November Gardens In Central Otago Gardens Are An Exciting Time

The under planting for the fruit trees are doing their thing.

I am sitting, watching the notorious spring winds rip through my garden, happy in the knowledge that everything will come through pretty unscathed by the high winds.

This is because there still isn't anything of any real height, just yet. The peas and beans are still quite low. The sunflowers that have come up from self-seeding are still very small, and I haven't got any of my tomatoes or courgettes in the ground yet, because the weather can never be trusted at this time of year to throw in a late frost.

But life in the garden is really taking off; all of the seedlings are now safely living in the glasshouse and have doubled in size already.

The courgettes and pumpkins are straining at their pots to go in the ground, and the tomatoes have headed into their next pot size before I plant them all out in the next week or so.

The glasshouse was planted out at Labour Weekend as the soil temperature had finally reached the desired amount. Cucumber, chillies, and Eggplant have gone in and are thriving in their new home. All that is left to go in there is marigolds and basil, and then it's all done.

The list of jobs to do this month is varied and many, but if I tick along with them, they won't be too overwhelming, I think.

• All the fruit trees need to be thinned, especially the Omega, which overproduces every year

• Keep feeding the garlic and keeping the weeds down.

• Get the last of the seedlings into the ground. The beans really need to get into the ground, and I fear I may lose some of them. But I'm still trying to work out my timings on some things, and the beans are always something I have struggled with.

  
  

  

There is one thing that I don't have to worry about as much as I usde to and that is pests, and I can thank all the self-seeded flowers that have come up over the last few weeks.

Over the years I've been planting more and more flowers into the vegetable garden with the plan that they act as a distraction for all the sucky, bitey bugs that love my vegetable gardens.

With a selection of marigolds, thyme, nasturtiums, borage, cosmos and so much more I have found that there are alot less aphids, white fly, the only thing that I can't seem to keep out of the gardens is white cabbage butterfly and short of chasing them around with a badminton racket(which is a sight to see) I just don't plant brassicas after January and hold off till March.

If you want to make your life a little easier, I promise getting more flowers into your garden will not only keep the bugs occupied, but it will also make you just that happier, I promise.