Mulching

Mulching sure makes a huge difference to how your garden will survive through the hot months. I used to throw a bit of mulch around and hope for the best, but I have learnt, on Waiheke, proper mulching pays off and will help the plants last throughout summer and produce heaps of vegetables.

It’s messy, but wet newspaper is a good base layer. I wear rubber gloves! Break the paper into double sheets and dunk them in a bucket of water until they collapse, then mould them around the vegetables. Then cover with wet pea straw (pea straw is my favourite, but it has DOUBLED in price recently, so I have eyes peeled for something else), and mould it around the vegetables. If you live in a windy area, peg the pea straw down in places with metal peg thingies … they’ve probably got a proper name but it escapes me at the moment (you buy them in a bunch from the garden centre). This will stop the pea straw taking off in the wind and mulching your neighbour’s garden!