🌼 Gardening in October – Planting Time!

The soil is warming, the days are longer, and October is the green light for getting serious in the garden. This is a go-for-it month — planting, sowing, feeding, and setting up your summer garden for success.

🌱 Sowing: Seeds of Summer

October is perfect for getting summer crops underway. Whether you're sowing straight into the soil or starting in trays, now’s the time to start filling your garden with life.

🌿 Direct Sow:

• Potatoes

• Runner beans & dwarf beans

• Squash & pumpkin

• Sweetcorn

• Sunflowers

• Spring onions

• Coriander

• Silverbeet

• Beetroot

🌱 Tray Sow:

• Tomatoes

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Capsicum & chilli

• Parsley, basil, oregano

• Lettuce

• Brassicas (e.g., broccoli, cabbage, kale)

🍅 Planting Out: Heat-Lovers Are Go!

The soil has finally warmed up enough to plant out your heat-loving crops like tomatoes, courgettes, capsicum, and chillies.

Top Tips for Planting Success:

• Apply Tui Quash to keep slugs and snails at bay (or go on a night-time hunt with a torch – fun for the kids!).

  

• Add mulch to help conserve soil moisture.

• Set up support structures for climbing crops (beans, tomatoes, cucumbers) before planting — this avoids damaging fragile roots later.

• Add sheep pallets and compost to each planting hole to boost growth and improve soil biology. You can grab some from the Shed ($20 for members, $25 for casuals).

• Protect brassicas from white butterflies — old mosquito nets make great insect covers!

🍌 Fruit & Tree Care

Now’s not the time for pruning, but it is the time for feeding!

• Feed deciduous and fruiting trees with sheep pallets and compost to give them a spring boost.

• Keep an eye out for pests and water young trees regularly during dry spells.

• Thinking about something tropical? Bananas grow well in Katikati!Many members are already growing them — and once you’ve tasted a homegrown banana, you might never go back to the store-bought kind. Maybe one day we’ll be the Backyard Banana Capital of NZ!

🧹 Chores & Garden TLC

• Slug Hunt! Take the kids out at night for a garden adventure. Slugs and snails can wreak havoc on your young plants — squash them or collect them in a jar and sprinkle with salt (brutal, but effective).

• Compost Care:

  • Sprinkle a handful of lime on your pile.

  • Turn over the oldest heap to aerate it.

  • Cover with plastic to prevent drying out.

  • Water weekly if dry — compost needs moisture to break down properly.

    

🌸 Pause & Enjoy

October is a busy month, but don’t forget to slow down and take in the beauty of it all — the roses, the orange blossoms, the fragrance of jasmine on warm evenings. Let your garden bring you joy, not just chores.

We’ll see you at the Shed!