FULL MOON – July 3rd
Garden
- Have a well earned rest – enjoy all that summer food and wine that was stored away in the autumn!
Temperate Forest Garden
- Mark strong clumps of bulbs or clumps that need to be dug and divided to dig later.
- Planting and pruning fruit trees, hedgerow trees, bee forage and shelter trees.
- Feed and prune feijoas now.
LAST QUARTER – July 10th
Garden
- Time for dreaming, resting, learning, planning and finding inspiration for the year to come.
- Do some learning, via books, workshops, or on-line workshops.
Temperate Forest garden
- Plant fruit trees.
- Prune fruit trees.
- Feed and prune feijoas (feijoas are pollinated by birds so need to be pruned from inside to be open).
- Feed and mulch all berry fruits, blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, logan berries and raspberries.
- De-sucker raspberries.
NEW MOON – July 18th
Garden
- Think carefully about what possible seed saving you might like to be doing over the next season.
- Now is the time to decide how important it is for you to be growing veges and fruit with a high nutritional density (bearing in mind that eating nutritional dense food will be the most sustainable way of staying healthy while taking care of the environment!!).
The only way to do that is to be growing them in a balanced, highly mineralised soil with high levels of microorganisms. Check out our recommendations here. - Organise your seed raising mix for the spring. If you’re making your own use 1/3 screened garden soil, 1/3 screened compost, 1/3 sand and then add 10% vermicast.
Perennials
- Time to plan your perennial garden, and get the seeds/plant material you will require.
Temperate Forest Garden
- Decide to deal with all pests and diseases in the orchard over the next year by: focusing totally on soil health which will give us tree health!
- Finish planting and pruning fruit trees.
FIRST QUARTER – July 26th
Garden
- Clean out tunnel houses, greenhouses and potting benches ready for spring planting – slugs and snails live under rubbish and things lying around.
- Repot and revitalise pot plants.
- Prepare beds for early potatoes, peas and broadbeans.
- Enjoy the last of your winter break.
Temperate Forest Garden
- If you are still planting be sure to do the best possible job of planting your trees, how you plant them will determine how much fruit they produce over their lifetime. See our Kōanga Planting Guide and also our Fruit Tree Health Guide.
- Feed and prune feijoas.
- Prune tie and de-sucker, manure and mulch if not already done berry fruits, blueberry, cranberry, blackberry, loganberry, raspberry, currants, etc. Pruning instructions for all berries are in Design Your Own Orchard.
- Once all planting and pruning, staking, manuring and mulching is done in the orchard, it’s holiday time. If you’re onto it, you’ll get a small break before the vege garden is full on!
- Before you have a break, remove all of the mummified fruit remaining on trees to get rid of disease for next year’s crop.
