Possums and preserves: The joys of rural vegetable gardening

Kem Ormond gets her gardening gloves on ready to sow a few seeds of inspiration for those of you growing your own vegetables.

It’s autumn already! Time to watch out for those rabbits, hares, blackbirds, possums, wild turkeys, pūkeko and those cunning goats.

They are all eyeing up the last of your tomatoes, berries, and plums.

Such is the joy of rural vegetable gardening.

Harvesting should be in full swing at the moment for all you keen vegetable gardeners.

Beetroot will need to be bottled and if, like me, you have a glut of tomatoes, you will feel so pleased with yourself if you fill some of your jars with relish or sauce.

I make pasta sauce with tomatoes, peppers, onions and some tasty herbs like oregano and thyme.

I freeze this in pottles and find it ideal over winter to add to some pasta, put in a casserole or use with meatballs.

If you have a glut of cucumbers make some bread and butter pickles.

Apples seem to be what everyone has at the moment and an investment in a dehydrator is well worth the expense.

I dehydrate apples, pop them in a screw-top jar and they make a wonderful evening snack.

Remember when drying the apples to dip them in lemon juice to avoid them from going brown.

Now is also a good time to dry some of your fresh herbs if they haven’t gone to seed.

Once again, a chance to share a small gift with friends … but after your jars are full.

Where I live the green finches are having a whale of a time with the sunflower heads.

It is nice to plant a few flowering plants among the vegetables for the bees and birds to enjoy.

I know a lot of people cringe at planting borage, (mainly because it self-seeds so freely) but the bees go crazy over it, and it is easy to pull out and dig into the soil when it has finished flowering.

Harvest the last of your corn, plant a new crop of spring onions and it will soon be time to start thinking leeks for winter harvest.

If any of your summer crops are finished, dig the remains into the soil and put all those wonderful nutrients to use!

If you have never planted chillies, I can recommend them. It is too late now, but for next summer you should try growing a few.

I make sweet chilli sauce and I tell you; I have friends who don’t want anything else from me for Christmas except a bottle of that sauce.

It is time to start thinking about what you are going to plant for winter.

You should be planting at least some brassicas and leafy greens. I always plant my red cabbage in the winter, and it would have to be one of my successful vegetables.

They are ready to pick way before those white butterflies appear in the summer.

I am not going to let them or their caterpillars enjoy the fruits of my labour!

Over winter, mulch and sow a cover crop in your remaining vegetable garden, something like mustard or lupin seed is a good choice.

Now is the time to get all your cloches ready so you can cover your plants during winter, give all your tools a good clean and oil and your vegetable garden will more or less take care of itself during the colder months.

Happy gardening.