SEPTEMBER 2022

FIRST QUARTER 4th September

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 greenhouse to promote strong roots, healthy growth, and loads of microbial action, if they looks as though they need it. They will not if planted into amazing alive seed raising mix, commercial mixes, even organic ones don’t do it. Maybe add your own vermicast to them and seedling inoculant
  • Preparation of garden beds very important – apply 2cm of compost to all beds just before planting, forked into top few centimetres, along with a good all-purpose organic, highly mineralised and microbially active fertiliser EF: Nature’s Garden is a good one.

Perennials

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Make sure all citrus trees are well manured and mulched and you have a watering system in place for them
  • Foliar feed 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

FULL MOON 10th September

Garden

  • Foliar feed seedlings to promote strength
  • Sow carrots, beetroot, parsnip, turnips 3 days after full moon
  • Transplant the last of your onion sets
  • Continue bed preparation and compost heap making
  • General tidy up weed, mulch

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Foliar feed any trees you think might need the extra strengthening, or health promotant
  • Finish mulching
  • Organize hoses and watering systems this month!
  • finish chopping and dropping or making ramial woodchip with prunings to return to forest floor

LAST QUARTER 18th September

Garden

  • As your garden beds begin to dry enough to work in them, pull out compost crops, make compost heaps
  • Prepare beds by either double digging, U Barring or forking
  • Apply Biophos if no phosphate has gone on for several years or if a soil test recommends it
  • Build cloches ready for early veggies
  • Take good care of seedlings
  • Get slug and snails under control
  • Harvest and dry nettle
  • 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.

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 now

NEW MOON 26th September

Garden

  • Loads of pricking out seedlings as needed
  • Continually preparing beds as weather and moisture levels allow
  • Plant all summer flowers requiring heat for germination i.e. Sunflowers, morning glory, gaillardia, Princes feather, zinnias, cosmos, marigold, love lies bleeding, tithonia, nasturtium, and dahlia
  • Plant all main crop veges (beans, cucumbers for pickling and eating, summer squash, pumpkins, tomatoes) into trays and prick out and transplant as ready
  • Plant lettuce, tampala, rocket, mibuna, basil, and all other summer greens and veges requiring warmth into trays and prick out and transplant as required
  • Plant your grain crops into trays but broadcast sow over the entire tray leaving enough room for the seedlings to grow for 3-4 weeks and then transplant directly into the beds at diagonal spacings recommended on the seed packets amaranth, quinoa, millet, sorghum. Or direct sow into beds as described on Kōanga seed packets
  • Grains can be direct sown (scatter sown or even sown in rows) into beds but you will have to cover from the birds and getting the density optimal is quite tricky. The spacings recommended on our packets are many years of experience to obtain maximum yields.

Temperate Forest Garden

  • Last chance to sow seeds and ground cover herbs under fruit trees before it dries out