Gardening in North Otago 1st June 2011

This is a good time to give thought to improving the look of your garden while trees are bare and gardens are clear of full growth.
Don't cling to plants, shrubs or trees that are past their best. If they look like they are past it they probably are. Remove them and replace the spot with something fresh and worth looking at.
If you are worried about leaving a gap and lack of privacy you can always fill the gap with manuka screening until the replacement grows to the required size.
It is also time to look at the shape of trees now that the leaves are gone, remove lower branches if you think the tree would look better with more trunk showing and check young trees are not sporting double trunks. Cross over branches should be removed and if there are two branches doing the same job remove the lower branch of the two and any weak spindly growth. Some trees like silver pear and crab apples can get get a mass of branches in the center going in every direction, they look so good once they have been thinned out.
If you need to remove large branches it is important to cut at the right place and leave the basal collar in tact, ( a slanted cut leaving a short portion of the branch at the base of the trunk) as this contains cells which will seal the wound from disease.
Slim straight branches are perfect to feed through a wood mulcher , once turned into wood chip mulch they can be put back onto the garden.

If you are finding small native trees popping up around your garden which you know were not planted by you, you can be sure the birds have planted the seeds. I have them every where, now is a good time to shift these if you have room for them, or pot them up and give them to someone planting a native area.

With the mild days we are experiencing I am noticing a lot of soft new growth in our garden, all sorts of spring bulbs and annual self seeded plants are flowering out of season, it is a shame that they will suffer when frost's finally arrive, this I feel will be a year for the use of frost cloth. I will be protecting plants like forget me not, polyanthus, pansy, anemone's and ranunculus until they harden off and get used to severe frosts, once hardened off a little they will handle colder nights.

The mulch is still going on gardens here, this also helps to keep the ground warmer and moisture in as well as adding food and humus to the garden.

Leucodendrons are taking center stage now, they are wonderful for picking once fully hardened and will last for months picked and put in a vase, just the thing when there is not lot else to pick.
leucodendrons are easy to grow in the conditions they prefer, being full sun, good draining acid soil and staked and protected from strong winds until established. They will grow on dry banks and rough area's as long as they do not have to compete with grass and weeds. Leucodendrons resent any type of fertiliser and once planted and growing will die if shifted.
There are leucodendrons which grow very large, low spreaders which look great spilling over walls, low bushy types and they all add wonderful colour to a dull winter garden.

Vegetables & Fruit

Keep planting out seedling veg plants, board beans.
Winter is also the time for planting rhubarb and asparagus crowns so prepare the ground with rich composted now, get them planted and established and in no time you can make rhubarb crumble and asparagus rolls.

Black current bushes should have as much of the old dark shoot removed leaving only the light coloured smooth vigorous young growth.

Red currents will not fruit on new wood so older wood should be kept for 3 years just cut out the odd old branch yearly to encourage a few new replacements.
Give all current bushes a good two hand fulls of bonemeal or blood and bone in spring to ensure a good crop of fruit.

Cheers, Linda