The rain drenched me. Large drops, falling on my head, slipped down my face and fell to the dirt. It didn't chill me, it warmed me. The first real rain for several months, this drought-breaking rain was a gift, and it lifted my soul. Working alongside me was my son, Shepard, who at only 20 months old would already rather be outside with me, whatever the weather. His little body was soaked, but ever-determined, he wrestled with a full-size garden fork, turning the soil.
Sensing the opportunity of the moment, I had come outside to plant, and he had followed. The seemingly ever present heat of the sun had made transplanting a difficult task; small seedlings had wilted in the heat, despite judicious watering, their disturbed roots struggling to transport adequate water from roots to xylem to leaves. But today was different. The heat of the sun was tempered by rain; the water was drops of delightful coolness. A moment to plant.
So that is what we were doing. A father, a son, six lettuce plants, and a punnet of coriander. And thinking about today, now late at night and my family asleep, I sense something ordinarily mundane had become a lasting memory. Inked deeply into my mind like a cerebral tattoo. A moment of togetherness with a common purpose. And after a summer of parched earth and failing crops its enough to keep me going. The prospect of the autumn rains, a refreshed land, and a deepening relationship between a father and a much loved son.
Blessings,
Tim
Showing posts with label lettuces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lettuces. Show all posts
A Lizard in my Lettuces
Today there was a lizard in my lettuces. A copper skink (Oligosoma aenea) to be exact. I was out picking some leaves to from our Green Oak Leaf and and Pink Freckles lettuces and it quickly scuttled away. It was a beautiful rich bronze-brown, and about 10 cm long (or 4 inches for my USA readers).
As an ecologist, this is something to be celebrated. Copper skinks aren't like slugs or snails - introduced pests that voraciously prey on my vegetables - but are a lizard species unique to New Zealand that FEED on my garden pests. I feel honoured that this "production-focused" area of my garden has been deemed an appropriate residence by local wildlife. Copper skinks are only found in New Zealand, and whilst still the most commonly occurring native lizard in my city, are increasingly under threat from land "development" - that euphemism for "bulldoze the trees and build something", and are preyed upon by many of the mammalian predators we introduced to this land (including stoats, ferrets, weasels, ship rat, Norway rat, house mice, hedgehogs, and the list goes on). We really did stuff it up when we set about enriching this land with species from our respective homelands! But what copper skink really like is not so much pristine native forests but lots of cover and hiding places, some sunshine to bask in, and plenty of small invertebrates to eat. So my garden with compost heaps (three of them!), and ramshackle wooden garden edging, dense plantings of vegetables to smother the weeds, and lots of thick mulch, is quite a happy environment for my local reptiles. In fact, in my professional work, its sometimes surprising where this species turns up. I have searched through mature forest within proposed subdivisions and roads, only to find them in wood piles or under discarded rotting carpet and corrugated iron or in piles of broken concrete. Which tells me that "biological treasure" can be found in strange places, even a lettuce patch.
So how can we be better stewards of our world in our vegetable gardens? How do we encourage courgettes and copper skinks? (hey, I am a sucker for alliteration). As I have previously alluded to, encouraging helpful wildlife and increasing the food production within your patch is, for the most part, complimentary. Here are a few starters:
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| Copper skink. This isn't the one from my garden (that one wouldn't wait for a photograph) but another one seen recently in Auckland. |
As an ecologist, this is something to be celebrated. Copper skinks aren't like slugs or snails - introduced pests that voraciously prey on my vegetables - but are a lizard species unique to New Zealand that FEED on my garden pests. I feel honoured that this "production-focused" area of my garden has been deemed an appropriate residence by local wildlife. Copper skinks are only found in New Zealand, and whilst still the most commonly occurring native lizard in my city, are increasingly under threat from land "development" - that euphemism for "bulldoze the trees and build something", and are preyed upon by many of the mammalian predators we introduced to this land (including stoats, ferrets, weasels, ship rat, Norway rat, house mice, hedgehogs, and the list goes on). We really did stuff it up when we set about enriching this land with species from our respective homelands! But what copper skink really like is not so much pristine native forests but lots of cover and hiding places, some sunshine to bask in, and plenty of small invertebrates to eat. So my garden with compost heaps (three of them!), and ramshackle wooden garden edging, dense plantings of vegetables to smother the weeds, and lots of thick mulch, is quite a happy environment for my local reptiles. In fact, in my professional work, its sometimes surprising where this species turns up. I have searched through mature forest within proposed subdivisions and roads, only to find them in wood piles or under discarded rotting carpet and corrugated iron or in piles of broken concrete. Which tells me that "biological treasure" can be found in strange places, even a lettuce patch.
