Easter is the traditional time to clean up the garden and reflect on what have been the star and blah vegetables, says Gillian Vine.
At Easter, just a fortnight away, most gardeners will start cleaning up before winter arrives. Since AD325, the date for Easter has been dictated by the equinox.
In the northern hemisphere, it marks the start of spring, but in our case, as the southern hemisphere begins to tilt further from the sun, it signals the beginning of autumn. In short, whether Easter comes early or late, it always indicates the end of the growing season.
At this time, there is plenty to be done in vegetable and flower gardens. Routine tasks include hoeing between rows of winter vegetables to aerate the soil and hit weeds before they can mature and drop seed.
Water if the weather is dry but reduce moisture on tomatoes and grapes to encourage fruit to ripen. Later-sown carrots and beetroot may need to be thinned.
As well as keeping things tidy in the vegetable garden, this is the time to assess whether what you grow works for your soil, climate and personal taste, what could be called your star crops and blah crops.
Why grow silverbeet if the children hate it (spinach is milder and more palatable), figs that never ripen or so many carrots that the surplus goes to seed next September? Last year, the Waitaki District Council undertook an audit of its rubbish bins and was not surprised to learn much of the contents was food.
A nationwide project surveyed 1365 people and investigated 1402 rubbish bins with similar results: each week 27% of households threw out more than $21 per week worth of edible food, while 38% of households admitted to wasting $8 worth a week.
It concluded that the average New Zealand household threw out $563 worth of food a year, about 79kg. Nationally this added up to 122,547 tonnes of food annually, enough to feed 262,917 people, roughly double the population of Dunedin.
Most of this was processed food, such as bread, but fruit and vegetables were also there. Gardeners can be guilty, too, so a garden audit now could give room next season to grow another spud or two instead of, like me, having more courgettes than our household can eat and giving most of them away.
Mind you, sharing is part of the gardening ethos and one we shouldn't abandon.
Back to the cleanup. When tall perennials like hollyhocks and red hot pokers have finished blooming, cut the stems close to the ground. Being annuals, sunflowers that have done their dash should come out completely, or you can leave the seeds to ripen to feed birds as other food sources become scarcer.
It is too early to touch delphiniums, which should be producing their second flush of flowers, while Michaelmas daisies and sedums are at their peak and great bee magnets.
Decaying vegetation as leaves die attract slugs and snails, while the spores of diseases will overwinter in affected material. Good examples are three fungi that attack roses, causing black spot, powdery mildew or rust.
All continue to live on fallen leaves, so clearing debris off the ground in autumn pays off with healthier roses next season. Mulching now can also help and the bushes will appreciate the feed.
If you have a compost bin with well-cooked contents, dig it out - ready-to-use compost can be stored in garden rubbish bags - so fresh clippings to be composted can go into the empty container.
If you don't have a compost bin, consider buying one. A standard black bin will set you back about $60, while a revolving composter starts at around $300. Neither of these needs much space, so is more feasible for a small garden than the traditional two- or three-bay system.
You can also make your own. Over time, a compost bin pays for itself by reducing the need to buy fertilisers and mulches, and means less garden waste is dumped in landfills. However, anything diseased or likely to harbour viruses should not be composted.
Finally, having done all that hard work, give yourself a treat and buy some of the spring bulbs that are in garden centres now.
