We’re heading straight towards our main gardening season in New Zealand. Usually about now, I let you know what I have planned in the garden for the upcoming summer.
The truth is, I had a rough idea in my head but I hadn’t quite put the whole puzzle together until 1 October, when I suddenly thought to myself that I better get a wriggle on.
My enthusiasm for a new season is a little tempered these days. I know that even in the ‘winterless north’, it’s not really worth doing much until after Labour Weekend. Our season extends beyond most of the country, running right up until May. But we all seem to mostly start at the same time.
Getting started sooner has never proved much of an advantage, in my experience.
So while the winter crops of leeks, leafy greens, garlic, shallots and brassica are pottering along nicely, I’ve done almost nothing else to prepare for the coming summer.
This week, I roughly planned everything out on our whiteboard in a moment of inspiration. Now, I’ve just got to follow the plan.
Gherkins and paprika
I hate buying gherkins. If the recipe isn’t the one I like, they’re going to be a total waste of time and sit in the fridge for all-eternity. But somehow I’ve found a recipe that tastes enough like my Gran’s gherkins, and I’ve just been growing and making my own for the greater part of a decade now.
The cupboard is running low, so this week I threw two partial-packets of Kings Seeds “Homemade Pickles” into a seed tray. They expired years ago, so we shall wait to see how many germinate. I’ll either have none, or fifty. But I’m planning to just grow a lot on the garden arch and see what happens.
I threw some paprika seed into a seed tray at the same time. Probably at least a month later than planned.
Last year’s plants have survived the winter and begun re-sprouting, so I guess I kinda forgot about growing more? But I definitely still want to, so they’re on a heat pad, under grow-lights in an attempt to hurry them along.
Peanuts and potatoes
Both of these will be going in early November. I find they both do best with the summer warmth.
I’ve sold my excess peanut seed for the year, so I’ll be planting what I have and then waiting to see what I get. I’d like some boiled peanuts and seed. Having achieved my peanut butter goal, I think I’m happier with more modest expectations out of this crop.
With potatoes, our biggest crop has always been the last one, planted at the warmest time of the year. We won’t need as many going into 2026, so one planting should be sufficient.
We still have a lot of spuds left from last year, so I’m just going to use my existing stock of potatoes as planting stock.
To be honest with you, potatoes are becoming a little bit of a problem. They’re growing everywhere. But nevertheless, there are worse problems to have, and we will be growing even more.
Kūmara and chia
Two newer crops for me. I’ve grown kūmara before, but not in this garden. And chia is going to be an entirely new experiment.
Both are grown from supermarket stock. A supermarket kūmara is currently sitting by our window, sprouting tipu to be planted early next month.
And there are probably hundreds of thousands of chia seeds in a packet from the supermarket, so I might as well start there.
For such a small seed, my understanding is they grow huge plants. It looks like the seed is pretty easy to extract with our existing tools, and the plants should promote biodiversity in my garden. Not to mention, chia is a dietary powerhouse.
Now I’ve got my head around peanuts, I want to learn something new, and I’m going with chia. I’m sure this isn’t the last I’ll be writing about them.
Sunflowers
I love my annual bed of sunflowers, and I’ll be planting this year’s one soon. Each year I save the better sunflower heads and harvest the seed to plant again the next year. The excess seed becomes chicken food.
They just make me happy. I love waking up and seeing a bed of sunny yellow faces. I love it when they grow taller than me so quickly.
Sunflowers are good for purifying soil. It’s not a concern for me, but it’s nice to rotate them around the beds. They also create a lot of biomass for composting. And the chickens really love the treats.
But mostly I grow them because they just make me happy.
Unconventional
You might notice I haven’t planned tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, or the many, many other vegetables that grow so well in summer.
You might also notice that many of my planned crops are perhaps a little unconventional and weird. Why on earth do I grow paprika when capsicum is right there?
Well, capsicums are also cheap and plentiful over summer, and I’ve never had a lot of luck growing them. But paprika is something I can’t buy fresh. It’s a unique seed line I’ve contributed to keeping alive. And it offers many chances to learn new skills and enhance the flavours of my cooking.
I focus on what we will eat, what will save us money, what I can’t buy, and what interests me. There’s almost always one crop growing which is just something that’s taken my fancy. That definitely applied to peanuts, and will apply to chia.
My garden also takes care of itself in many ways. I let almost everything go to seed and I’m not bothered about things getting a bit ‘messy’. I don’t need to plant tomatoes, because I know they’re going to plant themselves. Likewise for many leafy greens and herbs. They exist, and we use them, but I don’t really need to put in any effort for that to happen.
Growing things isn’t easy, and so many summer fruits and vegetables are plentiful and relatively cheap in the supermarket compared to the effort. I’m trying to balance that with the things that bring me some happiness and unusual experiences.