So how can we be better stewards of our world in our vegetable gardens? How do we encourage courgettes and copper skinks? (hey, I am a sucker for alliteration). As I have previously alluded to, encouraging helpful wildlife and increasing the food production within your patch is, for the most part, complimentary. Here are a few starters:
- Mulch heavily to retain moisture and reduce weed growth. As the mulch rots, it will also add humus to the soil, further increasing moisture retention and soil nutrients. Mulching is great for skinks, as they love to hide under it to avoid predators such as rats.
- Raise your garden beds using wooden surrounds (I use railway sleepers and whatever other scraps of timber I can find). Raised beds improve soil drainage and increase soil temperature over the wet winter months, and provide additional hiding places for small creatures. My railway sleepers have holes in them where they formerly had bolts going through them.
- Minimise the use of pesticides. I occasionally resort to some pesticide use for problematic infestations of aphids, but I only do so if plants are getting very stressed by them. Don't leap for a chemical fix until other options (including "do nothing") have been exhausted. If an insect isn't causing harm, its probably performing some useful purpose in nutrient or soil cycling, or is prey for something else that is of benefit.
- Compost. While emptying a compost bin I once found a copper skink happily living inside the compost bin! I guess it gained plenty of warmth from the decomposition process, and didn't have to go far to get its dinner.
- And for something more controversial, don't get a cat, or if you do have one, don't replace it when it dies of old age. Cats are notorious predators of our reptiles, many of which are threatened species. Did you know there are about 100 species of lizards in New Zealand, which gives us more species by land area than Australia (which is regarded as the global hot spot for reptile diversity). Living in the city doesn't excuse cat ownership - the ornate skink, which has an conservation status of "At Risk-Declining", is found throughout Auckland City.
All of which is quite a digression from my usual gardening prose, but then I did promise to write about anything that makes me tick.
Till next time,
Tim
How to grow a continuous supply of salad greens 365 days of the year
Salad greens are right at the forefront of production in our garden, be it February or July, and always having these on hand provides a significant saving for us as a family. Its also so convenient - if the fridge is empty, there is always something green in the garden to go with dinner.
Dollar value for space used, salad greens are far and away our most productive crop - they take up little space, and you can go from sowing to harvest in six weeks. After a few years of perfecting my cultivation methods, I think I can now share how to do this, based on a few simple principles.
The first is to have suitable ground, and for our family of 4, about 2 square metres of ground is all that is needed to allow us to pick 2-4 salads per week. The soil needs to hold plenty of moisture, to sustain the crop through the summer months, be relatively fine, and be well composted and limed. In practice, the soil should be roughly 50:50 topsoil and compost, worked to a depth of at least 10 cm, with a dressing of garden lime (like icing a cake) at least twice per year. Within the garden, a full sun position is OK, but if you can find somewhere that gets partial shade during the summer, that is preferable.
With 2 square metres of ground, I would have two 1m2 salad patches.
One patch is used to sow a mesclun mix (Kings Seeds, Original Mesclun mix is what I use). Sow the seeds over a finely worked patch so they fall at roughly one centimetre spacing, rake over with fingers, then press down firmly. Keep well moist at all times and the seedlings will germinate quite densely, and with a follow up weed at 4 weeks, will dominate the patch of ground for several months. Start picking after 4-6 weeks, and keep picking regularly (pull off individual leaves, or cut at 5 cm above the ground with scissors) and keep harvesting the patch until it goes to seed, turns bitter, or production drops off), then dig it over and start the process again. Sometimes I will get 3-4 months of picking off one sowing, and from one seed packet I get at least 10 sowings. So it works out as VERY cheap, fresh, convenient greens. If you use Kings Mesclun Original expect some seasonal variation - I find that in the winter, mizuna and corn salad are dominant, and in the spring, summer, and autumn, mizuna, endive, pak choi, and lettuces are the best growers.
