Winter Newsletter
Welcome to our first quarterly newsletter !
We thought a quarterly newsletter would be a good way to keep in touch over the changing seasons without cluttering up your inbox. Plus this way it’s easy to offer seasonal advice and tips. If you’d like to see what we’re up to a little more frequently, head on over to the website: www.newhavengardens.co.nz; or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
So winter is definitely here. Whilst everything is slowing down in the garden, we’re still in good time for planting, especially deciduous fruit trees, roses and Camellias. It’s also a good time to prune most trees and hedges. If you’re keen to get a bumper strawberry crop this summer, then now is a good time to get those seedings in the ground, the colder soil temperatures over winter stimulate the flower buds to produce fruit and earlier crops - yum!
As everything is slowing, it’s also a good time to get ahead of the garden with a nice tidy now which will stay that way for longer and make the inevitable ‘spring tidy’ a lot quicker and easier.
Get Composting
The Compost Collective advises that “Approximately 50% of what Auckland households send to landfill is compostable material. 10% is from the garden and whopping 40% is from the kitchen. This food waste alone weighs in at about 90,000 tonnes each year.
But it gets worse. Once buried it doesn’t compost down. Compost needs air and there is no air in landfill. Instead it rots down anaerobically causing problems that then have to be managed…But its not all bad!
There is something easy you can do to help fix all those problems. Instead of sending your kitchen and garden waste off to the landfill, simply compost it onsite.”
Bokashi, Compost and Worm Farms are the three main ways to turn your food scraps into beautiful nutrient dense compost and fertiliser to feed your plants. By adopting one of these methods you’ll not only drastically reduce your food waste but also help your garden to thrive.
“Choosing the right system that suits you and learning how to use it properly is the trick though. And this is where the Compost Collective is here to help.”
The Collective are running workshops in Birkdale, Kumeu, Albany and Whangaparoa in July, they’re free to attend, full of great advice to help you decide what method suits your household, and even better you get a $40 voucher towards a compost bin, worm farm or Bokashi system. I attended one in Takapuna myself last year and found it easy to follow and full of great info.
If you don’t have time for a workshop you can complete their online quiz to figure out which of the three options suits you best and you’ll still get a $20 voucher!
Head on over to: https://compostcollective.org.nz/ for more info.
Newhaven Gardens News
A New Face
Sara has recently joined the Newhaven Gardens team. You may have already met her and witnessed her hardworking and positive attitude first hand. Sara has a horticultural background and has attained her level 3 in Floristry. Welcome aboard Sara!
A New Column
If you read the ‘Mairangi Bay Village News’, or the ‘All Things Local’, magazines, you may have seen a familiar face lately. Amanda has started a monthly column with tips on what to do in the garden for the coming month. For more articles head on over to https://www.newhavengardens.co.nz/articles
Helpful Tips
If your vegetable patch is going to be empty over the winter months it’s worth planting a ‘GreenManure’ crop which will not only keep weeds at bay, but will improve soil fertility. Choose which type of crop you’d like to sow, then after a couple of months - and before they have gone to seed - mow the crop, allowing it to dry out before you dig it into the soil. This will add valuable nutrients and humus to the soil. Green Manure crops include Lupin - a great Nitrogen fixer; Oats - which add Carbon and organic matter; and Mustard - which helps to sterilise the bed.
Mulch is still an important part of the garden in winter, it helps insulate the soil from the colder temperatures, and protects the valuable soil organisms which encourage healthy soil and plants. Over time the mulch breaks down and ‘feeds’ the soil with nutrients and humus, improving both the fertility and the composition of the soil - especially helpful in our Clay laden soils! You can buy mulch from garden centres and landscape suppliers; but you can also use: lawn clippings, fallen leaves (break down easily and are nutrient rich), as well as chipped tree and hedge pruning. Just make sure none of the material shows signs of disease.
If you’d like a hand in the garden this winter with planting, tidying, trimming or maintenance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Amanda and the team.
