Gardening in Waitaki 3oth April 2025

Nature has been kind to us. We enjoyed some lovely days over Easter and the school holidays. The autumn colours are simply stunning, becoming even more vivid as we head into May. In the garden, winter preparations will be well underway. Summer-flowering perennials and annuals are still being cut back. Soft plant material can go straight onto the compost, while tougher, woody stems are better shredded or discarded. The more organic matter we can return to the soil, the healthier our gardens will be. Now is the perfect time to sow spring-flowering seeds. Early sowing gives plants a head start, and seedlings, nurtured through winter, will grow stronger than new seedlings purchased in spring. Although top growth slows down over winter, root systems continue developing underground. Seeds to sow directly outside now: Alyssum, aquilegia, calendula, cornflower, perennial lupins, statice, stock, and sweet peas. Seeds to sow under cover: Antirrhinum (snapdragon), dianthus, pansy, viola, poppy, scabious, sweet William, polyanthus, primrose, and primulas. If you haven't yet lifted your gladioli corms, do it soon. After cleaning and drying them, dust with flowers of sulphur before storing them in old pantyhose or paper bags, never plastic. Tall asters, which have been flowering beautifully, will now be flopping about without support. Make a note to cut back their new growth by half at the end of September; this will encourage bushier growth rather than tall, leggy stems. Asters also tend to exhaust the soil, so it’s important to divide clumps regularly once they finish flowering. Leave hydrangeas to complete their wonderful autumn show. I've been taking hardwood cuttings lately, as I can never have enough of these beautiful plants! Hydrangea cutting tips: Choose non-flowering shoots from the base or sides of a mature plant. Select cuttings in the morning, 5–6 inches (12.7–15.2 cm) long, cutting 2 inches (5.1 cm) below a leaf node. Remove lower leaves, keeping the top pair, and trim these by half to encourage rooting. Dip the base of each cutting in rooting hormone (liquid or powder). Plant into a mix of 1 part potting mix or peat moss to 1 part river sand, making sure the mix is damp. Insert cuttings about 2 inches deep and place them in a sheltered, lightly shaded spot outdoors. Cuttings usually root in 2–3 weeks, depending on conditions. Roses: As roses and other plants wind down for the season, diseases like black spot, mildew, and rust can appear—this is quite natural at this stage of the year. Lawns: With frosts on the way, lawns will begin slowing down. Apply a dressing of lime now to keep them healthy over winter and reap the benefits come spring. Try to stay off wet lawns as much as possible to prevent soil compaction, which can cause bare patches. May is also the last chance to treat for grass grub before they hibernate—remember to water in granules after application. Vegetables: Pumpkins should now be fully ripe. I like to line mine up along a sunny wall out of the rain to dry and finish ripening. If they sound hollow when tapped, they're ready to harvest. Wet soil brings out snails and slugs, so protect young seedlings by using clear plastic bottles as cloches—simply remove the caps and cut off the bases. These mini greenhouses also help keep seedlings warm on chilly nights. Easter or Anzac Day are traditional times for sowing broad beans, but it's still fine to plant them now. Along the coast, take advantage of the warm soil to sow or plant: leeks, turnips, broad beans, silver beet, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, peas, beetroot, and broccoli. Fruit: Now’s a good time to remove dead wood from stone fruit trees like plums, nectarines, and peaches. If you're thinking about planting fruit trees, bagged plants available now will have the whole winter to establish strong root systems. Otherwise, bare-rooted trees will be hitting garden centres in June and July. Cheers, Linda

Gardening in Waitaki April 23rd 2025

Autumn in our Public Gardens:

