With over 1000 square metres of vegetable production at the farm, Market Garden Manager Sarah Lilly Moss-Baker and her team are gearing up for a busy and exciting spring.
Sarah has been at Kelmarna Community Farm for three years, having previously worked at market gardens and organic farms including the renowned Pakaraka Permaculture.
"September is a big sowing time," says Sarah. "At Kelmarna, we're super busy sowing for our gardens and our annual seedling sale on 12 October. We're sowing summer crops – tomatoes, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, flowers and more. We're also sowing some springtime cabbages, kale and spring onions. It’s important to get an early start with sowing for the abundant spring and summer months ahead.
"September is also a great time for direct sowing carrots, radish, coriander and beans – as long as you can save them from the slugs." Sarah says that at Kelmarna they ‘bite the bullet’ and use an organic iron-based slug bait. As a home gardener, she says the closest you can get is Quash.
"Our first tomatoes will go in mid-September in the tunnel house, but for outside planting we’ll wait for the start of October."
Harvesting-wise, the team is pulling in a really diverse range of winter crops – fennel, carrots, kale, cabbage, broccoli shoots, daikon radish, salad greens, citrus and beetroot.
"Carrots have been the star!" Sarah says. "Sowing them in autumn means they start their growth in a warm season and then go through cold snaps which actually help the sugar in the roots to develop and the carrots to be tastier."
Once harvested this fresh seasonal, nutrient-dense produce stocks the on-site Kelmarna farm shop (open Wednesdays: 10am-4pm and Saturdays: 9am-12 noon), fills 16 veggie boxes per week and supplies locals restaurants and Commonsense, an organic shop in Mt Eden.
Kelmarna grows all produce organically and they are certified through Organic Farm NZ.
"Setting up a market garden is not just a process of copying and pasting a 'market garden' onto the land,” Sarah tells us. "There are so many things that are soil specific, light specific, climate specific and situation specific. It has been huge working out how to design and grow a garden and infrastructure that is resilient to both flooding and drought in this changeable climate. But the trajectory of our soil health is definitely on the way up."
As an experienced and knowledgeable market gardener, Sarah is full of tips for the home gardener: "Spring is so much fun! If you're raising your plants from seed and using store bought mix, try mixing it with some of your homemade compost or worm castings. These amazing resources add biology to the soil and contain heaps of nutrients in a form that plants can easily absorb. It also makes the bag of mix go further.
"Our seedling sale is coming up on Saturday 12 October. We'll have HEAPS of organic seedlings for sale – great varieties of tomatoes and summer crops, heaps of herbs, flowers, plants suitable for container gardens, banana pups and so much more. Come along and bring your friends.”
@kelmarnafarm
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