Gardening by the Moon in September
LAST QUARTER
Thursday, 2 September 2010
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 had 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.
Orchard:
- 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).
NEW MOON
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
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, summer squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers for pickling and eating) 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
- 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.
Orchard:
- Last chance to sow seeds and ground cover herbs under fruit trees before it dries out.
FIRST QUARTER
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Garden:
- Keep planting salad greens every month
- Foliar feed before full moon
- Major time for bed preparation and taking care of seedlings and newly transpalnted seedlings
- Continue transplanting out into beds all your seedlings
- Quite a few of your perennials will be feeling the ground warming and will be sending up their first shoots (e.g. echinacea, stevia, bergamot) and may need checking for slug and snail damage (especially stevia).
Orchard:
- Watch for water stress and try to avoid it by careful watering, time watering will be time not spent dealing with pests and other associated problems
- Watch for Bronze beetle attack on apples, feijoas, and all trees that are likely to be water stressed. You may need to spray - garlic and pyrethrum will kill them because they eat the leaves but if you add Neem oil you will do a better job of stopping the new few generations as well
FULL MOON
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Garden:
- Good time to foliar feed or spray
- Direct sow carrots and parsnips
- Plant main crop potatoes (onto comfrey and or seaweed), carrots, beetroot, Jerusalem artichokes, yams all tubers and root crops
- If your waterchestnuts have not been planted into a tub or plastic lined groing trough then do it now. They need 20cm of water fed with lime and cow manure.
- Plant kumara when the Pipiwharororoa puts a tail on his call
- Continue bed preparation, loads of work with seedlings , snail patrols
- Keep all planted beds weed free and aerated every week if possible on the waning moon
- If your dahlias over wintered in the ground then now is the time to lift and divide and replant
Orchard:
- Good time to foliar feed for health
- Moisture levels critical for shallow roots. If any of your trees are looking unhappy then carefully check their roots: are they too dry, are they repelling the water you're putting on because they are too dry?