Another week, so far without rain even though the sky's continue to show it is up there wanting to spill!
The later flowering cherries are taking center stage now, prunus Kanzan and prunus shimidsu sakura but unfortunately here in North Otago, at this time of the year strong winds can soon strip blossom.
Now that it's planting out time and there is a lot on offer it's probably a good time to talk about plants for the right place. starting with dry areas of the garden, under hungry trees or areas that drain too readily. You will be wasting your time and money planting shallow rooted plants like rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas or hellebore's in these areas. It's best to group plant with plants that will work their roots down to look for moisture like:
Euphorbias in all their varieties, colours and sizes
Agapanthus: large and small varieties they are great on a slope.
Buddleias: To fill gaps at the back of a border, lovely sliver blue foliage and blue to cerise/ purple flowers, must be cut back well after flowering to keep bushy and at the height you require them to be.
Grass's always look good grouped together as they are in nature, they do well in the dry and add movement to the garden wafting in the wind.
Geraniums also require little attention in a dry spot once established but do need water until established.
Lupins: Are wonderful in big groups, they also need water until they become established, after the first flowering they will self seed to make their groups larger.
All these plants once established will cope with dry conditions.
Damp, Shade loving plants to consider:
Hydrangea, such a lovely bush in so many modern shades now.
Hostas with their interesting leaves
Heuchera: Not all shade loving plants have to be green. Heuchera plants come in a delightful variety of colors. Plant these as borders around the base of trees or even along the edge of walkways!
Acanthus mollis: This is my favourite bold grouping plant, I have it planted in so many problem spots and area's where a statement plant is required.
Aluminum plant: (Ground cover) would be too invasive for a small area but in an area that drives you potty because what you have planted just sits long enough to be taken over by weeds this plant is fantastic with it's variegated leaves lighting up the darkest of area's, it covers the ground in no time.
Hellobores: (Winter rose) A must for every shade garden.
Bedding plants: All bedding plants, once planted need attention, water and folia feeding. I sifting soil for resowing patches in the lawn and decided to use the sifted soil as a top layer to soil before planting annuals and seeds. Sifted soil packs round new roots firmly so they don't dry enabling roots to grow quickly. Soil, is after all nature given for growing in and here long before we had so many other growing medium choices!
Hydrangea's are leafing up now and will need fed ready for their long flowering season, aged animal manure is a good food source for them, they are shallow rooted so need watered often. To keep pink use a little lime around the drip line and for blue you use alliumn sulphate or epsom salts, These must be watered in and not just left on top of the roots.
Ponds: I know wrote about ponds not long ago but forgot to mention with the warmer weather quickening up pond growth it's time to watch for slime developing which is harmful to fish if caught in their gills. A good way of clearing a pond after Winter is to flood it and most of the rubbish will float off, don't stir up the bottom as long as the water is clear on top the pond is working. If a pond fills with green slime in the warmer weather it means that there is too much nitrogen in the water, maybe fertiliser drifted in when lawns or gardens were being feed. Or, if you feed the water lilies with Manure some may have leached out into the water. Depending on the size of the pond put in a few slabs of old straw in weighed down with rocks and leave it to rot down. This works wonders on murky pond water and will get the pond working and clear in no time. I will tackle the oxygen weed next, this is very good as a mulch on the garden, removed half of it before the fish start to breed and blow their eggs into it. When I first added fish to my ponds I just put in some oxygen weed from a pond full of fish and the baby fish eggs all hatched, and with no other older fish in the pond to eat the eggs or hatching's they had no predators so all survived.
Vegetable garden: Keep molding up potatoes as they show leaf, this keeps them cooler allowing more time for them to grow a bigger crop.
I have sown mixed lettuce seeds in a tray and plan to transplant them into the garden as I need them, lettuce seedlings will hold in a tray for a long time in a shady spot and only really start growing when they are planted in a sunny spot and fed and watered. The broad beans took a hammering in the winds this week and needed a couple of good soakings, flowers are turning into small pods so the bees eventually found and pollinated them. Perfect veg growing conditions now, every seed planted is up and doing well here.
Cheers Linda.
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