutrient Dense Food online workshop or even the Make Your Own Fertiliser online Workshop
Perennials
- Plant your potatoes now ( they are perennials but we grow them as annuals)
- Plant your globe artichoke seed now
- Plant asparagus seed now
- Plant Welsh bunching onion seed now
- Plant Alpine Strawberry seed now
- Begin preparing your perennial beds now
- If you already have established perennial beds then NOW is the time to make sure they are all mulched and fed ready for late Spring production!!
Temperate Forest Garden
- The magic happens this month with everything beginning to go green
- Make sure all citrus trees are well manured and mulched and you have a watering system in place for them
- Foliar feed if necessary, 3 days before full moon
- Buds will break this month , energy of the trees is coming up into the tops
- Good time to chop and drop tagasaste, tree lupins , as they finish flowering
- Finish chipping all prunings and spread ramial wood chip around to feed fungi
- Geese and ducks will be nesting now, and chickens laying well
FULL MOON
September 18th
Garden
- Foliar feed, but check BRIX’s to ensure that the spray you use is actually making a difference that is positive. If necessary feed seedlings to promote growth , or water seedlings with Fish Hydrolysate 20:1 or simply do a weekly soil drench with Fish Hydrolysate at 100:1 to give the microbes a boost.
- Sow carrots ( in warm areas only) beetroot into trays (scatter sown), parsnip (direct sow into beds in warm areas only) , and , turnips direct sow into garden 3 days after full moon
- Transplant the last of your onion sets
- plant early potatoes now, and decide whether you will hill them up as they grow or mulch them heavily instead
- Continue bed preparation and compost heap making
- General tidy up weed, mulch
Temperate Forest Garden
- Finish mulching,
- Organize hoses and watering systems this month!
- finish chopping and dropping legumes or making ramial with prunings to return to forest floor
LAST QUARTER
September 25th
Garden
- As your garden beds begin to dry enough to work in them, pull out compost crops, make compost heaps see Koanga Art of Composting Booklet or online Composting Workshop
- Prepare beds (see online Bed Prep Workshop)
- Be clear about how you are going to nourish your soil and plants see Growing Nutrient Dense Food Koanga Booklet or the online Growing Nutrient Dense Food workshop as well as the Make Your Own Fertiliser Workshop
- Build cloches ready for early veggies
- Take good care of seedlings
- Get slug and snails under control
- Harvest and dry first nettle harvest
- Prepare and plant new asparagus beds
- Prepare kumara beds. They prefer shallow soils with a hard pan 20-30cm under the surface, so do not double dig these beds.
- prepare place for your Runner beans ( perennial beans Phaseolus coccineus as opposed to climbing beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) They ;likecool roots and lts of mulch. They come from the rain forest!
- prepare potato beds for main crop potatoes
Temperate Forest Garden
- Good time to plant citrus
- Mulch all young trees before the grass is competing for moisture and nutrients
- Divide and re-sow primroses in the orchard herbal ley (also polyanthus).
- Plant support species like the evergreen legumes and nitrogen fixers now