The dampness continues in Waitaki as leaves fall, gardens and lawns are still holding green and should continue to do so a little longer if moisture is kept up. Summer potted annuals will be looking tired now, but deadheading and foliar feeding will keep them flowering through autumn. Here on the coast, we can still enjoy colour during winter if bedding plants are prepared now. The idea is to utilize the warmth from now on to encourage individually potted plants to bud, and harden for planting before frosts get heavy. Bedding plants that respond well to this method are pansy, viola, polyanthus, wallflower, stock, calendula, and primula malacoides. It is so worth taking the time to pot individual young seedlings into single pots for root development and to become acclimatized to early winter conditions rather than buying plants that have been forced into flower. I place these pots on trays and store them in a well-lit, shady place until frosts begin, then the trays are put in a sunny spot to bud up. Keep dahlia deadheading up to encourage a last vibrant show, but leave roses to make seed heads now. Rust is always a problem on roses in autumn because all resistance will be going into seed heads and hardening wood. Strip affected leaves from bushes as well as those on the ground and burn them. Carnations can be layered now, pin the center of a stem down under the soil while still attached to the mother plant, with the flower end exposed, and roots should form along the buried stem. Once rooted, cut from the mother plant and pot up to grow on before planting out in lime-sweetened soil. This layering method can be applied to many herbs, plants, and shrubs. Lawns. There should be a lot of new lawns being sown, don't worry about annual weeds appearing as the grass germinates, most will disappear after the first mow. All lawn weed sprays are too strong for new grass. Birds are after grass grub in lawns now, while grubs are feeding on grass roots close to the surface, you have until the end of May to deal with grass grub, after that they tunnel down too deep to be affected by the granules. Fruit: This is proving a good season for apples, quince, pears, and walnuts. The more I read about the health benefits of eating walnuts, I feel we should all have access to a tree, or maybe more walnut crops being planted for future generations. The East Coast is said to be the preferred place for growing walnuts, they need a dry climate, with a high summer temperature and winter chilling (down to -10ºC). Walnuts are self-pollinating, but the more trees you have, the better the pollination rate. Young walnut trees won’t be producing at economic levels until about Year 8. Vegetable Gardens will be ready to plant out new crops for the cooler seasons, root veg seeds will only germinate well while the ground is still warm. Corn and pumpkins should be coming to an end now and tomato crops almost exhausted. Water tomatoes early in the day to ensure plants are dry going into the night. Cheers, Linda.

Gardening in Waitaki April 15th 2025

Easter  break soon and North Otago will be glowing in Autumn splendor " A second spring when every leaf is a flower "   (Albert Camus If the weather holds, it will be a joy to be outside in the garden for many, I am sure. Because I have spent a good deal of my time doing that during the year, Easter break has become a time when I catch up with family. But then it was back on the job again, leaf rake and blower in hand!! Right now I am dealing with a new garden of someone else's planting after another shift, so I am doing a lot of viewing and thinking. Compost bins will be filling fast with leaves and grass clippings, adding manure and ready compost, then wetting between layers will get things decomposing while there is still warmth. Soil that is expected to produce year after year to ensure adequate growth needs a helping hand, just as farmland does. While composts and manures must be accorded their place in soil management, they are inadequate to ensure proper mineral nutrition of plants but can be supplemented by fertilisers during the growing season. Generally speaking, stable and poultry manure contain practically all the elements required, particularly Nitrogen, phosphate, and potash in a natural organic form, but manure too fresh can cause rank growth, so all the more reason to break it down with composting. As I mentioned last week, plants that will not tolerate phosphate fertiliser are Leucadendrons, Proteas, Banksia, and Erica. Dried Blood is high in nitrogen and is an easy way to replenish the nitrogen content in the soil. Plants like Polyanthus, Primulas, and Cyclamen love it and will flourish when you add dried blood to their diet. 100% Pure and Natural. Trim seeding flower heads from hebes to stop them becoming leggy with foliage only on top and bare woody branches below. During a dry autumn spell, gardens respond well to a deep, gentle soaking, especially around maples and rhododendrons but with rain being forecast, it may be a job you don't need to do. Lily bulbs will become available this month and can be planted from now until June as can all other spring bulbs apart from tulips, they are best planted during May. Vegetables  Time to dig up and divide Rhubarb crowns, mixing in heaps of compost before replanting , and a good time for sowing spinach, Snap Peas and spring onions. Fill the top of a shallow pot with Spring onions and pull them as they’re needed. Harvest Pumpkins now and remember not to remove the stalk from the Pumpkin, this stops it from rotting.   fruit: I would be harvesting apples and quince and gathering walnuts in my past large garden this week and would surely come across the odd not-found Easter egg among plants after the big Easter egg hunt in the garden. Cheers, Linda.

