Selwyn Times: May 02, 2017
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20 Tuesday <strong>May</strong> 2 <strong>2017</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi<br />
Gardening<br />
SELWYN TIMES<br />
Great autumn<br />
Being productive in the garden is as much about growing<br />
as it is about finishing crops, and putting all good things<br />
to use year-round. Diana Noonan provides a few tip on<br />
how to use your greenhouse over the autumn months<br />
UNDER COVER: Pumpkins need to be ‘cured’ if they are<br />
to keep well over winter. The greenhouse is the perfect<br />
place to use for this.<br />
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Pamper your potatoes<br />
In my autumn, there may well be<br />
no warm, dry periods of little rain.<br />
Thank goodness for my greenhouse,<br />
which I press into service for potato<br />
drying.<br />
If you decide to use your<br />
greenhouse for this purpose, there<br />
are one or two things to bear in<br />
mind. The greening of potatoes<br />
is caused by four factors: light<br />
quality (how bright the light is),<br />
the duration during which the<br />
tubers are exposed to light, the<br />
temperature they are exposed to,<br />
and the variety of potato (some have<br />
thicker skins than others). When I<br />
dry my potatoes in the greenhouse,<br />
I minimise the time the harvest<br />
is exposed to the light (leaving<br />
them in the light for no more<br />
than two days and turning them a<br />
couple of times a day to hurry the<br />
process). I leave the greenhouse<br />
door and vents open to lower the<br />
temperature, and I choose a day<br />
with light cloud rather than bright<br />
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sun for the harvest. Obviously, even<br />
if your greenhouse is vermin proof,<br />
it is unwise to store the potatoes<br />
in it because temperatures will be<br />
warmer than desirable, even over<br />
winter. Potatoes should be stored<br />
in a cool (1-4°C.), dark place with<br />
moderate ventilation.<br />
Greenhouses are the cure<br />
Autumn may be ‘the season of<br />
mellow fruitfulness’ according<br />
to the poet Keats, but it’s also<br />
the season when dampness is<br />
creeping into the mornings and<br />
late afternoons. All of which makes<br />
curing pumpkins<br />
and other cucurbits<br />
a headache. Unless,<br />
of course, you<br />
have a greenhouse.<br />
Pumpkins and their<br />
relatives need to be<br />
stored in a warm, dry<br />
place for around four<br />
weeks if they are to<br />
store well into winter.<br />
During the curing<br />
process, the gourds’<br />
skins harden, and any<br />
minor blemishes heal<br />
over, protecting the<br />
flesh beneath. Curing<br />
also helps immature<br />
fruit to ripen and<br />
sweeten.<br />
Because curing<br />
should ideally occur<br />
at temperatures<br />
between 27-29 deg C, greenhouses<br />
provide the ideal place for it to<br />
take place. I cure pumpkins, kumi<br />
kumi and marrows on wooden<br />
pallets placed on the floor of my<br />
glasshouse. It’s fascinating to watch<br />
the shells harden on the vegetables<br />
and to see how they deepen in<br />
colour.<br />
Sun-dried decoration<br />
Bright dried foods make for<br />
pretty decorations in the kitchen,<br />
whether stored in a jar or strung up<br />
on threads of cotton or natural jute<br />
string. As soon as the chillies in my<br />
glasshouse are ripe (which is when<br />
they have turned the mature colour<br />
indicated on their seed packet or<br />
plant label), I whip them off the<br />
bush. While their stems are still<br />
soft, I use a needle to thread them<br />
onto cotton, spacing them slightly<br />
apart from each other to encourage<br />
ventilation, then hang them across<br />
he roof of the greenhouse to dry.<br />
As most of the plants are gone from<br />
my greenhouse by now, humidity is<br />
low and the chillies dry within a few<br />
days or a week or two depending<br />
on conditions. I also dry bunches<br />
of herbs in the greenhouse, tying<br />
their stems loosely, and placing<br />
the bunches heads down in a<br />
large paper bag hung high in the<br />
structure (heat rises so the higher<br />
they are hung the better). The bags<br />
serve to catch the leaves (or seeds)<br />
as they fall.<br />
gardening without guesswork<br />
Question:<br />
I have moved into a new place that has a beautiful flower garden<br />
that includes the likes of dahlias, chrysanthemums and roses.<br />
What do I need to do to help them survive the winter?<br />
At this time of year you will need<br />
Answer: to cut back your chrysanthemums<br />
and dahlias by about two thirds<br />
once they have finished flowering. Make sure that when you are<br />
cutting these back, you use sharp secateurs and do it on a fine,<br />
dry day. To help protect them from the winter cold, add a layer of<br />
bark mulch to the garden to keep them nice and snug through the<br />
cooler months.<br />
Your roses will also benefit from some mulch to protect them.<br />
Organic compost dug through the soil will boost them as well.<br />
As winter begins, this is a good time to prune them. Check out<br />
the gardening advice section on our website for more information<br />
on how to prune http://www.intelligro.co.nz/all-about-roses. It<br />
will also pay to give them a spray – head to your local garden<br />
centre, they will point you in the right direction. The spray will help<br />
to protect the plant’s new growth from winter frosts, as well as<br />
protection from diseases. Please note that if you have rambling<br />
roses, these are best pruned in summer.<br />
for more information, check out our website: www.intelligro.co.nz<br />
or visit our facebook page: www.facebook.com/igro.co.nz<br />
Thanks to carla for her question.<br />
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Email to: info@igro.co.nz or post<br />
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New questions received by<br />
Tuesday 9th <strong>May</strong>.<br />
Other maintenance in<br />
the flower garden<br />
Primulas, pansies and polyanthus will love a side dressing of<br />
fertiliser to help see them through the winter. Make sure that you<br />
clean up any leaves from around the garden, add some organic<br />
compost to give the soil a boost of organic matter, and add a<br />
bark mulch to the top for extra protection.<br />
QualITy prOducTs frOm ThE WEB TO ThE shEd!