Labour Day garden labours

                          My newly-planted tomato (and gherkin) patch.

I have been wondering how gardeners in New Zealand knew when to start planting out tomatoes, pumpkins and other frost-tender plants before
Labour Day was first celebrated as a public holiday exactly 120 years ago. 

I have been labouring so hard in the garden since Labour Day weekend I have had no time for blogging! That's because Labour weekend marks a watershed in the Kiwi gardening year.

Since Labour Day was first celebrated, at least three and in some cases four generations of Kiwi gardeners have been adhering to the rule that the third weekend in October is the safe time to put frost-tender plants out in the garden. It is a rule that makes sense, even though in over a century there must have been some years when a rogue frost came late and ruined the plants, while there are of course some places where earlier is possible, or later is advisable.

I have tried to push the boundaries several times, by planting two or three
weeks earlier when it seemed like the weather was warmer than usual. Every
time I have been caught out and had to contemplate the sad sight of once
healthy pumpkin plants going brown and mushy. So now I either stick to the
rule, or provide protection for tender plants.

Unless one is really lucky with the weather there is no point in planting out
earlier in any case, as cool temperatures mean that the plants grow very
slowly, and seldom flower and fruit before those planted later.

So this Labour weekend, and the weekend just past, I planted out 21 tomatoes, 15 pumpkins, 3 zucchini, 12 gherkins and 6 cucumbers. All of them were grown to planting-out size from seed which was sown indoors on August 20. The baby plants were potted up when they got their first true leaves and grown on in the glasshouse.

I produced so many plants this way that I have had heaps to give away or trade.  I had an excess of around 60 'Labour Day' plants, plus six-packs of broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, basil, sweetcorn and silverbeet which were also surplus to my requirements. (I am still seeking good homes for a surplus of watermelon, rockmelon, capsicum and aubergine plants, which will not fit in the glasshouse.

I am still growing some zucchini, cucumber and tomato plants in the glasshouse for planting out in December, having read (and noticed) that all these plants crop most heavily at the beginning of their fruiting time. So to keep up production, and prolong the harvest period, it is good to make two plantings rather than just sticking to a big Labour weekend plant-out.

I planted 9 different varieties of tomato - Baxter's Early Bush, Sweet 100,  Red Pear, Yellow Pear, Tigerella, Brandywine Pink, Black Krim, San Marzano, and Roma. The first four are cherry tomatoes (great for salads), and the last two are good for bottling and making sauces. (I made 26 half-litre jars of tomato and herb puree last season, and I am aiming for 52 jars next season.) The Tigerella, Black Krim and Brandywine Pink tomatoes are for a variety of flavour and colour when eaten fresh.

I put in 4 varieties of pumpkin, although I favoured Whangaparaoa Crown, as it has the deep orange tasty flesh which seems to be most favoured in NZ generally (and certainly by our household). However I also put in Queensland Blue and Marina di Chioggia to see how they go (and how I like them), plus one plant (my last remaining seed) of an amusing pumpkin called Galeuses d'Eysines. Galeuse is French for scab, and this is indeed a very scabby (or warty) pumpkin. It tastes OK, but I grow it for fun rather than substance.

 A great variety of pumpkins and squashes on display 

at the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa.