Gardening Guides
Be a gardening legend with step-by-step instructions on how to grow a wide range of plants, what to plant when, how to combat pests and diseases, plus extra tips and tricks to get your garden flourishing.
Be a gardening legend with step-by-step instructions on how to grow a wide range of plants, what to plant when, how to combat pests and diseases, plus extra tips and tricks to get your garden flourishing.
Broad beans are one of my favourite veges to grow and, of course, eat.
Like most of the over 200 varieties in Awapuni's seedlings range, they're super simple to plant. They're lots of fun to grow with kids. And, they taste great.
Did you know, as well as being able to eat the beans, you can also chomp down on the tops of the plant itself? Cover your eyes vegetarians - bean plant tops mixed with a pork bone and some potato taste fantastic!
However you like to eat your beans, I've got some tips on how to grow them.
First of all you need to grab some seedlings. So, next time you're down at your local supermarket, Bunnings or The Warehouse grab some of our Traditional Value broad beans.
Next, you need to find the right spot to plant. The common misconception about broad beans is they need something to grow up. Not true. Broad beans will need to be tied up, but they lean against each other and grow across the ground.
What's important is ensuring the soil where you plant them has a high pH (around 5.5 to 6.5). Not sure what the pH level of your soil is? Most garden centres sell kits alternatively there are also companies which will test your soil for a small fee.
If the pH level of your soil could go higher, try adding a little bit of lime. If you're still not sure of the pH level, I recommend adding some lime for good measure anyway.
Once you've got the soil acidity levels just right, you're ready to plant.
If you've never seen a broad bean seedling it can give you a little bit of a surprise when you unwrap the newspaper. While I'm probably teaching experienced gardeners how to suck eggs, for those who don't know, broad bean seedlings are broad beans, which have been germinated (see the picture).
So, when you're ready to get started, simply dig a little hole and plant each seedling around 15cm apart in rows approximately 30cm apart.
Depending on the weather where you live and, as a result, the soil temperature, your seedlings will take around eight to 12 weeks to produce beans ready for harvesting.
Once the plants are around one metre high put a stake at either end of the rows and loop a big piece of string around the whole lot to keep them growing together.
While broad beans take at least a couple of months to produce any actual beans, the plants grow really quickly. Got kids? Try taking a photo of the seedlings every few days and track their growth.
Even better, take the picture from the same spot each time and make a mini-movie. You can do this digitally, or print the pictures on your printer and staple or tie them together for your very own stop-motion video. Simply flick through the pages and watch the beans grow.
Using the last of your beans to create seedling is another fun project to get the kids involved in.
At the end of the season take the beans out of the last of your pods and store in a container in a dry spot.
Next winter grab some used kids' yoghurt containers, clean them out and fill them up with potting mix. Take one dry bean and press it into the soil in a yoghurt container. Do this for each of the beans. In around three weeks you'll have some broad bean seedlings ready to transfer to the garden.
Read full articleAs every parent knows, getting kids to eat anything that's good for them can be an uphill battle, especially when it comes to vegetables. The best solution may be to get them to help you plant them.
Autumn is a great time to plant hardy vegetables.
The colder weather means there's no need to worry about when to water vegetables or whether they're going to be destroyed by bugs and diseases before you get to enjoy them.
The secret is to choose vegetables that grow well at this time of year and prepare the soil properly.
Choose a fertiliser which is moisture controlled, such as nirophoska blue, over one that is temperature controlled, like blood and bone and make sure you add lime to the soil to stop it going sour when wet.
Brassicas, such as cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage, are the perfect plants for this time of year. Mixed seedlings can be a great way to create some variety in your vegetable garden.
Awapuni has two types of brassica mixes in their traditional value seedling range. One has cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli and the other has cabbage, cauliflower and silverbeet, so your family can enjoy a good variety of greens.
Get the kids to help you plant brassicas every couple of weeks, rather than all at once. This way they don't mature all at once and you can have fresh vegetables all through the winter.
I also recommend rotating crops on a yearly basis to avoid the fungal disease club root.
Just choose a different area of the garden to where you planted your vegetables last year.
If you like hearty soup on a cold winter's night, now is the time to start planting the ingredients.
