OCTOBER 2023
LAST QUARTER 7th October
Garden
- As your garden beds begin to dry enough to work in them, pull out compost crops, make compost heaps see Kōanga Art of Composting Booklet or online Growing Great Compost Workshop
- Prepare beds by either double digging, U Barring or forking , check our Bed Preparation & Planting Online Workshop.
- Be clear about how you are going to nourish your soil and plants see our Growing Nutrient Dense Food Kōanga Booklet or the online Growing Nutrient Dense Food workshop as well as our Making Regenerative Fertiliser Workshop.
- Build cloches ready for early veggies
- Take good care of seedlings
- Get slug and snails under control
- Harvest and dry first nettle harvest
- 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.
- Prepare place for your Runner beans ( perennial beans Phaseolus coccineus as opposed to climbing beans Phaseolus vulgaris)
- Prepare potato beds for main crop potatoes
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 15th October
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,, zinnias, cosmos, marigold, love lies bleeding, tithonia,, 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
Temperate Forest Garden
- Take a break from the forest garden this month, you will need all your energy in the garden!!
FIRST QUARTER 22nd October
Garden
- Keep planting salad greens every month
- Not too late to plant all of your Summer crops, except still too early to plant corn and beans.
- Foliar feed before full moon if necessary
- Soil drench with Fish Hydrolysate to feed microbes regularly , weekly or fortnightly
- Major time for bed preparation and taking care of seedlings and newly transplanted seedlings
- Continue transplanting out into beds all your seedlings
Good time to get your copy of the Kōanga Garden Guide which takes you through garden management month by month or the online Kay’s Garden Management Series Workshop
Perennials
- Quite a few of your perennial herbs 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).
- Take care of all the perennial vege you have planted well, mostly about mulching
- Plant Runner bean seed ( perennial beans)
- Continue bed prep for your perennials keeping in mind they will be in these beds a long time so do it well
Temperate Forrest Garden
- 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. water well if need be.
- Good time to foliar feed for tree health if soil i snot yet good enough to support them
FULL MOON 29th October
Garden
- Good time to foliar feed or spray
- Direct sow carrots and parsnips in warmer areas only
- Plant maincrop potatoes (onto comfrey and or seaweed), carrots, beetroot, jerusalem artichokes, yams all tubers and root crops
- If your water chestnuts have not been planted into a tub or plastic lined growing trough then do it now. They need 20cm of water fed with lime and cow manure.
- Plant kūmara when the Pipiwharoroa 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
Temperate Forest Garden
- 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?
- Time to set possum trap lines, outside fruit tree area to catch roving possums before they damage trees or eat fruit