Gardening in North Otago 4th December 2010

It's dead heading roses time again, I have been laying the rose petals out on a resale table to dry for potpourri. The fragrance is wonderful as they dry and It is nice to have some on hand for confetti when there is a wedding in the garden. It is 6 weeks from cut to new bud at this time of the year.

I have found the old hellebore leaves that I had not removed are absolutely loaded in green fly!! I will cut every last one out and burn them so they do not fly off onto my waiting roses, the hellebores will make new leaves quickly.

It is so important right now to keep the water up to the roses, constant feeding and deep soaking at the roots will keep them healthy an not in need of a lot of spraying. A rose that is struggling will be susceptible to everything bad.

The night beetles are on the wing again, newly planted young trees are the worst targeted... they can strip the leaves right off, If this happens don't be too alarmed because another lot of leaves will grow and hopefully the beetles will have finished their business and laid their eggs to inflict next years grass grubs upon us! The way I dealt to them when our trees were young was to wait until just on dusk when they were thick on the trees tucking in, I then sprayed them with a kill on contact spray, this way you get rid of heaps of beetles and keep the future grass grub numbers down. Night beetles usually sleep through the day under a tree they are feeding on.

Spittle bug is here as well! this little blighter is very damaging to grass and the plants they choose to live on. The spittle is actually the sap from the plant they are feeding on which is taken in from the stem then excreted out to protect them from birds and to keep them moist.
Get rid of them as they lay eggs every 2 to 4 days. Insecticidal soap spray will get rid of them, it needs to make contact with them and will not kill eggs so keep the spraying up as new spittle bugs appear. If you would like to make your own spray try the recipe below.
Organic spittle bug killer recipe

1/2 cup hot peppers, diced
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 cups water
2 teaspoons liquid soap (without bleach)

Puree peppers, garlic and water together. Let sit for 24 hours. Strain and mix in the liquid soap. Spray ( not a forceful spray) all parts of the plant, it's the animal fat in the soap that dehydrates the bug so lightly spray off the spittle and make contact with the spray on the bug.

There is still time to get rid of weeds like biddy bid, their seeds are still green and will not spread and grow at this stage, where ever you see it pull it out, don't let the seeds ripen to grow hundreds more all over your garden. Convolvulus is another ramped weed growing right now, it has long runners that form a mat of roots just below the serface of the ground, if even a small section of root is left behind it will grow. Fat-hen is another weed that is not quite ripe yet and needs to be dealt to, all these weeds are easy to pull right now.
Most flag iris have flowered now so large clumps can be broken up and transplanted in a sunny spot. Prepare the bed by digging in fresh compost and some lime then plant, leaving half the root exposed to bake in the sun over summer. Long leaves can be cut half way back to a tent shape to reduce transpiration while reestablishing.　

　

While you can still see where your spring bulbs have been cover them with mulch to stop them drying out over summer, mushroom compost or any clean weed free compost is fine then you can plant annuals on top to fill the gaps. If large clumps of bulbs have flowered poorly this is a good time to break them up and plant out into smaller groups again using fresh compost to give them a good start.

　

The lawns are really doing their thing now after the moister days we have had, mine are looking good and I have just spot sprayed weeds and daisies as it is a good time while they are actively growing. Put liquid fertiliser in with the weed spry and feed the grass at the same time. Don't use sprayed grass clippings around the garden or in the compost, it is written on the spray container how long the with holding time is.

Some Montana clematis have finished flowering but wait a little longer before trimming back because they have not finished their new growth spurt yet which means if you do it now you will have to do it all over again in a couple of weeks. However wisterias can be dealt to now, if you already have nice strong flowering hard wood branches that flowered well and don't need any more remove all the new long trailers being put out, each and every one of these trailers if left, in time will grow into hard wood branches.
A wisteria is like a climbing tree and will take over and out grow it's place in no time if you let it.

Vegetables:
In the veg garden I have started to dig up the garlic and hang in a cool dry place, and I am picking broad beans which are producing well. Also Picking heaps of gooseberries before the birds get them.

I am madly planting out seedlings that I have grown from seed. The coolest time of the day is the best time to plant seedlings out, you are asking too much off them by planting in the heat of the day.
Don't feed leaf veg now or have the soil too rich, they will put out too much soft growth and bolt, all that is needed is moisture when dry.
I am experimenting with some of the plant concoctions to keep the white butterfly and aphids away.

there are lots of stinging nettle around now so I have followed a recipe which said Cut up 2lb of stinging nettle and leave in water for 24 hours, then sieve, so far so good but I really have not seen too many white butterflies around just yet.... I will let you know the results at a later date. The fish emulsion really dose work on the roses and is the best fertiliser for begonias but may fed the veg to richly I feel.

　

Cheers, Linda