Gardening in North Otago August 26th 2014

Some sunny days this week but still that chill in the air to hold spring back a little, but that is as it should be and the chill holds the bugs back as well.
I have noticed the absence of bees here in my garden even on the sunny days which is a worry because my apricot tree and early peas are in flower as I am sure other Gardeners are. How needed those busy bees are in the very important part they play in Nature.

Garden centers are filling up with wonderful well grown bedding plants, some even in flower which makes me think they will need to be hardened off before being planted out while frosts are around. The best idea is to buy while there is a good selection on offer and hold them in a sheltered place out doors for a week or two before planting out.

Roses on sale now are all leafing up in their bags, it is still ok to plant them for a while yet while the ground is moist and cold. They will be making feeder roots into the the planter bags so planting will need to done carefully from now on so not to disturb those new feeder roots.

We have had the hedge trimmer out to clean up winter top growth, on plants like catmint, ericas, abutilon, lavatera, pittosporums, dentata lavender and erigeron daisy I have as edging all of these have started pushing out new seasons growth and will recover from a cut back very quickly at this time of the year here on the coast.
Trees and shrubs
There are some lovely magnolias and michelia's flowering in gardens now and on offer in Garden centers, all in bud. However to get plants to look so good this early in the South Island they will have had protected growing conditions so if buying I would enjoy them in their planter bags protected from frosts for a while before planting out. One lovely small magnolia I noticed is called Fairy blush, it is an evergreen which grows bushier and smaller than the original Grandiflora magnolias. This one can be grown as a hedge or in a large pot. magnolias resent having their fleshy roots disturbed so be very careful when planting. Also keep an eye out for flowering camellias and rhododendrons now in the garden centers, most are showing buds and flowers, this is the time to choose the right shades for your garden. Keep planting seasonal bulbs and tuberous begonias as they become available, such a great investment for every garden.

Lawns
I had the lawn mower out for the first mow of the new season in the weekend, mostly to clean up mess from the cutting back, they came up really well but will not make a move I feel until they have had a good feed during a decent shower of rain. I feed them with nitrophoska blue at this time of the year which I have found is a good boost for grass coming back from winter conditions. Like all lawn fertiliser  nitrophoska blue requires being watered in before it can become available to roots.

Vegetables
Its all on now for sowing as many seeds as you have room for and planting leaf veg before the white butterfly's arrive here on the coast,
keep the hoe moving between rows to keep weeds down, this movement will also keep soil warmer. Protection will still be needed further inland.
Seed Potatoes are available now for sprouting – place on a tray in a dry area until the ‘eyes’ are at least 2cm long. Early varieties around now include Swift, Rocket and Cliffs Kidney
Onions – spring, red or the popular Pukekohe ‘Long Keeper’ can be planted now, provided the soil is draining well.

At last I have managed to finish in my strawberry bed, weeded, cut back the leaves on plants that fruited for the first time last summer, finished planting out new runner plants, added manure enriched compost, gave a deep watering, then finally covered the bed in barley straw, Ya! thank goodness that is now out of the way.
I created a raised strawberry bed last year by using two logs high edging to raise the bed up higher than ground level, Strawberry plants benefit from manure buried in shallow trenches along the side of the rows then when they start growing a dressing of fertiliser high in potash for good fruit development, straw or pine needles around the plants keep the fruit clean and deter bugs. Putting out runners weakens a strawberry plant, best to remove the runners before new growth begins. I don't keep plants any longer that two fruiting seasons and always plant a bed of new runner plants which will take place of the second year fruiting plants which have been removed.

I also finished pruning my wine grapes, once I found some  secateurs! I have been blaming myself for being too careless but finally found the culprit, Scruff, that small shaggy dog who now lives here was caught in the act trotting off with mouth full, ready to have a chew on the handles and then leave where ever! I am missing three pair last count. Back to the grapes, I noticed the buds were swelling so needed to get the pruning done as soon as possible because once in leaf the sap is high, pruning at this stage will result in the pruning wounds bleeding. To prune a fruiting grape leader cut all side growth on the vine back to the second bud. These fruiting buds should be around a hand space apart to ensure adequate sized fruit, this means removing some of the new bud growth along the top of the leader and all of the new bud growth growing underneath. Some of these new budding top growths will throw two lots of bud branch, remove the least stronger one leaving only one lot of double buds to produce fruit.

Cheers, Linda