Gardening in North Otago 4th June 2013

Well the camping started well with sun and a row up the river Thames from our camp site at Reading, situated just past Henley where the setting up for the famous Henley Royal ( rowing) regatta was taking place. But then it all turned to custard with heavy rain all that night and more for cast for the days to follow..... tents, rain, mud and small Children, not a good combination anywhere in the World , so pack up we did. The drive back to Brighton on the M4 for an Oamaru country Gardener was nothing short of horrendous with four bumper to bumper lanes, driving rain, fog and three bored Children. I am sure you can conjure up a picture of this in your minds! but all good in the end the sun is now shinning and we are three days into the School holidays here in the UK! A few days on and the days have been lovely in this sea side City, hoards of people swarm in off the trains for the Brighton experience, I like to spend time in the parks where gardens are planted full to bursting with spring flowering perennials and their fragrance, even the occasional early peony rose fat red tipped buds ready to explode open. Roses are poised in early bud stage waiting for longer periods of sunshine to become the promised summer blooms. If I were back in my garden at home, this being the beginning of June The pea straw would still be going on helping to keep the moisture in the ground for Spring growth. Keep tiding up perennials that need to rest now and divide overgrown plants and lant rooted cuttings from the outer edges of perennial clumps, if you think the mother plant is past it's best dispose of it. Keep planting lilium bulbs. These are best placed in raised beds. Don’t let the roots dry out at all. Make early plantings of gladioli in well drained sites for November flowering. Roses will have finished flowering now, as soon as the leaves fall I spray Lime Sulphur first, then wait several weeks before spraying Champion Copper and Conqueror Oil ( I usually leave this spraying until after I have pruned in July) to eliminate powdery mildew, lichen and moss. Clean up dead leaves under rose bushes to prevent the spread of pest and disease. New seasons bare rooted roses should be arriving in Garden centers soon, prepare ground ready now by digging in old stable manure or bagged rose mix. If planting a rose in the same place a rose has been growing, you will need to remove most of the soil that rose was growing in and replace with soil from another part of the garden, disease is transferred very quickly from one rose to another. Roses planted at this time of the year are less likely to suffer from planting stress. Re-pot container grown buxus every second year or if they look pot bound.Trim the outer roots and replace any loose soil with new potting mix. Buxus make a huge amount of root growth every year and do not seem to suffer from the removal half of these roots from the outside of the root ball. Plant polyanthus, pansies and snapdragons for a bright patch of colour, a few poly's in a pot is all that's needed to brighten up any doorway. Once wisterias have lost all leaves, prune off all long and unruly canes because if you don't they will entwine themselves around established branches and keep growing thicker each year. Lawns; Growth should have slowed right down now and lawns will be at the tuffty stage, our lawn mowers are usually on the go until the last of the leaves have been picked up. Vegetable On the coast Sow broad beans, garlic, shallots and rhubarb. Colder areas nothing much can be planted. Cheers, Linda