Editor: Autumn Harvest
April 6, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
JOHN Keats’ description of autumn as the season of “mellow fruitfulness” is very apt. Harvesting fruit and vegetables reaches a peak and great food growers like Cath Dunsford and Karin Meissenburg (page 12) are setting surplus crops aside to last through winter.
Andrew Maloy has veggie storage tips (page 28) and Marilyn Wightman some tomato recipes (page 30) to help us with this.
Great poet though he was, Keats didn’t get it all right in his famous ode To Autumn. Autumn is also a time of new growth and beginnings.
To be fair, he was writing in Britain where winter is colder and darker: London is much closer to the North Pole than Invercargill is to the South Pole. But even there most plants, apart from summer-active annuals, have a growth spurt, many bulbs kick start back to life and in nature some seeds germinate.
No wonder then autumn is the best time to plant many garden treasures here. It’s a busy time in the food garden too if we want crops in six months – our veggie gardening team has tips on what to plant now around the country (page 38).
For a break, visit the biggest floral art event of the year. From April 9 – 11, FloravisioNZ 2010 in Wanganui provides a once-every-five-years spectacle of exhibitions by New Zealand clubs, areas and individuals, plus the three-yearly National Designer of the Year competition. We have the official programme inside this issue. Hope to see you there.
Happy gardening.
Susie Longdell,
Editor.
