Gardening in North Otago July 28th 2015

The start of another new month!! and with frosts easing here on the coast there is defiantly some growth happening. My tulips are up and all other spring bulbs are moving fast toward budding.  Only this month to go then we will roll head first into spring and leave these cold months behind us.

Tree planting should be happening in many gardens, heaps of choice available right now. I bought a well grown maple and a tall weeping white mulberry last week to enhance a couple of spots in my garden. Tree's take a number of years to reach a saleable stage and then many more years to become mature. Eight years after planting a tree will display the promise it's mature shape, planting a tree is planting life for future generations.

Roses:
I noticed while pruning that roses are budding well with the odd warm day pushing them on. If your roses have not had compost or manure now is the time to give them fertiliser, watered in well if it is powered, not so important for slow release fertilisers designed to feed each time it rains or water is applied. when roses bud up it means roots are feeding.  If weeds are growing plants are growing.

The wisteria is next to be pruned, All the long slim leaders growing out in all directions will be removed.
Once wisterias have reached the length require with one chosen leader or maybe two going in opposite directions, all other leaders can be removed. If allowed to grow a wispy new leader will eventually become as thick as a tree branch, and too many of theses become a tangled heavy mess if being trained along a balcony. Don't prune any other part of a wisteria at this time of the year because you will remove the flower buds. Reduce the size of large established wisterias once flowering has finished.

As I mentioned last week hellebore's are looking fantastic in our garden right now, once pollinated the center of the flower changes to form seed pods, when this has taken place the stems become firmer and will last in water when picked. Hellebore's seed down very readily growing masses of baby plants beneath the mother plants. These seedlings can be transplanted or potted up in the second year when they have developed two strong leaves, but will not flower until around the forth year.

Some shrubs and my bouganvillea have been badly damaged by frost, I will leave the damaged growth on top to protect the growth below then cut the damaged growth off when frosts have finished. hopefully they will all came away again come summer.

Vegetables and Fruit
The warmer North Otago mid-winter days, are perfect for planting at a time when we usually don't.  Edibles can go into the ground when it is cold and damp but none will survive in continually boggy soils, good drainage is essential with early plantings.
Garlic and Shallots are still available to plant - dig compost through soil that has been resting after the last busy growing season or fill a container and plant separated cloves of garlic approximately twice the depth of the clove. Take care not to damage garlic cloves when separating from the bulb and you could get up to 20 cloves per bulb!

Strawberries are easily planted into all kinds of containers or straight into sunny / raised garden beds. Strawberries also seem to do very well in hanging strawberry bags with an abundance of slow release food, but it would pay to wrap with bird netting once the fruit starts turning red. I enlarged my strawberry bed last year to twice the size, leaving year old plants to fruit again in one half and new runners planted into the other. However once they stopped fruiting I neglected the bed and now need to dig them all out to get rid of weeds. Once weed free I intend to add manure enriched compost, cover the bed in polythene, replant into it and fingers crossed there will never be a weed problem again!

I got really stuck into my gooseberry bushes this week, cleaned the middle out of cross over branches and took off the branches skirting the ground which lifted the bushes up enough for picking underneath. Many of these lower branches had grown roots into the ground so I potted these sections up, they will develop into good size bushes after a couple of growing seasons.

