Gardening in North Otago NZ October 17th 2009

I have been busy getting my garden presentable for all the Spring Quarry tours that have started, but have still been planting out and weeding madly.
The ground is just right for planting out and not having to keep the water up to get plants established. Remember to keep dead heading and feeding flowering pansies and polyanthus as long as there is a chill in the air they will keep on flowering.

Begonias are shooting now ,they love any fish fertilisers start feeding them now to get them strong.

The coastal gardens will be quite away ahead of inland gardens, I am sure these gardens will be still getting reasonable frosts with the chill we on the coast are still feeling. Don't be in a hurry to plant out summer annuals yet, but most vegetables can be planted now.
Late frosts on roses new growth can be a problem but don't be too concerned because rose leaves recover very fast and will have new buds to open in six weeks time.
Don't et rose foliage go into the night wet, water and spray them early in the day, when the nights start warming up any dampness on them will encourage mildew.
Keep the food up to your roses now, they are making their buds and it's hungry roses that get diseased. nitrophosca is good right now on any summer flowering plants and shrubs for a quick result, use every fortnight to keep the food supply up.

It is about this time of the year that I think about keeping the weeds away from the beds I change from a spring annual show to a summer show. In these beds I cannot use bark covering because I am changing them every season so I use mushroom compost. the trick is to get rid of the surface weeds and past flowering annuals then water the bed well. Then put a thick layer of the mushroom compost on top of the wet soil. it must be a thick layer! do not dig it in! leave it on top and plant your new seasons plants into it. The mushroom compost has been heated to such a heat that it will have no weed seeds left that will germinate up amongst your newly planted plants. I use this as weed suppression method around my roses as well because I feel that bark robs too much nitrogen from the ground around roses.

.I have been spot spraying convolvulus, couch and clover, fresh new growth is coming through the ground now so its the right time to zap it, I use buster because it deals to clover where as round up won't. This must always be done on a non windy day be cause if roses get even a sniff of hormone spray it will deform the foliage and the rose bush will eventually die.

Camellias can be trimmed and shaped now, take out branches from the middle if your bush is dense and bushy. This lets the light in to help form next years buds.There should be enough gaps for a bird to fly through to get the best results from a camellia.
Some are still flowering so enjoy the flowers a while longer.

If you are keen to attract monarch butterflies on the coast, plant swan plants now but protect from late frosts until established.

Keep an eye on potatoes that are through the ground, mine got a little blackened last week... frost cloth is great and a reasonable price to buy.