Question 1

I've never grown veggies. What do I need to know to help me get started?

Accepted Answer

Our Garden Party wants every aspiring veggie grower to succeed. For those who've never grown veggies before, the first thing to know is: it's not super hard! Sure, it's easy to make mistakes too. But you'll find veggie-growing quite a natural thing to do once you get over the fear of getting it wrong.

Regardless, support is available, and Our Garden Party offers it in two ways:
1. When you place your first order, check the box that offers a Planting Party. Along with delivering your seedlings and add-ons, we'll send an expert to run your cluster through the steps of getting started. 
2. Check out our Facebook group. There you'll find all the other people using Our Garden Party and our gardening experts ready to answer your questions and applaud your progress.
3. We'll be building up our online support over time. For now you can chat with us in real time about any of your questions, or visit this section and see if there's already an answer for any question you have.

But also know that you can email us at info@sustainabletaranaki.org.nz and we'll figure out how to give you the clarity and confidence you need.

Question 2

My veggies aren't growing the way I'd hoped! What can I do?

Accepted Answer

Below is a list of common issues. Email in(ourgardenpartynz@gmail.com)fo@sustainabletaranaki.org.nz if you don't see anything useful here!

Sun
Is your garden getting enough hours of sunlight?
Vegetables do best in full sun – eight or more hours per day. If your vegetables aren’t growing to a good size, or aren’t producing as much as you think they should, lack of sun might be the reason.
Relocating your garden into a full sun area of your yard that’s the best option. If there’s no suitable sunny spot, you’re best to grow vegetables that need less sunlight.
Warm weather vegetables like tomatoes peppers and eggplant prefer as much sun as possible. These might not be the best choice for a partly shady garden.
Root vegetables such as carrots and beets, and leafy vegetables such as spinach, salad mix, cilantro, and kale.

Soil
Does your soil have sufficient nutrients?
If you don’t have healthy soil, none of your other gardening efforts will be as fruitful as you deserve. It’s not possible to have a well-performing garden with unhealthy soil. 
Our Garden Party subscriptions include organic fertiliser because your vegetables will consume a lot of nutrients out of your garden every season. Adding compost is a great practice, but it usually isn’t enough to replace the nutrients that have been depleted.

Weather
Are weather patterns in your area affecting plant wellbeing? 
For example, particularly cool or hot night-time temperatures can cause some plants to drop their flowers. If that weather continues around the time these plants are usually flowering and setting fruit you may produce less than expected.
If you’ve been having hot and dry weather and haven’t had any rain recently, some of your plants might be stressed. Make sure your plants are getting at least 2cm of water per week – more if you have sandy soil.
Mulching your soil is highly recommended because it traps in moisture and helps regulate soil temperatures.

Variety
Are you growing a variety that suits your conditions?
Our Garden Party’s seedling bundles are designed to be optimal for variety, but we’re open to your feedback and mixing things up. 
We’ve chosen varieties that grow well in New Plymouth, but if you’re not having luck with any particular variety try talking to other cluster members about their results, or to other gardeners in your community to see which vegetable varieties they’re having success with.

Water
Is your garden too wet?
is in a boggy area where the soil stays waterlogged, or if you’re watering too much (as in every day) your veggies are unlikely to thrive. Most vegetable crops like to dry out a bit between waterings, and some vegetables like tomatoes and squash don’t like to be soggy.
It’s best to water your vegetables at the root of the plant. Spraying your whole garden with a sprinkler may seem like the best and easiest option, but it can worsen disease issues, for example on squashes and tomatoes.

Insects & Disease
Are insects or diseases taking their toll?
Especially during the summer gardening season, insect and disease pressure is extremely high. If there’s a particular vegetable in your garden that’s not doing well, say all of the cucumbers are wilting or the kale has tons of holes in it, the poor performance could be from an insect or a disease.
In order to have a healthy garden you need a wide variety of insects living in and around your garden, so we don’t recommend the use of chemical sprays near your veggies. Chemicals tend to work indiscriminately, killing harmful and beneficial insects – bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and many more. Chemicals are also likely to compromise the health of your soil, not to mention the food chain implications. 
The best approach is to spend a little time reading about the vegetable plant. Google “cucumber pests” or “cucumber diseases” and learn about the symptoms of disease, which insects attack those plants, what they look like, and what to do about them.

Question 3

What kind of support does Our Garden Party offer if clusters want to increase their veggie growing skills?

Accepted Answer

Over time we'll be offering workshops that address common problems and opportunities for veggie growers. It's early days for us, but please drop us a line with any requests you have – workshops aren't free, but our aim is to spread the costs among clusters.

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