Gardening in North Otago 2nd April 2013

I hope all were able enjoyed the fantastic Easter weather, and now we are into April, the cooling down month. With evenings and mornings cooling down thank goodness days stay warm a bit longer here yet for growing to continue. With changing weather it’s important to be vigilant in the garden this month. Autumn here in North Otago is more predictable than spring or summer I feel. Autumn is a time to reap and sow lest all be lost to the frost! Thus gardening commentators always suggest to gardeners to apply potash to their plants as winter starts to approach and to avoid too much nitrogen. The potassium hardens up plant growth and helps prevent damage from winter chills. With the ground drying out really fast I am busy keeping the water up to plants and trees. I notice even some of my large established evergreen trees are starting to show signs of being dry and need turn about with the dripping hose. If we do get rain feed rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas with acid fertiliser, make sure it gets well washed in. The still days are great for allowing the brilliantly coloured leaves to remain on trees longer and for raking those that fall, into piles, which will make such good humus for the garden when composted down with manure, grass and soft hedge clippings. I have been viewing the light situation around my garden before all the leaves fall, trees and shrubs get taller and wider every year and block out light. I have made a note of what trees & shrubs to reduce in height and width and which trees and shrubs to remove altogether. Sometimes one tree or shrub will do the job of two or three that are in one spot. I am ready to sacrifice trees that give little interest for trees close by that offer more and shrubs that have grown too big in the front of a garden hiding what is behind need to be cut back, wrenched for shifting later or shifted . I have at times changed the whole look of gardens by removing a few things, letting more sun in then planting out sun loving plants. Here on the coast keep cutting back large daisy and lavatera bushes to encourage new buds that will flower over the next two months. Also get all hedges cut back now before frosts start and it should be the last cut until the new growth in spring especially photinia bushes and hedges, a trim now will encourage nice bright red leaves to brighten dull winter days. It is a great time to clean up garden areas that have been flowering all summer and to visit the garden centres (here on the coast only) to choose more plants for planting now to bud up and bloom through the winter, as long as they are planted while the ground is still warm to get the roots going and will continue to get winter sun they will bloom. Plant: Viola, snapdragon, pansy, polyantha's, stock, calendula, wall flowers, sweet William and good old primula malacoidies If you want to plant evergreen shrubs other than conifers now is the time or wait until the frosts are over, once frosts start it is only deciduous trees / shrubs and conifers that will cope with the really cold nights that can be safely planted, and still time to get spring bulbs in. Hybrid clematis are still on offer, they are the lovely huge bloom, deciduous type and are not as invasive as the Montana variaty. They love being planted into warm autumn ground and are so pretty growing in with other climbers and climbing roses that flower at a different time to them. All clematis like manure and lime. Lawns: This is a good time to spray lawn weeds and apply sifted compost to lawns ( a bucket to the square metre) with some lime added, the compost will improve the humus content and the lime will condition and sweeten the soil. If you have had a good strike with a newly sown lawn delay cutting until grass is 7-8 centimetres high, set the blades high and avoid cutting when the ground is wet and soft. Veg: I have dug the last of my potatoes and stored them with a covering of herbs like I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. The peas I put in a couple of week ago are up and making growth. I dug around a clump of yams but they are still too small so will leave a while yet and have not harvested any pumpkins or butternut yet, will leave growing as long as they can before the first frost. Time to dig up and divide Rhubarb crowns, mixing in heaps of compost before replanting. A good time for sowing of Spinach and Snap Peas &Spring Onions. Fill the top of a shallow pot with Spring Onions and pull them as they’re needed, start thinning when plants are still quite small. Gardening by the moon 10th - 19th April NEW MOON PHASE – the best time to sow or transplant leafy annuals (we eat the leaf or stem), and flowering annuals and grains. Also sow annual grasses, green manures, and apply liquid fertilisers. Mow lawns to encourage growth. This is the second best phase to sow or transplant fruiting annuals. Cheers, Linda