The second patch of 1m2 is used to grow lettuces, radishes, and calendula (for the bright orange petals). Prepare the ground in the same way, and grow loose leaf lettuces like "cos", "lolla rossa" or "oak leaf". Pick them leaf by leaf, and each plant will produce for several months. By planting new lettuces as soon as old ones get pulled out, the supply of lettuce is continuous, and can cover the periods when the mesclun is between sowing and first harvest. Salads with a mixture of loose leaf lettuce, mesclun, and radish can be easily grown year round. If your garden is in the shade in the winter, like mine is, try to sow a patch of mesclun around April-early May. That way the plants can be well established before it gets too dark and wet.
If you have more space to spare than 2m2, shift the patches of mesclun around the garden to achieve crop rotation (which naturally reduces plant diseases), and why not grow some tomatoes, cucumber, and spring onions too?
Happy gardening,
Tim.
Dollar value for space used, salad greens are far and away our most productive crop - they take up little space, and you can go from sowing to harvest in six weeks. After a few years of perfecting my cultivation methods, I think I can now share how to do this, based on a few simple principles.
Mesclun patch (photograph centre) with mizuna and corn salad. Lettuces along front garden edge. Radishes germinating to right, with an old deck chair used as a support for cucumbers.
The first is to have suitable ground, and for our family of 4, about 2 square metres of ground is all that is needed to allow us to pick 2-4 salads per week. The soil needs to hold plenty of moisture, to sustain the crop through the summer months, be relatively fine, and be well composted and limed. In practice, the soil should be roughly 50:50 topsoil and compost, worked to a depth of at least 10 cm, with a dressing of garden lime (like icing a cake) at least twice per year. Within the garden, a full sun position is OK, but if you can find somewhere that gets partial shade during the summer, that is preferable.
With 2 square metres of ground, I would have two 1m2 salad patches.
One patch is used to sow a mesclun mix (Kings Seeds, Original Mesclun mix is what I use). Sow the seeds over a finely worked patch so they fall at roughly one centimetre spacing, rake over with fingers, then press down firmly. Keep well moist at all times and the seedlings will germinate quite densely, and with a follow up weed at 4 weeks, will dominate the patch of ground for several months. Start picking after 4-6 weeks, and keep picking regularly (pull off individual leaves, or cut at 5 cm above the ground with scissors) and keep harvesting the patch until it goes to seed, turns bitter, or production drops off), then dig it over and start the process again. Sometimes I will get 3-4 months of picking off one sowing, and from one seed packet I get at least 10 sowings. So it works out as VERY cheap, fresh, convenient greens. If you use Kings Mesclun Original expect some seasonal variation - I find that in the winter, mizuna and corn salad are dominant, and in the spring, summer, and autumn, mizuna, endive, pak choi, and lettuces are the best growers.
The second patch of 1m2 is used to grow lettuces, radishes, and calendula (for the bright orange petals). Prepare the ground in the same way, and grow loose leaf lettuces like "cos", "lolla rossa" or "oak leaf". Pick them leaf by leaf, and each plant will produce for several months. By planting new lettuces as soon as old ones get pulled out, the supply of lettuce is continuous, and can cover the periods when the mesclun is between sowing and first harvest. Salads with a mixture of loose leaf lettuce, mesclun, and radish can be easily grown year round. If your garden is in the shade in the winter, like mine is, try to sow a patch of mesclun around April-early May. That way the plants can be well established before it gets too dark and wet.
If you have more space to spare than 2m2, shift the patches of mesclun around the garden to achieve crop rotation (which naturally reduces plant diseases), and why not grow some tomatoes, cucumber, and spring onions too?
Happy gardening,
Tim.
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