Gardening in North Otago October 31st 2009

Labor weekend gone already! count down now until Christmas.



It takes about 6 weeks from now on from seed to flower... so if bedding plants are put in now they will be flowering beautifully by Christmas.

I have found the growth to be stop start with the cold nights and days we have been experiencing. Some of the bedding plants I have grown with protection then hardened off for a week with no protection are going strong and will not look back when planted out.

Lack of sun and wet soil through the cold nights is not a great start to newly planted annuals, if you see some of yours dying off take them away from the others as soon as possible so that mould and fungus will not spread to the others.



Start feeding everything now, except azaleas... they are fed after they have flowered.

The winter roses have almost finished flowering, now it is time for their lovely leaves, give them a dressing of blood and bone and a spray each time you spray the roses to keep the green fly off them.



The hostas are making lots of growth now, time to spray or water on fish manure or put slug bate around them. Some go as far as putting broken egg shells or gravel as a barrier to the slugs.



The climbers are all taking off now, don't let them be the boss get in and wack them back to where you want them to be.

I have to keep at mine all the time at this time of the year, they are strangling near by trees, growing along the ground, shooting miles up into the air. Don't be afraid to tame them now because with the days warming up it will not hurt them at all.

The longer you leave ivy the harder it is to trim so get into it before it makes hard wood.



Pinch out the tops of chrysanthemums, tall and dwarf, not everyone is as ruthless as me in cutting them back twice before they make their final buds in mid December. But it is important to pinch them out to keep them bushy.

remove tops when they are about 20 cm high and pinch the next lot of shoots they make at about 10cm high. You will find it well worth doing this to end up with a bushier plant with a mass of blooms.



I have been pulling out the self sewn seedlings like honesty and other weedy things while they are still smallish and I can still get into and around the plants. Another 2 weeks and every space will have filled up, the ones I miss I will cut the heads off before they seed and spread if I see them.

I am still ripping out biddy bid by the barrow load, the plan is to get every last bit before it seeds and take note this time next year if I have beaten it.



my grapes are starting to leaf up now, if your grapes suffer from powdery mildew each year you will need to spray them every 2 weeks until the grapes are full size with saprol or home made baking soda spray,( some say this works) For gray mould use copper or bravo. lets hope we have some sunny days to bring the bees out to pollinate the fruit flowers.



All vegetables can be planted now, it's such a battle with the weeds in my conventional ground level veg garden so Bob and I are replacing it with two high raised beds using, yes you guessed it, Oamaru stone with a ravel path between and gravel right around the beds, no more muddy shoes I will be able to just reach into the raised beds and dig the veg out with a trowel. I have planted veg and herbs in my no dig garden which are growing well with not having to compete with weeds.



Our garden out here is looking lovely right now so I have had the open sign out and will keep it out from now on, people are welcome to come and enjoy the garden any time. There is a donation box and the proceeds help with the on going up keep.









Cheers Linda.