Gardening in North Otago 27th August 2011

How lovely it has been this week, nice sunny days to help spring come to life.
The Garden centers are filling up with wonderful well grown bedding plants, some even in flower which makes me think they will need protection in the garden when planted out while frosts are around. The best idea is to buy while there is a good selection on offer and hold them in a sheltered place to harden off for a week or two before planting out.
Roses on sale now are all leafing up in their bags, it is still ok to plant them for a while yet while the ground is moist and cold. They will be making feeder roots into the potting mix in their bags so planting will need to done carefully from now on so not to disturb those new feeder roots.

Trees and shrubs
There are some lovely magnolias and michelia's on offer now as well, they are all in bud and look as if they need hardened off before planting, to get plants to look as good as that this early in the South Island they will have had some pretty special growing conditions. One lovely small magnolia I noticed was called Fairy blush, it is an evergreen which grows bushier and smaller than the original grandiflora magnolias. This one can be grown as a hedge or in a large pot. magnolias resent having their fleshy roots disturbed so be very careful when planting.Also keep an eye out for flowering camellias and rhododendrons now in the garden centers, most are showing buds and flowers, this is the time to choose the right shades for your garden

Lawns

It will not be to long before lawns start growing again, if there is any hint of rain I will be feeding mine with nitrophoska blue which I have found is a great boost for grass coming back from winter conditions. it requires being watered in before it can become available to roots and rain is best for this. Lawn fertilisers will burn grass and roots if left sitting on dry lawn.

Herbs
With the popular modern cooking trend these days a kitchen herb garden is a pleasure to grow and have close to the house.
It is wonderful to be able to pluck needed herbs from your kitchen garden like parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, bay, basil, to name just a few. Herbs grow happily together and all like the same growing conditions, full sun and a well nourished good draining sweet soil. This means they can grow in a small area or even a large deep good draining container. A dressing of lime in winter will sweeten the soil in time for their growing season, mid spring through to winter.
Rosemary being a woody herb will produce strong roots that will encroach on softer growing herbs so in small herb gardens plant this in the top a bucket with the bottom cut out and buried in the ground. The bucket will contain the roots. Mint can be contained this way as well.
Never plant lemon balm in a kitchen herb garden because in no time at all it will spread and choke every other plant. Best planted in a container.
Tall plants like pineapple sage, fennel and upright rosemary can be planted as a low hedge divider if you wanted to section off an area in the veg garden for herbs. A standard bay planted at each end of a herb divider hedge looks good.

Vegetables
Its all on now for sowing as many seeds as you have room for and planting leaf veg before the white butterfly's arrive here on the coast,
keep the hoe moving between rows to keep weeds down, this movement will keep soil warmer.

Protection will still be needed further inland.
Seed Potatoes are available now for sprouting – place on a tray in a dry area for a couple of weeks until the ‘eyes’ are at least 2cm long. Early varieties around now include Swift, Rocket and Cliffs Kidney
Onions – spring, red or the popular Pukekohe ‘Long Keeper’ can be planted now, provided the soil is draining well.

Last weekend I cut back the leaves on strawberries that fruited for the first time last summer, added manure enriched compost to existing plants then planted out a few new runner plants. I created a raised strawberry bed last year by using two logs high edging to raise the bed up higher than ground level, Strawberry plants benefit from manure buried in shallow trenches along the side of the rows then when they start growing a dressing of fertiliser high in potash for good fruit development.
Putting out runners weakens a strawberry plant, best to remove the runners before new growth begins. I don't keep plants any longer that two fruiting seasons and always plant a bed of new runner plants which will take place of the second year fruiting plants once removed.

Cheers, Linda