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, manure and compost well, make sure the beds are very free draining
- Prepare any other beds you have the energy to double dig or U Bar. This is a good month for bed preparation to help avoid stress in spring. The more aerated the soil is over the winter the easier it will be in spring. The best compost crop for keeping the soil aerated over winter is Vetch and broad beans, as recommended in Koanga gardens catalogue/shop/website. Vetch needs warmth to germinate
- Direct sow rocket, 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 lupins and other compost crops
- Plant broad beans into trays and transplant when first leaves appear
- Plant 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 etc before they run out
- Prepare beds for strawberries and transplant
Temperate Forest garden
- GReat time to chop and drop, and make ramial
- Clean up orchard herbal ley and Mediterranean herb banks, replanting if necessary
- Last chance to plant subterranean clover and alfalfa in orchard herbal ley
- 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
- Plant 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
- Feed citrus well now, manure, seaweed, rock phosphate, dolomite and mulch
- weed eat drains now to facilitate good water flow in winter
FULL MOON May 24th
Garden
- Feed three days after full moon if necessary
- In warmer areas this is the last chance to sow carrots and beetroot before spring
- Plant Garlic, Tree Onions, Shallots, Potato Onions
- Make compost heaps with all the autumn weeds and material available to be ready for your Spring garden
- Mulch any vege beds not planted in compost crops to avoid a weed nightmare next Spring
- If May continues warm and dry double dig any beds that need it for early spring crops and plant lupins only now.
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
- Fertilise forest garden and or compost mulch spread ramial wood chip
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
- Drag out your cloches and cold frames to cover salad crops or keep them growing over winter
- Prepare garlic beds if planting on the solstice
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