Vegetable growing tips

• Fertiliser: Liquid fertilisers are easy to store and apply. You can buy a general purpose fertiliser or one suited to the type of vegetable you're raising. Use a "flower and fruit" fertiliser or a specialist tomato fertiliser for fruiting crops like tomatoes and beans. Leafy crops need a fertiliser rich in nitrogen.
  
  
• Mulch: Stressed plants, especially leaf vegetables, will go to seed when conditions are dry. A layer of mulch (at least 2cm thick) will help the soil or potting mix retain moisture, so you won't have to use your hose every day. If you don't have a compost bin, you can buy a bag of mulch from your garden centre. Water the garden thoroughly before mulching.
  
  
• Timing: Seeds won't germinate until the soil is warm enough - and young seedlings can be killed by late frosts. Just because seedlings are available doesn't necessarily mean it's time to buy them - garden centres tend to stock seedlings a little earlier than the ideal time for planting. Consult a New Zealand gardening guide, your local newspaper's gardening column or a garden centre to find the best times to plant in your area.
  
  
• Surveillance: Check out your garden at least once a week, so you can deal with problems as they arise. Pick leaves which are showing signs of disease or insect damage - you can take them to your garden centre for diagnosis if you think there's a serious problem.
  
  
• Slugs and snails: When we tested snail control methods in 2001 poisonous bait pellets came out tops. Repellents, in liquid form or granules, were a safer but less efficient option. Spreading a barrier such as sand wasn't very successful and neither was that old favourite, the beer trap. One lure that did work was marigolds - the snails preferred them to the lettuce on offer.

More information

• Garden centres: pamphlets on growing vegetables and advice on when to plant
• Gardening advice: www.bestgardening.com

More from consumer.org.nz

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• Secateurs

Report by Bev Frederikson