Annabel Langbein's May Garden

I have been leaving all my soup beans to dry on the plants, and now the husks are dry I know the beans are ready to store. I just strip the beans off as I pull the plants out and put them, variety by variety, into jars for the pantry. It’s so satisfying and they look so pretty, especially the mottled pink berlotti beans. If you are worried your beans aren’t dry enough you can leave them on a rack in the shed for a few weeks – when the husks feel crispy they are ready to strip and store. I also save some to plant again next year.

I find my homegrown dried beans cook up much fatter and are ready much more quickly than the store-bought ones. Certainly when it comes to cooking dried beans there can be huge variations in time – I guess when you buy them they could have been around for years.

If you still have loads of unripe tomatoes you can try pulling the whole plant out by the roots and hanging it upside down in a warm, sunny place out of the cold. As long as where you have them hanging is warm enough, there is enough energy in the plant to keep the tomato fruit ripening for another few weeks.

Before you start pulling everything out of the garden, remember it’s really only the frost-tender plant families that need to come out – that means all the nightshade family and the cucurbits. The potatoes, belonging as they do to the nightshade family, will die back on the tops, but they can stay in the ground for another few weeks. I always cover my potatoes, including any that are still green topped, with a thick layer of pea straw – this helps protect the tubers and stops the soil from freezing for a little while longer. But don’t leave them too long – if you let the potatoes freeze they won’t keep.

Most of the other plant families are more tolerant of the cold. Beets, carrots, leeks, parsnips, turnips, brassicas and radishes will keep going through the winter. It’s a good idea to give crops that are staying in the ground a feed with some Seasol, as this helps protect them against the frost. Mulching around them with some good compost also keeps the soil warm and provides them with useful nutrients.

At this time of year, one of the key things to work on is eliminating any potential overwintering sites for insects and disease. Bugs love old piles of weeds, so you need to get these out of the garden. Prune and cut back, and remove all the prunings and pull-outs from the garden – as long as they are disease free they can go in the compost or the worm farm. Otherwise, get them off the property or burn them, as the spores in many diseased plants, especially blight, will come back and plague you next season. Pull out the weeds and gently till the soil to expose any insects who plan to overwinter.

Once most of the garden soil is exposed, add a layer of compost, manure (if you have it) and lime (if you need it). Gently work this into the soil. Over the winter it will all break down, and come spring you will have your bed ready for planting without having to do any work. I always like to rest one or two garden beds each year – planting with cover crops, such as mustard, improves the soil and reduces weeds. I have real trouble with wireworm in Wanaka (apparently this is common when you create a garden out of a paddock) and I have found that planting mustard for a season really helps to keep it at bay – the worms hate the smell that the mustard produces in the soil.

I grow all my citrus in pots, as the plants won’t tolerate our southern frosts through the winter. It’s always a bit of an effort to get the heavy pots into the conservatory, but they won’t survive if I don’t, and in a couple of months’ time the fragrance of orange blossom will perfume the whole house. It’s truly one of the most wonderful scents of winter and early spring.

Herbs like sage, thyme, French tarragon, rosemary and chives are all perennials so will go dormant or die back over the winter and then come away again next spring. That said, chives are such a hardy plant you can repot them and bring them inside for harvests over the winter months. Dig up a clump, put into a pot and leave outside until the tops die right down. Then bring it inside into the warmth and in a few weeks you will have chives ready to harvest again!

It’s not too late for a few final winter plantings of brassicas, carrots, silverbeet, winter lettuce, rocket, miner’s lettuce and mache. Get these into the ground now and you will enjoy their harvests through late winter and early spring.

Pumpkins, garlic, onions and shallots should be safely out of the ground and in the store by now. It’s probably almost time to dip into the first pumpkin of the season – if you haven’t already – and whip up a batch of your favourite pumpkin soup. I love this spicy Thai version and it’s a recipe you can freeze as well.

Although best known as a cookbook author and publisher, Annabel Langbein is also a highly experienced and knowledgeable gardener. She studied horticulture at Lincoln University and for many years has grown her family’s fresh produce in her gardens and orchards in Wanaka and Auckland. Her seasonal harvests are the inspiration for many of the inventive but easy recipes in her books and TV series.

For more great Annabel Langbein recipes see annabel-langbein.com