Leeks, onions, carrots and some potatoes, such as Rua and Illam Hardy, can be planted in your autumn garden as excellent soup ingredients.
Get the kids involved with planting soup ingredients - they'll love being able to eat their own homegrown creation.
Plant leeks in the bottom of a ditch and get the kids to mound up the soil regularly as they start to grow.
The less sun they get, the longer the white bits will be, and that's the best bit to eat. Another trick is to place a tube or piece of plastic pipe over your leek seedlings.
Onions and broad beans are among the easiest vegetables to grow - you can pretty much plant and leave them.
Broad beans don't need to be tied up, just plant them close together so they hold each other up. If they do grow extra large, you may need to place a stake at each end of the garden with a piece of string between to hold the plants up.
To add some colour to your winter garden, try using teepee frames from summer tomatoes and runner beans to grow sweet peas.
Sweet peas, pansies and calendula are all easy to grow in winter. To give flowers and vegetables a head start in the cold weather, use a layer of straw for mulch to help keep the soil warm.
If the cooler months are particularly dry this year, you may need to water your garden occasionally. The best way to check whether you need to is to make a rain gauge. Kids can do this - all they need to do is mark a glass or clear container with a 3cm line and add whatever decorations they like.
Get them to empty the glass every few days and, if the water level gets under the line, they'll know to get the hose out. It's a great way to keep kids active in the cooler months and help grow their imaginations.
Read full articleEveryone I know struggles to get their kids to eat healthily, and battles constant demands for sugary roll-ups and potato chips.I've said it before, and I'll say it again, a great trick for keeping kids active and eating healthy is to encourage them to plant their own food.
So this month, I'll give you some tips on how to plant tomatoes and lettuce. Both are easy to grow, can be eaten straight from the garden and are great for bulking up kids' sandwiches and introducing them to salads.
Some kids' will balk at the idea of eating tomatoes. So one way I convinced my previously tomato-averse daughter to give the fruit a try was to decorate tomato stakes with Christmas tinsel and pink ribbons.
Introducing them to the idea that tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable, could be another way.
So let's get started. Grab some of Awapuni Nurseries' Traditional Value tomato and lettuce seedlings when you're at your local supermarket, Warehouse or Bunnings store. Alternatively, head to our online store and get the seedlings delivered directly to your school's door. Plus, if you order six or more items to a non-rural address we'll deliver your plants for free, or for just $4 to a rural address.
Once you've got your seedlings, you need to find the perfect spot to plant. Both plants must be positioned in a sunny area that is sheltered from strong winds. If you've grown tomatoes before you'll need to plant them in a different area to where you planted them last. This will decrease the chances of your tomatoes developing nasty diseases such as blight.
If it has been a wet winter where you are, add a bit of lime to your soil as tomatoes and lettuce thrive in soil with a moderate pH and large amounts of rain tend to lower your soil's acidity level. Dig in compost to improve soil conditions.
Dig a hole, approximately 3cms deep and space alternate lettuce and tomato seedlings roughly one foot apart. Fill in the holes with soil.
Once planted, spray your tomatoes with liquid copper to prevent fungal diseases, and apply slug bait to the lettuce. If you're still having trouble getting the kids interested in gardening - then worry no more. Our 'beer slug bait' (we hold no responsibility for advocating alcohol at school!) will get the most non-participating students interested in gardens. Click here for more details on how to stop slugs in their slime - the organic way!
Add a general fertiliser, such as nitrophoska blue, to the soil surrounding the tomatoes to encourage large, juicy fruit.
Neither plants favour overhead watering because it can leave them more susceptible to diseases like downy mildew and rust. So, layer newspaper around your plants, and then cover the newspaper with peastraw. This 'wordy' mulch will prevent your plants drying out during the day and in between watering sessions.
If the weather hasn't warmed up where you live, try cutting the base off two litre plastic milk bottles (recycle the base) and place the remaining parts of the bottles over the seedlings. These mini greenhouses will protect your plants from frosts and cold winds.