Gardening in Waitaki 9th April 2025

More rain this week with a temperature drop — the first frost on the coast can't be far away. It’s that waiting time of year again — waiting for the deciduous trees and shrubs to put on their spectacular autumn show before leaf drop, waiting for plants to finish flowering so they can be back. Roses: Also waiting for the roses to set seed. It’s tempting to want to tidy roses up now, but resist the urge to deadhead. As untidy as they may look, it's best to leave them until the proper pruning time in July. When a spent bloom sets seed, the plant continues drawing sap upward to feed and develop the seeds. While this is happening, the bud shoots along the stem will remain dormant, as sap bypasses them branch wood is hardening. If you remove the seed heads now, the plant redirects sap into new growth which will be too soft to survive winter. For now, the best thing to do with roses is to remove and dispose of any diseased leaves from the plant and surrounding ground. Follow this with a spray of Guild or Super Shield to help prevent the overwintering of rust, black spot, and mildew. Now is a good time to move camellias, rhododendrons, and conifers, as long as they’re still a manageable size. If wanting to shift larger specimens, trenching now in preparation for shifting during winter would be the way to go. Trenching... dig down around one half of the root ball, cutting through feeding roots, then backfill with compost for new feeding roots to establish. The other untouched side of the rootball will keep sustaining the shrub or tree until the time to relocate it. Get the last weed spraying done if needed. Driveways, paved areas, and fence lines. Choose a warm, dry afternoon when the weeds are thirsty. Any new weed seeds that germinate will likely be taken care of by the frost, so that’s it for the weed spraying until spring. In the glasshouse, start increasing light by removing any shading and reduce watering now that growth is slowing down. Lawns: If damp conditions continue, now is the time to put down grass grub granules. The grubs are actively feeding on grass roots until May, then they go dormant and reappear as night beetles around November. There’s also still time to de-thatch lawns and resow any bare patches. The soil is still warm enough to get a good strike, but not for much longer, as nights are cooling quickly. I like to give struggling lawns a dressing of sifted compost — about half a bucket per square metre — and work it in gently with the back of a rake and mow without a catcher often to add humus. This improves both light and compacted soils. If your soil is especially compacted, add some gypsum to the compost for a better result. Vegetables & Fruit: There’s still time to sow a green crop once space becomes available in the veg garden. Dig in any vegetables that have gone to seed and any annual weeds before they seed — all great for building humus in the soil. Keep planting winter vegetables. Cover any pumpkins still growing if a frost is forecast . Apply cleanup sprays to all fruit trees and fruiting shrubs that have shown signs of leaf spot. Super Copper or Nature’s Way Fungus Spray works well. Citrus trees with leaf or fruit spot can also be treated with Super Copper. Cheers, Linda

Gardening in Waitaki March 26th 2025

A few warm days this week in North Otago, with rain never far away. The Waitaki Valley is glowing gold beside its stunning aqua lakes—a true blessing. Leaf fall has begun, so it’s time to rake, collect, and start making leaf mulch that will decompose over winter. It is simply made with fallen, dampened leaves left to decompose separately from the rest of your compost. Mowing over leaves breaks them down to decompose quicker.

Now is also the perfect moment to assess the garden for trimming, shifting, and nurturing before winter sets in. Collect dry seeds and take hardwood cuttings while the soil is still warm enough for them to settle and root. This is also a great time to plant well-established shrubs, as their roots will anchor before the frosts arrive Look for runners on low-growing shrubs and climbers like jasmine, honeysuckle, and clematis—pot them up now for planting in spring. Native seedlings often sprout among shrubs or gravel; these can also be potted up and nurtured through winter. Lavatera and buddleia benefit from a good cutback now to keep them bushy through winter. Geraniums should also be tidied up—remove old stems and accumulated leaves where pests like whiteflies may be hiding. Further inland, leave geraniums intact but take cuttings as a precaution against frost damage. Late sweet pea sowings have begun to emerge. They will hold steady through winter and take off in spring. As heavy feeders, they thrive best in rotated planting areas, but if replanted in the same spot, enrich the soil with stable manure for a long flowering season. Hellebores dry out easily at this time of year, so be sure to keep them watered and well-fed with blood and bone, manure, or slow-release fertilizer. Baby hellebores growing around the mother plant can be potted up now, though they take about three years from seed to bloom. Lawns will be wet from recent rain and autumn dew, so wait for proper drainage before mowing. Raising the mower height encourages deep-rooted growth, resulting in a healthier, more resilient lawn that also supports local wildlife. Fruit & Vegetables Codling moth caterpillars are on the move from trees—trap them now by wrapping corrugated cardboard (ridges inward) around tree trunks. Once the harvest is over, remove and destroy the cardboard to reduce infestations. Continue sowing onion, radish, and spinach seeds. On the coast, plant cabbage, celery, and winter lettuce; further inland, opt for broad beans, cabbage, and spinach. Buttercrunch lettuce is an excellent choice now, as it continues to grow well into winter. Cheers, Linda

