Gardening in North Otago 22nd April 2014

The odd lovely Autumn day after all the rain during the Easter break. With the last of the weddings over here for the season I can now do some serious GARDENING! Because this is the last month to do this I inflicted the garden to more light hedge trimming and a massive amount of cutting back this week, it took only a couple of hours to create havoc and the whole of the next day to clean up. While all this was going on Scruff the pup had us scratching our heads with his disappearance, he was finally found some distance away, enjoying himself on the heels of a passing jogger!! ( no, not neglect, his lead broke) . Do not disturb peony roses, just cut back the dead tops and lay on top of the clump to protect the new growth during winter. If a clump needs divided or shifted wait until Spring. Hellebores will benefit from fortnightly feeding now to encourage better blooms. I have been removing the old foliage from mine, but in colder areas it is best to leave the top growth on to protect buds. Flowers will soon shoot up past the old leaves. When you can cut all old leaves off and destroy because green fly seem to winter over underneath hellebore leaves. Only feed bulbs and plants that are due to flower now, all other plants will be slowing their growth right down now to sleep through the winter. Don't waste good fertiliser on plants that won't use it, unless it is blood and bone which will not encourage new growth. Move all spring flowering plants in pots into a sunny spot now, plants like camellia, azaleas & rhododendrons that have been tucked away in a shady spot over the hot months. If you fed them with acid fertiliser when they finished flowering, they should be fine. If not then give them a little and water in well to give them a boost, shrubs get very hungry in pots. I shifted all my potted seedlings to a sunny spot where they should be fine through the winter months, seedlings need as much sun shine as they can get over winter, they may not look as though they are growing as they will not put out a lot of new growth on top, but with the warmth of the sun on pots and trays seedlings will be making lots of feeder roots. Damp compost heaps should be building up heat now which will remain working away through the cold months. Keep layering leaves on the compost along with animal manure,( especially hen manure which will help to heat up a winter compost), soft garden weeds, un-sprayed grass clippings and left over compost from your last lot. Give the heaps a good watering if dry to get things started. Lawn: Lawns here are still soft & soggy, best to keep traffic off them and raise the blades on the lawn mower when next mowing. I spot sprayed the lawns this week, there was quite a lot of clover and flat weeds spreading, I usually only spot spray where needed in kindness to the hard working worms. Grass seed sown now should strike but once frosts start you will need to wait for a spring sowing. Fruit: If you have laden apple trees still to ripen, pick most of them and store in a cool dry place for later. But leave as many as you intend to eat on the tree to ripen naturally, nothing nicer than ripe fruit straight from the tree, same applies to quince. I am determined not to wast them, quince paste and quince added to apple jelly and is a wonderful taste from the past. Vegetables: The broad beans, carrots and peas I planted a couple of weeks ago are well up this week, helped along I am sure by the warm rains. The ground is still warm and perfect for getting seeds & seedlings well on their way before the frosts cool things down. plant food, nothing tastes so good veg picked straight from the garden and into the pot. Cheers, Linda