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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 />

Be inspired by<br />

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of quality trees<br />

and shrubs.<br />

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 />

WIN!<br />

a $50<br />

INTEllIgrO gIfT<br />

VOuchEr!<br />

Send us your<br />

question and<br />

BE IN<br />

TO WIN!<br />

Email to: info@igro.co.nz or post<br />

your question on our Facebook page:<br />

www.facebook.com/igro.co.nz<br />

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!

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