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PAKU VIEWS
ISSUE 4 AUTUMN/WINTER 2012
OPEN SEVEN DAYS
Summer: 10.00am - 5.00pm • Winter: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Closed for the month of August
State Highway 25, Whenuakite
Phone 07 8663725 / fax 07 866 3759
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The ups and downs of a soggy summer
Another summer has come and gone. Tairua’s Community Garden had its share of
successes and failures due to the weather.
The garlic planted in the winter solstice could not be harvested on summer solstice,
22 December! The wet weather had already started, a foreboding sign of a bad
summer to come. Garlic needs to be harvested when the soil is reasonably dry and
then allowed to dry in the sun to stop rot setting in. Despite missing the summer
solstice, in the end, a good crop of garlic was pulled up with plenty to share around.
All the root crops are still going well, with a constant supply of carrots, beetroots
and onions. All the root crops, that is, except the potatoes. The early Jersey Benny
potatoes were plentiful – nothing better than having freshly dug potatoes for family
and friends over the Christmas holidays – but later crops have suffered from blight.
We are looking forward to a bumper crop of kumara as the plants are looking
healthy and growing well. Evidently the area around the community garden was
the site where early Maori grew their kumara. Tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers and
courgettes have struggled – too wet. Fortunately for Lynnette, silverbeet seems to
survive anything!
In fact the weather summed up the poor crops, in general, over summer. It was
just too wet, but the grass grew well. Thank goodness for Dave who loves mowing
lawns. The good thing about a community garden is that everyone has a thing
they like to do whether it is making compost, growing seedlings or mowing lawns.
Sharing the load really does mean things get done.
An upside to the inclement weather was the lack of the need for a roster to water
the garden. Another upside was weeding, if there is an upside to weeding? It
has been easy to pull weeds from the moist soil in the gardens over the last few
months.
We have started getting the garden ready for the winter months. The potato patch
has been dug over, for any straggler potatoes, in preparation for nitrogen rich crops
of lupins and green crops of oats, peas and mustard to fertilise the soil. We are
adding our compost, along with seaweed, to the other gardens as well. Brassicas
such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages will be the next winter crops to be
planted to sustain us through winter.
We generally meet on Tuesday mornings from ten o’clock for a couple of hours or
so, weather dependent of course. Ring Keryn on 07 864 8397 if you would like to
join our community garden, the more the merrier!
Tairua’s Community
Garden
by Carol Brockelsby
HEALTH