The Home of Sustain Ability in Central Hawke's Bay

April

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Preparing	Harvesting
Garlic	Last of summer crops will be finishing. Try to leave pumpkins on vines as long as possible to harden and dry but watch for very wet weather, and bring in if necessary. Beans can be matured on the vines till crackly and stored for winter stews and casseroles, as well as next years seed. Yams benefit from a frost to improve flavour. Harvest when plants die back.
Planting	Herbs
Broad Beans (Fava Beans) Beetroot Burdock Cabbage Carrot Cauliflower Corn Salad Endive Florence Fennel Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mizuna Mustard Greens Pak Choi Peas Radish Rocket Rutabaga Shallots Silverbeet Snow Peas Spinach Turnip Transplant: Beetroot Broccoli Brussel Sprouts Cauliflower Celery Collard Greens Leeks Onion Silverbeet Spinach Spring Onions Swedes Turnips	Plant: Chives Lemon Balm Mint Oregano Parsley Sage Thyme Maintenance: Divide perennial herbs such as: Chives Marjoram Rosemary Sage Thyme
Maintenance
Plant evergreen trees Plant berries: raspberry, boysenberry, strawberry, blueberry Feed leafy vegetables Apply lime around stonefruit and apples Prune deciduous fruit trees Clear rotting or diseased fruit from beneath trees Take cuttings of figs Prune asparagus as it develops autumn colouring Check for whitefly on citrus Check for woolly aphids on apple trees Sow green crops Mound leeks Divide rhubarb and replant Apply copper spray to plums, nectarines, peaches, apricots, pears Apply lime to celery, lettuce, brssicas, broad beans, peas,onions, artichokes, rhubarb Gather autumn leaves for leaf mulch Plant green crop Add support to Broad Beans Keep Brussels Sprouts well watered. DO NOT lime strawberries or potatoes Prepare for winter frosts