Winter Gardening in Tāmaki Makaurau
From the team at Kelmarna Community Farm.
At Kelmarna, we believe that growing food is for everyone - and that the cooler months are no reason to step back from your māra. We've put together this guide to support you in your food growing journey through autumn and winter, whether you're tending an established garden or just getting started. We hope it helps you feel more connected to the land, the seasons, and the kai on your table.
Haere Rā Raumati!
Gardening in Tāmaki Makaurau is year round. While summer gardens bring so much joy with bright colours and sweet fruits, cool season gardens have a nourishing, sustaining and subtly delicious quality to them.
Sunlight, Shade and Shelter
In the winter garden, sunlight is precious - and for the winter gardener, accepting light limitations is equally precious. It's easy to waste time, money and care on seedlings that simply don't get enough photosynthesis time to do their thing. Spend time in your māra at different times of the day and identify shady and sunny patches, and notice where it is warm or cold, exposed or sheltered. You can avoid creating more shade by planting larger plants such as broccoli, fennel, broad beans or trees on the southern side of your garden, and smaller plants towards the north. Planting early in autumn gives plants a head start before the light lowers, and a bottle cloche placed over seedlings as they establish can offer extra warmth and protection.
Water in Winter
The garden's relationship with water shifts as we move into winter. While autumn can be quite dry, winter almost always brings rain - and too much water is just as challenging as not enough. If your soil becomes waterlogged, try digging out pathways into drains that flow away from your garden, filling them with scoria or woodchip. Growing a dense garden with deep-rooted plants also helps with water uptake and creates an open soil structure that lets water infiltrate and disperse.
Planting
Some plants take a long time to mature - broccoli, for instance - so try planting quick-maturing crops like mizuna or coriander close by to maximise your space and harvest. Autumn is also the easiest and best time to direct sow, with lower slug pressure than spring and warm soil that helps plants establish. Carrots, radish, mizuna, coriander, rocket, parsley and broad beans are all great candidates.
Garden Ecosystems
The presence of pests in your garden is often the ecosystem's way of telling you something isn't quite right - a plant growing out of season, in insufficient sunlight, or in soil that needs amending. The best prevention is healthy plants, but a few simple tricks help: make a bottle cloche to protect seedlings from slugs and snails; set slug traps using beer in a dish beneath a saucer; and plant flowers like buckwheat, calendula and pineapple sage to encourage beneficial insects and keep pest species in check.
Perennial Power
One of the most rewarding things you can do for your winter garden is introduce perennials - plants you never need to sow again. Okinawa spinach, sorrel, mitsuba (Japanese parsley), perennial basil, garlic chives, bunching onions and perennial kale are all wonderful additions, as are herbs like thyme, sage, rosemary, tarragon, mint and lovage. Once established, they just keep giving.
Want to go deeper? Read our full Cool Season Planting Guide. Available to download for free from our website. Or come by Kelmarna to volunteer, join our Farmhands programme, or come along to a workshop.
Photography: Matt Crawford
Kelmarna Community Farm, 12 Hukanui Crescent, T: 09 376 0472, kelmarna.co.nz
