General Winter Garden Maintenance

Feeding and Watering

Winter vegetables tend to be more hardy and feeding and watering is not as important if you prepared your soil well before planting.

Good soil preparation means there should be enough nutrients in your soil to get your vegetables through the winter months. Unlike summer vegetables, winter vegetables need less feeding, and only really require a side dressing of Daltons Landscape Vegetable Mix during the early months of the plant getting established e.g. April/May. 

 

Always ensure you water the fertiliser in well. Add a layer of Daltons Landscape Premium Mulch & Grow on top for improved moisture retention.

 

Garden Maintenance

With any vegetable garden try to have good garden practices that include garden hygiene such as cleaning up any dead leaves or foliage, and regular weeding. This helps to keep pests and diseases at bay.
 
Empty Beds


If you are not planting any vegetables during winter, don’t let beds sit empty and exposed to the weather. Instead, sow a ‘green crop’ to add nutrients into the soil and protect beds over winter. Green crops help improve soil structure and provide organic Nitrogen naturally. 

 

Sow common lupin and mustard directly into the soil. Once your crop has grown 30cm and before they flower, pull up the plants and chop them into pieces with a spade, then dig them back into the soil. Leave them to break down in the soil for 6-8 weeks before you plant anything new.

Pests and Diseases

In general, winter vegetables tend to be pest and disease free because of the colder temperatures.


 

But in northern parts of New Zealand hungry slugs and snails can be a problem in your winter garden. Protect plants with non-toxic pet and child friendly slug/snail pellets, or try organic alternatives such as beer traps, and surrounding plants with crushed shell, bark, propagation sand or saw dust. 


How to Make a Beer Trap

 

Some insects and birds devour tender seedlings so keep them protected. Children can help make slug/snail beer traps by digging a small hole in the soil just big enough for a saucer or jar to fit snugly with the lip of the jar level with the ground. An adult can fill the jar with ½ cup of beer; the slugs and snails are attracted to the sweet liquid and will fall into the trap and drown.