GREENS~LEAVES
The newsletter of the Dunedin Veggie Growers Club; issued monthly. Vol: 4.12 December 2011
Meetings are held on the second Monday each month at St Patrick’s Parish Centre, MacAndrew Rd, Sth. Dunedin starting at 7.00pm sharp (we ask you to arrive at 6.45pm to avoid a bottleneck )
Our next meeting is December 12th and the Main Event will be Unearthing the Potatoes in buckets.
President: Margaret Scott (489 2030) msscott@xtra.co.nz Treasurer: Lynne McCrone (4781195)
Secretary: Carol Henderson (454 4625) hendersonic@xtra.co.nz
Last Call!
We would love to have more company for our Xmas Dinner so here are the details again :)
The venue is “Nelly’s” at Hotel Taieri, 6 Gordon Rd in Mosgiel and the date is Dec. 10th.The time is 6.30pm for 7pm and the cost is $40 for a sumptuous buffet meal and apparently dancing later!!. The committee has decided that we can afford to subsidise each paid up member to make it $32.50 each. Could you please let us (Margaret or Carol) know the numbers as soon as possible!
November meeting
It was refreshing to hear of the power of growing plants from Russell Dickson of Youthgrow. A big thankyou to Russell for agreeing to talk at such short notice and for speaking so well.
I hope you all received your magnetic calendar card with all of the meeting dates and vegetable competitions on it!
Change of format in December
The December meeting is always a bit different and this year you, the members, will be playing a bigger part than usual!!!
Apart from us all bringing our competition Potato in a bucket/container along for unveiling ,we have decided to forgo the usual Veg of the night talk and replace it with a Top Crop/Flop Crop session. This was requested by a member some time ago and this seems to be an ideal time for it. All that is required is for you to have thought about what vegetable has grown best for you in 2011 and which has been the least successful with maybe a few ideas on why!! Then come along prepared to tell us all about it in the same style as the Open Forum :)
The other difference is that it would be lovely if everyone could bring a plate of supper to celebrate Xmas and the end of another year!
December 12th Meeting;
BrainsTrust/Open Forum – hosted by Dennis and Margaret
Club talk – Top Crop/Flop Crop
Potato in a bucket competition.
Announcements, seed sharing/swapping
Supper- Members please bring a plate
December Open Garden
Sunday Dec. 18th 2pm at the Higham residence at 1 Newbury St in Company Bay, then on to the garden Shemansky’s at 1 Castlewood Rd. Parking is difficult, especially at Shemansky’s but it is close enough to walk from the first to the second….which is what I plan to do! Newbury St runs off Raynbird Rd and it will be necessary to park there and walk down to the house. I will endeavour to produce some maps :)
Car pooling advised from town.
Moon Planting times…
December starts with a sowing and watering period from 1st to the 7th followed by two days where it is best to apply liquid feed. Weeding and watering are the tasks until the 14th/15th when it is time to sow root crops then again on 21st/22nd…plenty of chances left if your carrots have refused to come up!! Rest is advised from the 23rd until 28th
(excellent timing :) ) ….then another sowing period from the 29th until the New Year.
There goes 2011 !
Library
Please bring back your library books so that others can have a turn. It seems to be sensible to limit the lending time to one month, or two if you forget! A reminder will be put in the newsletter each month to jog memories.
Internet Interests
Margaret shared this link from a fellow Vimby
( vegetables in my own back yard ) member :)
…and I saw this on Facebook and was amazed!!!
www.ted.com/talks/britta_riley_a_garden_in_my_apartment.html?mid=541
Sales/Trading table
Just a reminder that produce can be sold at the sales table but the money does not have to go to the Club.
Lynne’s Talk Part Two
“My lightbulb moment arrived in the mail in the form of a magazine called “Growing Today” in which the write claimed she could grow all the vegetables for her family in a relatively small plot by companion planting – not just herbs and flowers but compatible vegetables., successional planting plus no spraying or artificial fertiliser. The theory being that everyone can achieve a permanently productive garden by having half producing and half ready to plant.
I tried her theory but it didn’t fit in with the Dunedin climate so I had to adapt and came up with the following system which works for me!
Have your permanently marked rows 50cm apart
to leave space for plant growth and mounding up.
Plant your seeds, seedlings etc and mulch between the rows with manure, damp sheets of newspaper then compost. An alternative is to grow a catch crop such as spinach to cut down and use as mulch. These methods reduce weed growth, keep moisture loss down and feed the soil at the same time.
When the growing crop has matured , harvest, than plant the next crop in-between the rows (where the mulch was). This can be the same crop, another companion crop or a mixture of vegetables which are then mulched between as before.
Using this system, in a plot 1.5m wide, I can grow 5 rows of Brassicas in one growing year (from Sept.2011 until Aug. 2012 for example) where traditionally only 3 rows would have been grown.
Plant 3 rows in Sept. for summer harvesting followed by 2 rows in January using the mulched spaces between the original 3 rows. If you choose to grow another crop in the rows where the brassicas were some compost and/or manure will have to be added.
It is quite hard to explain but successional planting works best with rotational cropping and companion planting…..for example;
A bed where peas or beans have been grown becomes a brassica bed next, nitrogen being available from the roots of the peas/beans you have left in the soil.
Adopting this system takes time and good record keeping. Every area of Dunedin has different temperature variations and every year different growing conditions so, if you record when the rain was too much or not enough and how it affected the crops, you will build up a bank of information on how to manage your garden. This will help you to plan ahead as you will know approximate maturity times (a bit longer than most seed packets suggest!!) and if you keep planting each month there will always be something to eat.
I plant a few new potatoes each month and have them to eat from Sept. through to March/April.
My best vegetable varieties are;
Carrots- Yates “Express Hybrid”, thinnings from Dec. and crop lasts until Sept.
Red Barn “Autumn Carrots” to harvest in Spring when brushed carrots are expensive.
Brocolli- “Legacy” in punnets. These produce one big head and then side shoots for months.
Cauliflower- Nichols Winter Cauli, sold in punnets of 4 but numbered 1-7 as they mature successionally. Best to share with friends.
-Chaser is good too.
Potatoes- Jersey Benne, Swift and Karaka.
The Tuck Open Garden
Around 10 of us had a warm and generous visit to Wayne Tuck’s very productive garden despite the rain and a brief struggle to find the correct house!
Wayne has spent a lot of time and energy improving the soil and you can see that it has paid off! His large green house was full of tomatoes and 3 grape vines which he tends carefully to achieve the best crop.
We were also treated rather well with a wonderful afternoon tea and photocopied moon planting wheels to put together ourselves so Mr and Mrs Tuck deserved, and got, a big thankyou from all who attended :)
Wishing you all a Fruitful Festive Season and looking forward to some great gardening in 2012!
Carol Henderson
Newsletter Editor
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