LAST QUARTER April 2nd
Garden
- Prick out all the emerging seedlings for winter garden
- Transplanting, weeding
- Check grain crops (quinoa, amaranth) for bird damage and maturity and harvest if necessary. If ready to harvest lay in a warm place in the greenhouse to finish maturing before threshing and winnowing
- Watch drying corn for bird and rat damage, leave on plants to dry as long as possible then harvest and put in dry warm place to finish drying. You could pull the husks back and tie in twos and hang over loops of strong string to dry
- Harvest and process peppers, tomatoes and basil. Keep the best to save seed
- Harvest main crop potatoes, saving egg sized tubers from the best plants for a seed crop
- Harvest dried shellout beans and put in greenhouse to dry until crunchy when they can be jumped on and separated from pods
- Harvest hulless pumpkin but do not remove seeds for several weeks
- Finish lifting and transplanting spring flowering bulbs
- Lift and plant rooted carnation layers in pots or fresh beds
- Prepare ground and sow new lawns
Temperate Forest garden
- Check all young fruit trees and shallow rooted trees for moisture stress such as citrus, feijoas
- Feed citrus trees now, and soak in
- Summer prune last of the stone fruit which makes job easier in winter and there is less chance of disease
- When harvesting fruit check all trees for size of crop, disease, other problems, so you can think about changes that need to be made over the winter
- Shift nets over trees where fruit is ripening
- Pick up all fallen fruit (or let chooks/ducks/pigs eat it) to avoid bugs over wintering
Berries
- Thin inside growth of gooseberries and currants
- Cut out old fruit rods of loganberries, black berries, boysenberries and raspberries, and tie new growth up
NEW MOON April 9th
Garden
- Prepare garlic beds
- In warmer areas this is your last chance to sow silver beet, rainbow chard, endive, all brassicas except Brussels sprouts (too late), peas, coriander and celery
- Plant compost crops in empty beds, if intending to use ramial woodchip to improve soil then plant lupins and Crimson clover withy ramial forked into top 5cm of soil, and get in as early as possible
- Last planting of biennial flowers and herbs such as hollyhocks, Sweet William, columbine
- Sow calendula, cineraria, poppies, snap dragons and pansy seed for flowers in the winter vege garden
- Sow heartsease and calendula for companion to garlic, onions etc over the winter
- Plant out autumn /winter flowering annuals that are ready now
Perennials
- Once rains come cutback, feed mulch and leave until Spring,
Temperate Forest Garden
- Root activity very high once rains come
- Keep up the chopping and dropping and heavy pruning on legumes and nitrogen fixers .. not only do you feed the microbes on surface witch mulch but when the roots are active the energy released from the roots when the tops are pruned is available immediately for the fruit trees to take upo via their roots
- Plan and organise winter plantings
- Take out any trees that need removing before it gets wet
FIRST QUARTER April 16th
Garden
- In areas where broad beans are planted in autumn, soak overnight and plant into beds or into seed trays and transplant
- In warmer areas this is your last chance to sow corn salad and rocket directly on the surface, in colder areas,
- Sow silver beet, endive, brassicas, peas, miner’s lettuce, parsley, coriander, daikon turnip and celery into trays
- Foliar feed three days before full moon
- Finish planting any spare beds in compost crops such as lupins, broad beans, vetch and wheat rye
- When transplanting winter veges , especially brassicas, apply compost and fert if necessary and then mulch
Temperate Forest Garden
- Continue all jobs as in the New Moon phase
FULL MOON April 24th
Garden
- lovely time in the garden, warn, soil is still very alive and getting ready for it’s rest!
- Feed if necessary three days after full moon.
- In warmer areas this is the last chance to sow carrots and beetroot before Spring
- Go hard to get the last of your beds into carbon crops before it’s too cold for them to grow
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.
- Note any trees that need removing this autumn /winter
- Begin preparing ground for new orchard plantings in winter
- second optimal time for feeding fruit trees is April/May so get another soil test if you wish and apply your fert now or over the next few weeks. , or spread ramial wood chip