Green Living

We answer your questions on how to care for your fruit and vegetable plants

Article by Your Home and Garden

From the experts at Kings Plant Barn

When should I plant garlic?
June is the time to plant garlic. Garlic needs six months to mature, so it is traditionally planted on the shortest day of the year, which falls on 22 June this year, and harvested on the longest day, which falls on 22 December.

What vegetables can I grow from seed now?
Start growing veggies from seed now and be ready to plant out into the garden in a few weeks’ time. Choose from brassica family members like cabbage, broccoli and kale, as well as leafy greens, peas, and broad beans. To ensure that you’re able to enjoy a bountiful harvest all season long, it’s important to sow your seeds at 4-6 week intervals. This way, you’ll have a succession of crops that’ll keep on giving.

All the leaves on my fig tree have gone brown and fallen off, why has this happened?
The wet and humid weather we have had in the last while is the perfect breeding ground for fungal problems such as rust. Combined with the strong winds, this will have caused the leaves to fall off. Make sure to pick up any fallen leaves and dispose of them properly in the rubbish, as fungal spores may linger and re-infect your trees. Try regularly spraying with Organic Super Sulphur to help keep the rust under control.

There is a small caterpillar inside my lemons. What is it and what do I do?
The caterpillars in your fruit are likely to be the larvae of the guava moth. This small, speckled insect likes to lay its eggs on the surface of fruit. When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars make their way inside the fruit, causing a little area of rot and mould. To get rid of them, start by placing guava moth traps in your garden – about one to every five trees. And when the flowers on your fruit trees start to drop off, spray the trees with BioNeem.

Head to kings.co.nz for more gardening advice and inspo.