Welcome to Stacey's Garden

In this article series we’re chatting with Kiwi gardeners, to discover what it is about gardening that brings them the most happiness and satisfaction.

We’ve all heard about the emotional and practical benefits a garden can bring, so we’d like to share some of that good stuff with you. We’ll look at some amazing gardens, listen to great advice, and ask happy gardeners to talk about their pride and joy.

This time we’re visiting Stacey Short.

Stacey describes herself as an enthusiastic gardener, who doesn’t know when to stop expanding her garden! In her own words, her garden is "large, productive, beautiful and a little chaotic sometimes." Ordinarily she likes things to be very orderly, but sets her creativity free in the garden.

Stacey has gardened on and off for 15 years, but has really found her love for gardening in the last seven years. Like many of us, Stacey is influenced by her parents and grandparents, who grew stunning gardens; she believes gardening flows in her blood. She has fond childhood memories of raiding her grandparent’s strawberry and pea patches with her sister, and making potions and pretty sand saucers from the flowers in the garden. Stacey hopes her kids will have similar memories of their own childhood experiences in her garden.

Initially she began growing vegetables to feed her family and save some money. She also felt it was important to teach her kids where food comes from. Stacey takes great pride in knowing how the produce has been grown, right down to how the soil was prepared.

Stacey has a lifestyle property on the outskirts of Invercargill in Southland, where the growing season is a lot shorter than in the North. Summers can be hot and dry, but winters are cold and damp: anything over 10 degrees during the day is a bonus! Patience is required in the spring, as there can still be late frosts into November.

“I've learnt over the years planting out sooner doesn’t always get me any further ahead, the seedlings just end up stalling and I find the later-planted ones catch up or pass the earlier-planted ones anyway.”

The house is framed with ornamental beds, with an array of different shrubs, annuals, perennials and bulbs. No matter the season, there's always something displaying eye-catching leaves or flowers. The fences are festooned with camellia, and beloved and much-missed fur-babies are memorialised under magnolia trees.

As beautiful as her flower gardens are, her real love is her edible garden. It started with the original medium-sized garden bed that was there when the family bought the property: that bed is now mostly filled with strawberries. They've added three more beds, one extremely large one, and two more that are "decent sized" (but still very generous by suburban standards). The smallest bed was originally a sandpit. The garden creeps out even further beyond the fence, with three 25m rows for pumpkins, zucchinis, potatoes and yams. Stacey has no plans to expand any further, as she doesn’t want the gardens to become unmanageable...but she also said that two garden beds ago, so never say never!

Having a lifestyle property means there's plenty of room for fruit; Stacey's young orchard is home to peaches, pears, apricot, peachcot and plum trees. Fruit bushes line the fences and apple trees are dotted about the place.

Due to the short growing season, Stacey invested in her pride and joy - two tunnel houses, as well a greenhouse (for potting up and raising seedlings until they’re big enough to go outside; it's also a warm home for a wonderful grape vine). Undercover growing has transformed the way she gardens. Extending the growing season means she can avoid the conflict for space between the still flourishing warm season crops and baby cool season vegies.

Delicious 'Costoluto Fiorentino' and 'Black Krim'

Q&A with Stacey

What's your favourite thing to grow in the garden?

“Tomatoes! I absolutely adore the different, colours, shapes, sizes, textures and flavours. Until I started growing from seed, I had no idea there were so many different varieties out there!”

“You can't go wrong with a Beefsteak tomato as a good, all-round, large tomato. I do enjoy the flavour of Black Krim and find both of those varieties prolific fruiting. Cherry tomatoes; yellow pear, we really enjoy the texture and thicker/harder skin on those."

What are you most proud of?

“I’m proud that my kids have grown up gardening and are learning how to grow vegetables themselves.”

What do you struggle with?

“Patience. Even though I know it’s in my own best interest to wait to plant some crops out, it takes all my strength to follow through.”

What's your favourite Yates product that you love to use, or swear by?

"Yates Thrive Seaweed Tonic would have to be my favourite. I've saved so many plants when they need a wee pick me up, or had a slight frost on them. It’s also amazing for soaking seedlings before planting out, to reduce transplant shock."

If you were to start all over again, what would you do differently?

I’d make my vegetable beds a lot smaller! Some are very large, so I had to create paths, or stand on the soil, which isn't ideal for the soil structure.

What's your ‘secret’ gardening tip to get the best out of your garden?

Planning, something I have finally learnt to be better at, although there’s definitely room for improvement! I used to get so frustrated, I felt like I had wasted my growing spaces by putting no thought into where anything will go and often running out of room.

What advice would you give someone starting out?

• Start with a few crops that you love to eat, so you don’t overwhelm yourself.
• The Yates website has so much information on growing, pest and disease control, and everything in between.
• Following local Social Media accounts is a great way to learn, just remember every garden and microclimate is different!
• Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive. Make compost, have a worm farm, collect seaweed or manure to make fertiliser teas. Make structures from items lying around, or listed free or cheaply online.
• The best way to learn is to do...and if it fails, don’t give up, try again!

Stacey’s top tips for October in the South

• Be patient, don’t be tempted to plant out too early!
• Move seedlings up a pot size as they require it, so they don’t get root bound or stall their growth. Even if they're only going to be in the pot for a short time.
• Keep on top of the weeds, by doing a little but often.
• Sow more seeds like lettuce, radishes and spinach for a continual supply.
• Erect structures early for the crops, so come planting it’s a job already done.
• Keep a close eye on potential pests and diseases, so you can deal to them swiftly.

What’s your advice for growing in a polytunnel?

• They can get awfully hot, especially in summer; ventilation is so important for plant health. When purchasing a tunnel house, make sure it’s going to have enough roof vents and doors for its size – most of the top brands have add-ons if you think you won’t have enough ventilation.
• If you live in a windy area, you’ll want a structurally sound tunnel house; paying that little bit extra for quality will be well worth it in the long run.
• Tunnel houses are some pests favourite place to hang out. Doing a bug check, not forgetting to check the underside of the leaves, every day, if possible, will allow you deal to those pests quickly before they get out of control.
• Water in the morning if possible, try to avoid getting water on leaves. This gives the plants time to dry and minimises the risk of diseases.
• Don’t forget about crop rotation and soil health in your tunnel house!
• Tunnel houses can still get frosts inside them. If you have anything planted early, or anything still producing later in the season and a frost is on the cards, protect your crops!
• Give your tunnel house a good clean in-between every season. This allows lots of sunlight through for photosynthesis and cleans up any disease that may be present.