Gardening in Waitaki 2025

More rain as we move into autumn, for those who have sown an Autumn lawn it will be just what is needed but for those grain crops still to harvest not so good, tomorrow will hopefully be another warm autumn day. With nights cooling and days shortening it will not be long before the major leaf drop and Gardeners with rakes in hand. Lift branches on large spreading trees to let more light on gardens and lawns, trim back climbers like wisteria, jasmine, and honeysuckle, trim hedges/shrubs, Keep deadheading dahlia, petunias, and geraniums to keep them flowering through until the first frost. Continue to remove spent summer annuals so the ground can be worked ready for winter flowering annuals like primulas, wall flowers, polyantha, pansies & violas. Fork in some compost and wet beds well before replanting. Be on the lookout for useful self-sown seedlings like foxglove, lupin, cineraria, hollyhock, and primula melodies, I am finding quite a few of them, they can be transplanted now to settle in before winter. Peony roses are on offer now, they are worth planting with their big showy blooms taking over from the spring rhododendron displays, be careful when planting not to disturb the new shoots (eyes) forming. A peony root to be planted should contain at least 3 eyes that will eventually become stems. A root with only 1 or 2 eyes will still grow, but it will take longer to flower, they kike a good winter chilling so roots should be planted relatively close to the soil surface; only about 2-3 inches deep. Plant with the eyes facing upwards and the roots spread out. Peonies prefer sunny, well-drained, slightly acidic soil and benefit from compost added when planting, they can remain in the same spot for upwards of 70 years. Lift gladioli now and store them in a dry place, if left in the ground they may be attacked by pests. Empty my compost areas in readiness for all the incoming leaves to start again by layering lawn clippings, a good amount of animal manure and organic matter from garden clippings, and moisture and oxygen to create the necessary bacteria to start things working. Piling in grass clippings without layering is only going to suppress the oxygen needed. With the heat and rain compost will be well cooking before winter. Trees, shrubs, plants, and bulbs take so much from the soil during each growing season, that sooner than later gardens need more than Man-made fertilizers which work by feeding the plants and promoting growth and in doing so deplete the soil of humus. Lawns: Get new lawns sown now, the cooler nights and mornings are allowing the moisture to remain longer after watering and a strike will happen pretty fast. Vegetables: Good growth is still happening with the rain we have been getting, pumpkins and corn should be ready to harvest soon, dry off pumpkin and squash skins before storing them in a cool dry place. This is a good time for planting above ground annual crops that produce their seeds outside like lettuce, spinach, celery, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and grain green crops for digging in. Cheers, Linda.

Layering compost.

Gardening in Waitaki 4th March 2025

What a marvelous rain on Monday night, and then more showers today. Rain like that will keep autumn back a little longer as March is usually the ripening season, when seeds ripen, and growth slows with the dryness. However there will be no holding autumn back too long and If possible, take the opportunity to slow down along with the garden and enjoy the mellow days. This is also the time for the autumn flower display to begin—autumn crocus bursts into bloom alongside nerines, chrysanthemums are budding, and some spring bulbs are already pushing through. I spend a lot of time deadheading and cutting back, and the perennials pruned last month have already bushed up again, filling in gaps. This is a good time to mention the pruning and shaping of shrubs. Shrubs that flowered on the previous year’s growth—such as rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, ceanothus, forsythia, and coleonema (Breath of Heaven)—can be reduced in size now if necessary. There is still enough growing time left for them to recover before winter. In colder areas, all flowering shrubs should be trimmed as soon as flowering finishes, except for hydrangeas, which benefit from leaving spent flower heads on to protect new shoots through winter. Shrubs that flower on the current year’s growth—such as daisy bushes, rosemary, and fuchsia—are best left with their top growth intact until spring. Soil care is important now, following the intense heat and summer flowering and heavy rain the addition of organic matter—either dug in or left as a top mulch for worms to carry down to roots will help condition the soil for next spring. For some gardens, I need to wait until autumn leaves have been raked off or raked aside to allow a green crop to be sown before adding compost, blue lupin, mustard, or alfalfa, which will naturally enrich the soil with nitrogen. Dig it in before flowering, or simply cover it with compost before applying the final layer of pea straw if needed. Lawns: Grass grub damage will be noticeable in lawns now, with birds showing us exactly where the pests are, because lawns are soaked by the rain leave them for the birds to manage, then rake out the damaged patches and re-sow. Fruit: This is the produce gathering time freezers will be filled with stewed fruit, while jams and relishes are in full swing. Vegetables: Seeds sown now will germinate, but watch out for heat stress, cover with shade cloth to prevent drying out. If planting out seedlings, I recommend covering them as well to retain moisture and protect against white butterflies. Main crop potatoes should be well on, they need longer in the ground and should be left in the garden until the tops die back in autumn before harvest. They will be larger, thick-skinned, and should also store well. When to harvest corn: When the tassels of silk turn brown and dry the ear begins to ripen to maturity and it will start to angle away from the stalk. As the ear nears maturity the tip also changes from a definite point to a more blunted end. In this stage, the juice from the kernels changes, when pricked, ripe kernels will produce a milky white substance. If the fluid is clear, it’s not ready; if no fluid runs at all, it’s past maturity and likely inedible. Cheers, Linda