Gardening in North Otago October 30th 2010

Another lovely week in North Otago after the best Labour week end weather for many years.
Our Kanzan cherry trees are creating pink lawns and drive way here, so pretty and now the beautiful Shimadzu sakura low spreading pale pink flowering cherries are in full bloom. These are truly beautiful and deserve a spot in every garden big enough to cope with them.

Weed spraying, lawn seed sowing and mowing has been keeping me pretty busy out here, the ground is very warm now for weeds to grow before your eyes, still time to pull out or hoe and spry before they make seed and spread every where. Just watch the spray around roses, they only need a sniff of a hormone weed spry to put out stunted deformed yellowing leaves and then eventually die back.
Roses are doing well now that the nights have warmed up, keep the food and deep root watering up to them as the bud up, foliar feeding on fresh new leaves works well now along with slow release fertiliser which ensures they are feed each time they are watered. healthy well fed roses are less likely to become diseased.
Cut back Erica's and callunas that have finished flowering, this stops them from going woody, and taking all the spent Flowers off will encourage them to produce fresh new green growth for summer. If you don't cut the old flowering growth off they will make their new growth out from the old flowering growth which means they become woody at the bottom.

Cut back aubrietia, rockery plant you will only get another flowering if you do.

Cut spent flowers off hellebore's so you get the full effect of their wonderful leaves

Ployathus: They have been wonderful over the Winter but now it's time to cut them back and shift to a shady spot. They can be planted out in a sunny spot again early next Winter.

Keep feeding lawns when rain is about, powdered fertilisers need to be washed well in to stop it burning lawns during hot sunny days.

PLANT, PLANT, PLANT all Flower plants & seeds.

Vegetables:

I planted out pumpkin and squash plants that I have grown from seed, they need a large prepared area for them to ramble with a lot of compost and old stable manure dug in. The leaves will always let you know when they need water.

If you have a glass house or tunnel house why not plant some peppers, they can grow high so when their stems are strong enough bang in a stake and attach a string from the stake to the roof to support them as they grow up.

Raspberry Kane's and strawberries are doing a lot of growing now as well, They both flower and fruit up really quickly as long as they get all day sun they will ripen fast. These berries and new seasons peas are perfect for encouraging Children into the garden they all learn the results are well worth the wait.

Keep manure enriched compost up to rhubarb, if the soil gets hard and dry around rhubarb it will grow stringy dry uneatable steams.

Keep picking herbs to stop them going to seed, dry what you don't use and store away until the months when they are not available.

Drying herbs :Pick in the full heat of the day, lay out on news paper in a dry airy place until crisp, (all moisture must be gone). Then rub together into sprinkle sized bits and store in brown paper bags or glass jars.

Cheers, Linda.