Once your anti-oxidant rich tomato seedlings grow a bit taller they will need staking to help stabilise and protect them from strong winds. I prefer to do this in the form of a teepee. Take three stakes and place them in the ground with the tomato plant in the middle and tie the stakes together at the top with rope or string. This is where the kids can get creative by painting the stakes and tying bright coloured ribbon or tinsel to the top. It makes for a pretty 'creative' looking vege garden... and scares away the birds!
Your lettuces should be ready for salads and sandwiches in around six to eight weeks - depending on the temperature where you live. Pick leaves off the lettuce as you need it, but make sure they don't mature for too long or else the leaves can taste bitter.
Tomatoes take a little bit longer to mature. But should be ready for harvesting in around 12 weeks. If you kids' patience doesn't extend that long, try planting the cherry tomato variety as they ripen faster.
Most importantly, get the kids involved in harvesting all of their hard work. If that doesn't entice them into eating tomatoes and lettuce I don't know what will.
Read full articleAre you tired of the endless attempts to persuade your children to eat fruit?
Are you looking for a healthy snack that is almost guaranteed to appeal to the kids - and the whole family? And that will be very affordable?
Why not enlist your children's help in the garden and plant strawberries for the summer.
Strawberries are high in vitamin A and C, can be used in snacks or smoothies and kids love to eat them! And if you plant them now they'll be ready for Christmas!
Growing strawberries is a great activity for all the family and now, while the soil is moist and the plants are dormant, is the perfect time to plant.
Strawberries can be purchased from most garden centres, nurseries or supermarkets and the parjero variety, which is packaged in bundles of four, are great to start with.
They are fantastic producers of medium to large sized strawberries, and will last all summer.
A well drained plot in full sun is essential for growing great strawberries for summer. But for those with limited space, strawberries can be planted in large pots, hanging baskets, or roof spouting nailed to your fence.
They are adaptable and grow well in most sunny situations but they do not tolerate wet soils.
Not only does growing strawberries provide great eating, but by involving children in the planting, it can also be a fun learning experience.
Children can help to test the pH of the soil is at the right level (pH 5.0 - 6.5 for strawberries) by using an easy-to-use pH test kit, which are readily available from most garden centres.
If the pH is too low, spreading garden lime over the garden will help return it to the right level.
Once the soil pH is correct, the soil must be prepared for the strawberries.
Mix compost and blood and bone fertiliser to the garden until you have created a mound 300mm high and 400mm wide.
Strawberries are traditionally planted in mounds because the mounds improve drainage, increase air circulation around the plants, prevent the spread of disease and give shallow soils more depth.
And the fertiliser will provide a great boost of food as the roots spread out.
Plant the strawberries as normal but make sure the crown, the part just below the leaves, is just above ground level. Also, remember to keep the soil evenly moist.
To add some winter colour to your garden and to keep kids interested while the strawberries are growing, I recommend planting winter plants amongst the strawberries.
To save extra work and weeding around the strawberries, I suggest placing a weed mat or straw around the base of the plants.
This will save having to weed the plants but also prevents the strawberries from sitting on the ground and rotting.
And for sweet juicy strawberries during the holiday season, fertilise the strawberries with a high potassium and low nitrogen content liquid fertiliser.
Lastly, and most importantly, I recommend setting up bird-netting over the strawberries.
Bird netting is simple to use and can be found at any local garden centre.
Drape the netting over the plants, in baskets or in the garden, and secure with stones or cloth pegs.
This will ensure you have big and tasty strawberries for toppings on Christmas pavlovas, dipping in chocolate or for low fat summer smoothies during the hotter months!
There's no doubt the country's still experiencing an economic downturn and, with Christmas on the way, many Kiwis could get in over their heads buying presents.
So the best solution is to invest time and creativity not cash into gift giving this year.
Christmas is about showing friends and family that you love them, and nothing says that better than giving them something you've made yourself.
My kids are growing up, but when they were younger they made inexpensive gifts for their grandparents by painting terracotta pots and planting them with seedlings.
Teracotta pots are very economical, and if you paint them with testpots you'll create a waterproof seal which helps prevent the pot and the soil from drying out.
When your budding Picassos have finished and their masterpieces have had a chance to dry (and the kids have cleaned themselves up), I recommend filling them with a quality potting mix containing a slow-release fertiliser.
