Gardening in North Otago 8th December 2012

Another week with so much to be cut back in our garden, plants like tree peony which doubles in size each growing season. Don't let them swamp your garden and smother other plants, the older woody canes can be cut down to the second bud from the bottom leaving the new green stalks to be next years flower branches. By doing this now seed pods will be cut off as well which if allowed to ripen will pop all over your garden and grow. Other larger plants I have had to cut back are bush lavatera's, English abutilon, ornamental broom, false Valerian,these I have mentioned will all grow back and look a lot nicer and some flower again. So keep on cutting back anything that has finished flowering, add compost and fertiliser then fill the gaps with summer flowering annuals like cosmos, statice, begonias, salvia, marigolds, lobelia and petunias etc Begonias are really pushing through now and I see that I have lost a few of the ones I left in the ground from last year, I am guessing the rain rotted them. I did dig out and store most of them and have planted them out. The food begonias most appreciate is any fish based fertilser, as a folia spray or watered in around their roots. Hydrangeas are producing flower heads now so it is important to keep the water and food up to them, blood and bone, dry or liquid or slow release fertiliser will keep them happy and flowering well. Remember it's lime for pink and Epsom salts or aluminum sulphate to keep them blue. Fuchsias are on sale right now, they are wonderful in pots for a shady spot and because they put on a lot of growth in one season they soon become bushy and fill a pot. They are making a lot of growth now as well, if you missed cutting any back do it now, they will flower later than the ones you have cut back but will soon catch up. Tip cuttings can be taken from fuchsias now, if you spot some you like in a friends garden ask for some cuttings. Tip cuttings from Hebe's will root with no trouble as well right now. Use wet crusher dust or river sand to strike them in, never beach sand. If you are looking for something non invasive to make a show of colour against a wall why not try Abutilon (Chinese lantern ) I have seen it on offer this week in three Strong colours, yellow, orange and burgundy. I have planted yellow and burgundy together in a large container with nice lime green grass's below them, they are a rather spindly plant so I have been intertwining them as they grow, they are just starting to flower now and look great together. If you do train them against a wall you could leave some longer branches and shorten back others to get a good spread. I have also seen lillies growing in containers and water lillies in water on offer to buy this week. Plant the lillies (pot and all) into the ground in a sunny place to carry on growing. Once finished flowering dig up, remove the pot and replant. Plant the water lillies into a pot lined with old thickish fabric a good amount of stones on top, then garden soil with general slow release fertiliser or a little old stable manure for the roots of the water lilly to tap into. Lastly a good amount of stones on top to stop fertiliser leeching out into the pond water. Roses are well in flower now so keep the water and food up to them to keep them healthy. Remove spent blooms and any leaves that show signs of rust or black spot and they will keep producing blooms from now until the beginning of winter. have had to continue lifting the branches on trees that were casting too much shade over other plants. It's the lower branches that can be removed without making the tree look as though it has been cut. The upper branches will hide the cuts, so any branch growing downwards with a canopy branch directly above it can be cut back or removed altogether. Lawns keep feeding lawns, dry lawn fertiliser must only be applied when we get rain to wash it in but a liquid fertiliser is fine any time. Lawns get really stressed from now on as the hot summer progresses. If your lawns are inclined to crack when dry they have probably been planted on clay soil. Apply gypsum , ( soluble lime) and water in, after a couple of years of doing this your lawns will have a spring in them. Gypsum works it's way through the clay and makes it become more like soil. Vegetables I have had to keep the water up to my veg garden this week, the pumpkin leaves soon let me know when it is needed, a few more night showers would be much more beneficial than hosing. But the vegetables and fruit are doing well so far this year, keep the hoe going because the weeds are doing well also. The days being warm and the nights a little cooler is just right for growing. I am amazed that the white butterfly is still not about in my garden! not that I want them laying their eggs on my veg plants, long may it last. . Tomatoes will be getting taller and beginning to fruit now, the removal of over half the leaves on a plant will benefit your plants by letting the fruit have more nutrients, eliminating shade from the ripening fruit and letting sun in to encourage flowering. With less leaves flowers to become more visible to insects for pollination. Try it and see if you get a better crop. Gardening by the moon Thursday, 13 December 2012 Garden: Water carefully, using fingers to make sure that the ground is getting wet where you need the moisture. Harvest garlic and onions, if ready Weed and prepare beds, aerate surface of all unmulched beds with a hoe. Sow late crops of cucumbers, courgettes, beans and basil Sow peas, rocket and corriander in shade plan and sow seed for Autumn crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, silverbeet, spinach, celery, carrots, beetroot, brussels sprouts, kale swedes, turnips and radish, Continue regular foliar feeds of gross feeders with liquid comfrey or liquid manure, and foliar feeding with fish / seaweed foliar food. transplant leeks into garden for Autumn, Winter use Sow flower seed for late Autumn / Winter / early spring flowering - snap dragon, calendula, marigold, sweet william, hollyhock, granny's bonnet (aquelegia) Orchard: Pinch growing tips out on your fig trees to encourage growth to go into fruit Net and harvest ripening fruit Watch moisture levels carefully - especially young trees Cheers Linda