The housekeeping of gardening

April - week 4 in The Simple Home

Being able to grow some of your own food is a wonderful skill to have. Many gardeners dig in the soil, some create raised beds and, increasingly, some happily grow what they can in containers. Congratulations on taking this step if you're a new gardener. I hope the fresh vegetables and herbs you harvest will reward you for the work you do in setting up.

This week is the last in our gardening month. The topic is the housekeeping of gardening: watering, fertilising, composting and keeping your plants disease and insect-free.

Insects are easier to handle when you have a container garden. Take the time to look at your plants once a day to check they're not being destroyed by insects or disease.

Pest Control

There is no doubt that eventually your garden will be targeted by insects.  It's nothing to flip out about, it's part of the natural world, but it's wise to be on the lookout and to be prepared. If you have a small number of containers, you might pick off any bugs you find but if you don't want to do that, there are a number of relatively safe ways to control insects. My favourite is pyrethrum, an organic pesticide, which is made from daisies and considered safe.  It will control a wide rage of insects, including the most common ones you'll encounter.  Green Harvest information about insect control.

Don't forget that not all insects are bad news for your plants.  There are a number of insects - including spiders and wasps that are beneficial and will be a positive force in your garden.

Beneficial Garden Insects

Watering  

Watering effectively is one of the most important parts of container gardening. When a plant is in a garden bed, it can send its roots out looking for water. In a container, that can’t happen, the plant is dependent on you for water. There are no watering rules, how and when you water will depend entirely on where you live. Knowing when to water in your garden is one of the skills you’ll develop. Put your fingers into the soil and feel how dry it is. If you can still feel moisture, it doesn’t have to be watered that day. 

TIP: Never let the potting mix dry out completely. The mix will become water phobic and it will repel instead of absorb water.

In cooler climates, water in the morning because that gives the plants all day for their leaves to dry out. Plants can develop a condition called powdery mildew if they’re constantly wet. In sub-tropical and tropical climates, water in the evening. That gives the plant about 12 hours to take up the moisture before the sun hits the leaves again. It will be fully hydrated in the morning and more able to cope with a day of sun. Watch your plants, because there will be days when you’ll need to give extra water. Wind and sun will dry out the soil so don’t be afraid to add water when you see the plant is stressed and wilting or you notice the soil is very dry.

TIP: Don’t sit your containers in a saucer or trough that catches water. That will stop the water draining away and could kill the plants.

Try to save water in containers and buckets when it's raining.  Water is costly and using it increases the cost of your home-grown vegetables and herbs. A bucket of water could keep a couple of containers going for a week so it's worth having buckets ready at the downpipe when it's raining.

This is a new plant for me this year. It's wasabi rocket and will be a great addition to our salads.

Fertilising – make your own

All plants need nourishment to keep them healthy and productive. If you plant into good quality potting mix with a small addition of manure or compost, then water with weak liquid fertiliser every week, you'll get the best from your plants.

There are three major ingredients in plant food: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Nitrogen helps plants produce healthy leaf growth, phosphorus is essential for the development of healthy roots, flowers and fruit; and potassium helps the movement of water in plants. The commercial fertiliser you buy will be a mix of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and are commonly known as NPK fertilisers.

If you want to grow organic fruit and vegetables, look for organic fertilisers or make your own. I use home-made comfrey fertiliser but comfrey needs to be grown in soil so if you have no soil for planting, you'll need to use something else.  You can make up a liquid tea using fertiliser pellets - Dynamic Lifter, or read the recipes here.  When I don't make my own, I use organic carp fertiliser and a seaweed concentrate.

Setting up a compost heap or bin

If you have a small space where you can locate a compost bin, it will be worth your time and effort to make compost.  Not only will it enable you to recycle your kitchen scraps, paper and old knitted dishcloths, you'll make the best additive for your container plants. You can buy recycled plastic compost bins with lids. If you find one, grab it and you'll be ready to start composting the next day.

Start with pieces of cardboard, shredded or ripped paper, old envelopes, contents of the vacuum cleaner (remove any little bits of plastic), straw, old pieces of cotton, wool and linen, and then add kitchen scraps, cuttings from the garden and lawn clippings if you have them. Lawn clippings are very good in the compost because they add heat and will speed up the decomposition. If you can, add a bucket full of garden soil as well as that will bring in the soil microbes that will help balance the compost.

You can add anything that has once been alive but do not add dairy products or meat/fish of any kind. That will attract rats and mice. When you've added the green and brown mix, cover the bin with the lid to exclude rodents and keep the compost safe from visiting birds. The compost mix should always be slightly wet so add enough water to moisten it.

If you have some cow, horse or poultry manure add that as part of your greens, alternatively, buy a bag of chicken manure pellets from the produce store and lightly scatter them through the layers as you add to the heap. The manure will heat up the compost and activate the compost a great deal. Comfrey leaves will also help speed up decomposition.

There is a lot of information about compost here.

How to start your compost

Start on bare earth by placing a thick layer of shredded newspaper or straw as your base.

Add whatever other ingredients you have, alternating browns and greens if you can (sometimes you can't).  Browns are anything dry such as paper, cardboard or straw, greens are anything such as green leaves, kitchen scraps or lawn clippings.  You'll need more brown material than green. Start with a ratio of about 10 to 1 and adjust it as you go.

Remember the brown to green ratio but don't get obsessed with it being exactly right. If your compost is too dry with browns, it won't decompose, if it is too wet with greens, it will smell. 

BROWNS - carbon

• shredded newspaper and magazines - but nothing glossy and coloured
• shredded computer paper
• cardboard - cut up in small pieces
• crushed egg shells
• ash
• straw and hay
• hair
• the contents of your vacuum cleaner - check to make sure there's no plastic
• wool and cotton clothing

GREENS - nitrogen

• grass clippings
• leaves
• green garden waste - but nothing that is diseased and no woody branches, they take too long to break down
• anything high in nitrogen like cow, goat, sheep, chicken and horse manures, chicken manure pellets
• fruit and vegetable peelings
• kitchen waste - but not meat or dairy products
• seaweed

DON'T ADD ...

• meat
• dairy products
• diseased plants
• anything plastic or acrylic
• dog or cat poo