Chili harvest
Exciting times as we harvested chili this week. What a stunning harvest we have this year. The chili plants are definitely the star plants this month – only just beating out the pumpkin triffid in the car park.
The first chili plant harvested gave us over 1kg of fresh chili and there is plenty more on the plant. The next we did, we think was the Cayenne Pepper. We don’t know exactly as the label was lost while transplanting but it’s a best guess. By the end of harvesting these Julie had tingling fingers – best like it hot if using these.
Due to the huge harvest we will have them on the counter “Free to a good home”
Greenhouse
Our new greenhouse is up and full of new Autopot systems. We have a Starter kit, a 12 x 8.5L pot system on a 100L Flexitank, a 12 x 15L pot system on a 225L Flexitank and a 3 Pot XL system. We’ve been busy planting Cabbage, Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Cauliflower and moving Tomatoes, zucchini and cucumber from the small greenhouse to give a bit more room in there.
Grow tent
This winter I’m experimenting with a grow tent. I’ve always wanted to grow indoors in winter when they are an exorbitant price in the shops so this year I’m giving it a go. It’s a huge learning curve and I’ve learnt so much about lighting spectrums and growing under lights. We have set up the grow room in the shop to grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I’m figuring that the first pepper will be very expensive, but the following ones will be free!
Microgreens
We’re also giving microgreens a go. Our little light garden does microgreens very well but for a bigger scale we’ve added shelves into the grow room with LED lights. Currently they are growing on my pepper seedlings but in the next few days we will start experimenting with different media for microgreens. Come in for a look it’s a very impressive space.
Workshop
I’m very excited to let you know we are going to do a workshop in May with Hannah Zwartz the Kapiti Green Gardener. The theme for the workshop is “Planning your garden for Spring”. The workshop will be held here at the shop on the 19
th of May from 9am - 11am. Please register your interest so we can gauge numbers attending.
April Special
This month for our in shop special I am highlighting a new product we found in the UK last year.
Garland’s Grow Pot Tower. We have one set up in the greenhouse for you to look at. This self-watering pot came runner up in the European innovative garden products for 2016.
These new Grow Pot Towers feature a generous 11 Litre planting capacity for healthy plant development. They feature an easy
fill self-watering system with a unique float indicator, so you can easily see when the plant requires more water in the 4 litre reservoir. It comes with a sturdy 1.5m high support frame which slots together to offers maximum plant stability. Normally $55.90 the
April special is $49.90 – a great gift for Mother’s Day.
May Madness
I don’t know what possessed me, but we are going to do the Wellington Home and Living show on the 25th to 27th of May. Closer to the time I’ll have tickets to give away so if you haven’t already liked us on Facebook please do and be in to win tickets.
Heather’s Corner
It’s that time of year again, time to clean up the garden after an amazing growing season. I quite like it as all the summer things, if they haven’t already finished, are looking shabby by now and it feels good to tidy up. Our summer gardens have been so fruitful and there is no reason why our winter gardens can’t be the same. It’s all about keeping the soil fertile, good quality fertilizer and you all know Rok Solid is our fertilizer of choice along with a liquid feed of Oceans 100 every so often. That’s all we use. I’m a fan of pea straw too, it rots down beautifully and helps build up the soil aiding in moisture retention and weed control.
Don’t neglect your hothouses when cleaning up the garden. They need attention as well at this time of year. Give the inside walls and roof a good clean with hot soapy water getting rid of all traces of insects. If you are using Autopots make sure they are well cleaned before planting your next crops. Throw the old coco fibre on the vege garden or compost heap. If you are using clay balls, reuse them but give them a good wash adding Janola to kill any bugs they may be harboring.
We’ve just finished setting up Autopots in our new hothouse. We’re enjoying having more room so more scope for variety. When you are here, have a look in the hothouse, it’s looking really good.