Cheers, Linda

Gardening in North Otago 22.07.2015

The cold drying winds this week and the chill they bought with them almost finished some plants off here, plants that normally stand up to what winter dishes out, I have the bougainvillea covered and young maples with such fine branches need a cover, jasmine is getting hit hard but mine are too big to cover. Over the last two weeks I have had to soak the ground around most of the exposed gardens, shallow rooted plants like rhododendron, azalea, camellias and hydrangea's are needing a good soak if we don't get rain.
It has been another week of pruning and composting here around this large, never ending garden! now all I need is the rain to take the compost down to roots.
It may look as if growth has stopped but here on the coast there is plenty of feeding going on. There are more bulbs and hellebore's coming up weekly, both would benefit now from a dressing of compost.
Pansy's, pollyanthas, and violas will be brightening up gardens, all these plants respond really well to dried blood sprinkled around them.
Dried blood is also a good tonic for yellowing camellias and rhododendrons, mix it with camellia and rhododendron fertiliser and apply if any sign of rain.
The garden shops are full of colourful sesanqua camellias in flower, different varieties of flowering hellebore's and cyclamen to brighten up porches, these plants will have been grown under protection to get them looking good so don't be too quick to plant out in the garden, let them harden off gradually first.
Take saucers out from under tubs and planters if likely to freeze again, frozen saucers will freeze the roots of plants. During the last hard frosts I had a statue burst because I had left it's bowl filled with water.
Roses:
Mulch, mulch and more mulch, applying a thick layer of mulch after a good water will protect the root zone and enable them to concentrate on root movement and budding up. Un-sprayed Pea or barley straw and well cooked compost are all ideal for mulching, I notice mulch cooking and steaming away at the resource recovery park. Old stable manure applied around the drip line before mulching will supply food until rose fertiliser is applied in the spring.
This fertiliser has an excellent level of potassium, which is the nutrient responsible for promoting large, vibrant, healthy blooms, for established roses apply 200 g (1 cup) per square metre and water in well. An application just before the end of winter is a good idea, if buds are swelling they are using food,apply again in mid December for an autumn flush of blooms. Still plenty of time to start pruning, this winter is hardening soft wood nicely and killing bugs.
Vegetable garden:
To have Christmas new potatoes you need to start thinking about sprouting them now as all varieties are available in shops. There are early and late varieties so ask about the variety you choose, a potato is not just a potato any more! Lay your seed potatoes out on a tray in a dark dry place and get them sprouting and ready to plant out when the frosts have past.
Keep sowing vegetable seeds in trays for planting out later, plant Cauliflowers and Cabbage seedlings and sow early Peas. In warmer areas you can also plant Lettuce(under cover), Silver beet and Broccoli seedlings and Onions
Asparagus crowns are now available and can be planted out in a well composted and fertilised bed. (no animal manure)

Fruit:
There will never be a better time to choose and plant ornamental and fruiting trees than right now! Each tree will have an informative label to tell you exactly what you will be buying with instructions on how and where to plant. All fruit trees need to grow in an open sunny position.

Cheers, Linda.

Gardening in North Otago July 14th 2015

Brrrrrr, this is like a blast from my childhood, consistent hard frosts and the ice on ponds becoming thicker and thicker....very tempting for stepping on as I remember! of the seven Grandies staying last week only one ended up knee deep through the ice with Scruff not far behind managing to stay sliding on top!

I did make a start on my hydrangeas before the frosts became so bad but will defiantly leave the majority until buds show signs of shooting,
However if you really must potter in the frozen garden  you can give pink hydrangeas a dressing of lime to keep them pink and blue hydrangeas a dressing of sulphate of allium or the specially prepared blue hydrangea mix that can be bought from the garden centers.

A couple of years ago at this time of the year I attacked a group of large leggy rhododendrons that had leaves and buds only on the top of long woody branches taller than myself. I was only going to cut the woody non productive wood off because the bushes were beginning to flower, however once I started I ended up cutting them all right back to a healthy bulging nodule, then they got compost and straw. In spring they soon pushed out fresh new growth and this year I see even the odd small bud with much more new growth so don't be afraid to cut these woody rhodo's back before the push of new spring growth.

More rose pruning this week, I had to invest in some new secateurs as the pair I have been using were not cutting clean. Rips on a rose prune will inhibit sealing which could result in die back sometimes claiming a whole branch.
This winter has left gardens looking bleak, I say once the pruning is done leave nature to it right now, stay warm and concentrate on planning how you want the garden to look in spring / summer, Garden centers have nice potted colour that can be bought now for potting on and kept protected ready for planting when the ground warms up. I have seen on offer pansy's, wall flower, pollyanthas and primula malacoydies which look fresh and bright planted in groups or as a border with flowering bulbs.
If interested be on the look out for any native seedlings that make it through this harsh period, remember where they are to be lifted in early spring, pot up if able and hold for a community planting on Cape Wanbrow. Alternatively lift carefully in early spring, bundle and give me a ring to collect, I have a willing group of 6 & 7 year old's in my Weston School gardening group who will happily pot them up.

If you planted Tulips in May they may take longer this year to come through the frozen ground but they should make an appearance soon. When they do don't give them any fertilizer as this will only promote leaf growth, it's the bloom we want, tulips store the food required in their bulb.

Vegetables:
The only thing I have done this cold week is pull up a few carrots and parsnips for soup, the board beans are standing up to the frosts as are tough leaf veg.

