Many parts of New Zealand are known for their milder winters enabling many gardeners to have a longer planting season. Meanwhile, for those down south, we’ve seen more gardeners invest in tunnel houses and DIY greenhouses to ensure fresh vegetables throughout the colder season. These days, the top motivation is to save on costs for fresh produce. Although, gardening is such a productive and satisfying hobby for many. Stay warm and enjoy the fruits of gardening!
For June, let's start with....
Garden Maintenance
Enrich your soil - use healthy soil. Turn over your soil and add compost, fertilisers like sheep pellets.
Let go of your leftover summer plants.
Rake autumn leaves up.
Clean and fix your garden tools.
Prepare your soil for strawberry and garlic planting.
Mulch is key!
Edible Garden
It’s time for brassicas (broccoli, broccolini, cabbage and cauliflower) as they can handle the colder weather and can be planted generally all over New Zealand. Buying Awapuni seedlings will give you a good head start. Plant broad beans and peas will thrive in areas without frost.
For the really cold areas down south, you may want to consider planting cavolo nero, beetroot, silverbeet, kale, spinach, garlic, strawberries and onion. These vegetables can survive outside or in ventilated tunnel houses.
Consider cover plants for used garden beds. Cover plants help your soil regain nitrogen content. Beans, peas and wild blue lupins will help improve the nitrogen content of your soil. Closer to spring, you can turnover the soil planted with these cover crops and use these crops as live compost by burying them in the soil. This process will improve your soil structure.
Stagger Your Planting - lettuce, onions, peas, radish — every 10-14 days.
Plan to fertilise your plants. When days get shorter and colder, your plants need all the help they can get. Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic will give your garden its much needed boost.
Awapuni Nurseries garlic seedlings are now available for home and commercial growers. Our garlic seedlings are roughly 15cm high, carefully hand-shelled and hand-planted. Ideally, garlic is planted in colder months (from June - July) because it needs the cold for the bulb to properly develop. Awapuni bulk garlic packs come in 50 seedling bundles ($55) and 100 seedling bundles ($99).
Flower Garden
Colourful pansy flowers, geranium are hardy annuals. They bloom generously and love the cold weather. Geraniums are beautiful, cold-tolerant plants that keep pests at bay. They can be great companions with many beautiful flowering plants like roses, lobelia and vegetables like cabbages! Calendula, also called winter marigold, is a good deterrent of pests. They also bring a splash of orange brightness during gloomy weather.
You may also want to consider planting more flowers in hanging baskets, containers and pots. This way, you can move your flower pots around your patio/deck for more sunlight or protection.
Winter Hardy Herbs
If you are thinking of adding herbs to your winter garden, the cold-hardy ones are parsley, chives and rocket.
Natives
Winter is still a good time to plant all natives as they can thrive in New Zealand’s unique climate. Native flaxes, hebes, grasses, and trees thrive even in winter.