A slow-release fertiliser will feed the plants for up to four months and will ensure the best growth possible.
The final step is the fun bit - choosing and planting seedlings. If you can't face braving the maddening crowds at the supermarket, check out our online shop. Our entire range is available on our website and can be delivered to your door in a matter of days.
Choosing what to plant is probably the hardest part, but the key is to think about the recipient and what they'll like the most.
For girly-girls, grandmas and older aunts, I recommend pretty, traditional seedlings, like Awapuni's portulacca, impatiens and petunias.
Aspiring cooks and foodies will appreciate a mini garden of herbs, planted in a large square or rectangle pot, which they can use in their gourmet creations. Basil, coriander, parsley and mint all grow well in pots - and you could even throw in a few cherry tomato plants.
For friends and family who like to make a statement, pots painted gold or silver with seedlings of bright redskin dahlias, dwarf asters and lobelia make a dramatic statement, and look great as a Christmas table centrepiece.
To plant the seedlings, poke a hole in the soil with your finger and gently place a seedling in.
Wrap the pots in foil wrapping paper or cellophane so the wrapping doesn't get soggy, and take care not to over-water them.
This Christmas, spend some time, not a fortune on your presents.
Friends and family will appreciate the effort you've put in and they'll have a gift that lasts. Besides, anything's better than another pair of socks or packet of scorched almonds!
Read full articleI can't think of a vegetable that's more fun for kids to eat than sweet corn. I have many happy memories of sitting around the table engrossed in a hearty cob or two.
Since I've become a parent, I've discovered it's also a great time-killer for the wee ones - though mine aren't quite so wee any more. Pop them outside with a few cobs left over from last night's dinner and it'll keep them busy long enough for you to get a job or two done (or even enjoy a cuppa if you're lucky).
If you like to put more time and effort into your meal preparation, you can, of course, also turn your corn into fritters, or add it to salads or Mexican dishes. The options are endless.
Sold? Great, because now's the time to get planting. Grab some Awapuni Nurseries sweet corn seedlings next time you're down at your local supermarket, Bunnings, or The Warehouse. Alternatively, head to our online store and have them delivered direct to your door. For a family of four you'll need around 20 plants, or two bundles.
Corn likes sunny and free-draining conditions, so make sure you find the right planting spot. It will also need a bit of space to grow.
Once you've found your place, dig a little hole and plant your seedlings about 20cm apart from each other. I like to plant mine in rows or in a group so each plant can support another as they grow taller.
As the corncob starts to form, it's important to water your plants to ensure they don't dry out. You should be able to get around two cobs off a plant starting in late summer. Not sure if they're ready? Peel back the husk of the cob a little bit and if they look juicy, they're ripe for the picking. Still look a little hard? Give them some more time.
Once they're ready for action and you've harvested the entire crop, pull the plants out. Sweet corn can take a lot of nitrogen out of the soil so try planting peas and beans in the spot where your corn was. Not only will they bump up the nitrogen content again, these kid-friendly greens will also help keep little hands busy at the dinner table.
Read full articleThere's just under a month to go until Halloween. But if you're a parent, the thought of entertaining kids during the upcoming school holidays probably has you more scared.
So this school break why not take the terror out of having your kids home all day and put the horror back in Halloween by creating a scarecrow. This fun activity is fantastic for keeping children busy and entertained, and also helps keep birds away from precious vege gardens.
The best scarecrows are made from recycled clothes, junk and anything you can find at home. Got some old tomato stakes? Try using them for the frame of your scarecrow. Simply tie the stakes together in a cross.
Any old container or round shaped object can be put on the top of the cross to create the head. But of course, for a genuine Halloween scarecrow, you can't go past a pumpkin. It will also keep the kids (or parents!) busy carving out the eyes and mouth.
Dress the frame in old clothes and stuff with straw, old cushion stuffing, or anything suitable. The best scarecrows are the ones with the best accessories. So have a look around for braces, glasses, hats, gloves and belts.
And for a true All Hallows theme, why not prop an old broom up next to the scarecrow or better still create a witch to go along side. Spiders, ghosts and bats also add to the effect.
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