Fruit
Winter is the time to find the best selection of fruit trees in garden centres, they are all grafted and tall growing, plant up to where the soil came to in the bag then stake well to protect against the wind.
If coddling moth has been a problem thought can be given to eradication now. Full grown larvae pass the winter in a cocoon beneath loose bark or in ground litter. Pupation takes place in the spring when moths begin emerging about the time apple trees are in bloom. They lay an average of 50 to 60 eggs on leaves and twigs and once eggs hatch the larvae feed briefly on leaves, then damage fruit by boring into the centers. Larvae feed for three weeks, then leave to seek a suitable place to spin cocoons. There are two generations per year.
A tip I have given before and have been told works is quarter fill a tin or plastic milk container with treacle and hang in the tree to attract male grubs, treacle is said to smell like the female coddling moths pheromone which will attract the male grub into the container to reach a sticky end. A double bonus is that the treacle will attract grub eating birds.

Cheers, Linda
rockvalegardensgmail.com

Winter is harsh this year but can still find flowers braving the elements.

Some good frost this week to harden wood off but the mild weather we were getting there are on the coast encouraged spring bulbs and budding.

Once plants move into the first stages of budding they should continue on during the sunny winter days. Shrubs like camellias and rhododendrons have plump buds, winter sweet and Daphne bholua have budded and have been in flower for a couple of weeks wafting lovely fragrance around my garden. Daphne bholua is a must for cold inland gardens having derived from Nepal's high altitude regions but unfortunately resents exposed coastal conditions.

Dahlias, gladioli, and peonies are in Garden centres this month, they can be planted now in good draining soil to avoid rotting.
As I mentioned last week, If young trees or shrubs need transplanting now is a good time to do it whilst they are at their most dormant stage. Remember to continue protecting plants like Margarete daisies and pelegoniums and small seedlings with frost cloth if in severe frost area.  If like me you are still finding zillions of leaves that missed the autumn rake up why not fill large black rubbish bags with them,add a little water then leave to rot. Leaf mulch is such natural benefit to soil, we tend to remove them all at leaf fall stage because they look untidy, rotting leaves down to black leaf mulch means they will not be noticed when put back on the garden for the worms to take down into the soil. 

Pruning of trees is still going on here, as well as some older roses and sheltered hydrangeas. Cut back hydrangea canes that have flowered at the second bud from the bottom, leave all canes that did not flower because these will be the new seasons flowers. In colder areas I would leave hydrangeas until they start bursting bud. 

This is a good time to reduce the width of gardens, I find trimming grass edges with a line trimmer tends to increase in width slightly each year, to the point where after a number of years I need to reduce width by filling in with sifted soil back to the original line and resowing with grass seed. Garden borders do not need to be wide to give a colourful display, wide borders mean digging and unnecessary work and expense filling them.

If you have borders getting choked with clumps of bulbs leaving not a lot of room for other plantings put a sharp spade through the clumps now and remove half before the bulbs put on too much new growth. 

At this time of the year I make a few trips to the Waireaka Valley Lions Club sawdust and sheep manure stand, volunteers clean out calving sheds and under shearing sheds to keep the stand topped up for keen gardeners. The sawdust is used on some garden pathways and can also be used on wet gardens as a weed suppressant while helping to absorb excess moisture. I use sheep manure on the compost heaps, the vegetable garden and around the roses when horse manure is not at hand. 

Vegetables: In cold areas start raising vegetable seeds for spring planting in glass houses or under glass or plastic with ventilation spaces to circulate air and stop seeds going mouldy. 

On the coast plant seedling plants that are now on offer along with garlic cloves. 

My comfrey tea has been steeping for some weeks and is ready to strain and bottle. Gardeners have long known the advantages growing comfrey,  sending it's roots very deep down into the soil to tap into much needed nutrients. Comfrey is fast growing, high in potassium and can be cut back again and again. Put a handful of comfrey leaves into a bucket of rainwater and let them rot down for around 6 weeks to give you a rich liquid fertilizer for plants. 

Uses for comfrey around the garden. 

1. Compost activator, add to your compost bin to heat up the decomposing materials and enriches compost. 

2. Lay comfrey leaves in a potato trench and leave for 3 days prior to planting seed potatoes to give them a potassium rich boost. 

3. Use as a Comfrey leaf mulch around plants, by layering leaves around the stems of plants, potassium will slowly be released to the plants as the leaves break down – Great for tomatoes, beans and fruit bushes.

4. Use wilted leaves as a nutrient rich Chicken feed.

I was given comfrey by a kind Gardener roots and would be happy to give a starting section of root as this comfrey is not often offered for sale.

Cheers, Linda

linda.lsw@gmail.com

Early flowering sasanqua camellia