Gardening in North Otago September 17th 2013

Having a lovely Nana time with our latest Grand child,sweet Tahlia, the one good thing for us that came from the strong winds experienced. Our Daughter with new Baby was affected enough by loss of power where she lives that she needed to come home to us, Ya! But back to spring gardening, I have been enjoying the blossom, bulbs, sun and bee's, planting out bedding plants and putting the finishing touches to new garden theme designs this week. I think every gardener enjoys trying new plants and colour combinations. I had a large clump of lambs ear growing in my rockery which did not need to be so large so I dug half of it out and broke it up into single plants to use around the border of a garden and as silver drifts in among low annuals. Silver is a perfect shade to use as a break between strong and soft shades, will grow in sun or semi shade and lambs ear has the added bonus of being an interesting texture. Keep an eye on seeds if you have them germinated, until now I have had mine under glass and some hardening off under frost cloth and looked at them only occasionally to see if they had struck, this week I noticed they were well up and in need of thinning out and regular watering. I thinned them by transplanting some like Pansy and lobelia which have shallow roots into deeper seed trays and those with longer deeper roots like lupin, hellebore and Oriental poppy into their own individual small root pots. The shallow rooted plants transplant well into the garden or baskets from a tray but it is best to have a well developed root ball attached to the stronger, deep rooted seedlings when planting out. Baskets and pots need to be thought about now, again use only shallow rooted plants for baskets like pansy, lobelia, small type petunias, nemesia, and trailers like Virginia stock and nasturtium, with the addition of slow release fertiliser and water Chrystal's to keep them going. The roots of what you want to plant will determine the size and depth of the pot. Potted roses need a deep pot which will not heat up and cook the roots at the height of summer. Tin foil around the inside of a pot before filling,( shinny side facing out) will help keep roots cool for roses, camellias, azales, hydrangeas and small trees & shrubs. All potted plants need excellent drainage and a consistent supply of food and water. if a potted plant is left to really dry out before each watering it will never thrive or look lush and healthy. Now is the time to take tubular begonias out of dry storage, I see mine are starting to sprout a little. I cut large tubas with a sharp knife into smaller individual pieces each with a noticeable shoot to become new tubers ready to plant into baskets and containers and when the tubers become too large for a pot I will cut into sections again. The showy red flamboyant begonias become nice big tubas in time and by cutting sections off them each year you will achieve a bright front boarder of them in no time. It's best to lift them at the end of their growing season because like dahlias they can rot in wet ground over winter. All begonias love any fertiliser with a seaweed of fish content Roses are really leafing up now and the warmer it becomes the more aphids ( green fly) will be about, aphids settle on the top new growth of rose bushes and are easily visible on new small leaves for you to dispose of by removing with finger and thumb. I leave spraying until leaves are well grown and hardened up a little. New lawns sown on the coast should result in a strike now that the ground is warmer, as I have mentioned before seed must be sown thickly in spring to beat the annual weeds. Keep the mower blades up when cutting spring grass to allow it to thicken up and feed lawns just before or during rain and they will stay lush. Vegetables Here on the coast Plant lettuce plants at two week intervals and any spare ground could be planted out in new potatoes. My board beans are well up, I was once told to plant each bean with a little pot ash to help with rust problems, they still get a little rust but I think that's probably due to them getting too dry between watering's, like corn, roots are well up near the surface, mounding soil up over roots stops them becoming exposed and drying out too quickly. Strawberries are starting to move towards budding, they need fed, watered and mulched, animal manure and straw, pine needles or un sprayed grass clippings will do the trick. I have started my patch again with new runner plants that are too small to put straw around yet and notice the birds are scratching around them so have had to cover with strawberry net until they grow bushier. Cheers, Linda.