Gardening in North Otago October 27th 2015

Unpredictable Spring weather in North Otago after a lovely  Labour week end. but the blossom is still holding on despite the winds. dollop of rain we got starting in the early hours of Tuesday morning made all the difference to gardens and lawns. I was out with the fertiliser before it stopped.
Roses are budding up, keep the deep root watering up to them , foliar feeding on fresh new leaves works well now along with slow release fertilisers too keep roses healthy. 
Cut back Erica's and callunas that have finished flowering, this stops them from going woody, removing all the spent flowers will encourage them to produce fresh new green growth for summer. If you don't cut the old flowering growth off they will make their new growth out from the old growth which means they become woody at the bottom.
Cut back aubrietia rockery plant and you will get another flowering, also cut spent flowers off hellebore's to stop seeds ripening, if you want to build up hellebore numbers leave a few to drop seed.
My bantams are sitting, with one lot of chickens arriving last week to the delight of our Grandies. Bantams and hens make great pets, they are docile, easy to keep and happily consume all your kitchen scraps, converting them into delicious eggs and rich manure. They are also excellent workers with their natural scratching and pecking put to use they weed, clean up fallen fruit and eat bugs. Mine have the run of our garden because it is so large but the trick for a town section would be to devise a system where they work for you, not against you, as they can be extremely destructive in the garden when left to their own devises. A bottomless chicken wire pen with wheels on one end (a mobile pen) would allow the bantams / hens to work where needed. Don’t weed or pull out anything gone to seed as this provides food for the hens, all kitchen scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, dust from vacuum cleaner bags, ash from the fire, hedge trimmings, weeds and any other organic material. The chickens will eat what they like and scratch and mulch everything else whilst adding rich manure to it all and with a laying box added there will be eggs for tea. Scruff our dog had the bantams running for cover when he first arrived but with a lot of SCRUFF NO! and being shut in each time he even looked at them he soon got the message.

Lawns:
keep feeding lawns when rain is about, to wash fertilisers in, a spring sowing is a thick sowing to choke out annual weeds. Spray flat perennial weeds in established lawns, annual weeds that grow up with new grass will eventually be mowed out. 
Vegetables: PLANT, PLANT, PLANT plants and seeds, I have planted out pumpkin and squash plants grown from seed, with a lot of compost and old stable manure dug in, they need a large prepared area for them to ramble.
If you have a glass house or tunnel house why not plant some peppers, with stakes attached from the roof for support as they grow up. Berry kane's and strawberries are doing a lot of growing now as well, They both flower and fruit up really quickly as long as they get all day sun they will ripen fast. Berries and new seasons peas are perfect for encouraging Children into the garden they soon get to eat the results of planting.
Keep manure enriched compost up to rhubarb, if the soil gets hard and dry around rhubarb it will grow stringy dry uneatable steams.

Elder flower is blooming which for me means making elder flower cordial, this is the summer drink in the UK , so refreshing with iced water. Elder berry here is considered a weed because the birds drop the seed and it grows any where and everywhere, when it pops up here in our garden I pull it out because I pick elder flowers from a bushes growing wild. I thought I would share the very easy recipe with you all. 
Elder flower cordial: 30 large elder flowers, shake to remove any insects ( Do not wash) 
Ingredients: 1k /2 ¼ lbs sugar 1.5 litres / 6 cups boiling water 4 medium lemons, washed 30 large Elder flower heads, 2 oz citric acid.
Preparation: Place the sugar into a large saucepan/stockpot or a large Pyrex bowl. (I use my croc pot) pour the boiling water over and stir until all the sugar has dissolved and leave to cool. Grate the rind of the lemons with a fine grater, add to the sugar water. Slice the lemons into thick slices and add, then the citric acid and stir, finally add the flower heads and stir again. Cover and leave to steep for 48 hours. Strain through clean fine muslin cloth into a clean bowl, then using a funnel, fill sterilized bottles. Seal and store in a cool, dark place (not the refrigerator) for a few weeks or freeze in plastic bottles to keep for longer. The cordial is delicious diluted with still or fizzy water. Once a bottle is opened store in the refrigerator. 
Cheers, Linda.
http://nzstyleforever.blogspot.co.nz/

Gardening in North Otago October 20th 2015

Rain,wind then more lovely rain to dampen gardens off after being blown to bits! but that is October and expected, so far growing conditions are ok but more rain needed to keep it that way.

Everyday something new and beautiful greats me in our garden, this week fragrant lilac, peony rose's, sweet-peas, English abutilon and Kōwhai to please the birds.

If you need to shift rhododendrons, azalea's or camellia's do it immediately after flowering, before they put on their new season growth, and if your spring flowering shrubs are in need of a trim prune them back once they have finished flowering. I large they will need a third of the top removed.

Geraniums and pelargoniums are available now and should be planted in sunny positions. 

Fuchsias are also on offer, they benefit from afternoon shade to thrive.

If you are concerned about the predicted hot dry Summer having a disastrous effect on your garden? Plenty of Mulch breaking down into your soil will help retain moisture as well as improve the soil structure  while suppressing weed growth. Mulch like straw, grass clippings, soft hedge clippings or weed free compost are excellent cover to keep exposed soil from baking while plants are establishing. Continual mulching plus gypsum breaking down into clay or poor draining soil will eventually convert this poor soil into good growing soil.

Roses should now have new growth, this is the month to feed them with slow release Fertiliser which will add nutrients to roots when ever water is applied.

Potted plants also need slow release fertiliser, re-pot any plants that have been in the same container for more than three or four years. As long as they are not too root-bound they can go back into the same pot, once most of the old potting mix is removed and fresh mix and water crystals are packed around the roots. I have just taken ornamental buxus out of the pots, removed half the roots with a sharp spade before replanting them again with new food. Buxus make more roots than they need. They will soon start taking up water and food again then send out healthy new growth.

cymbidium orchids can be divided and re-potted now if crowded.

Water lilies are available this month and need to be planted in a basket lined with sphagnum moss or a double layer of chux dish cloths will do it, then add garden soil, slow release fertiliser or manure, more soil then the lily and lastly a thick layer of shingle placed on top to help weigh the basket down in the water and stop the fertiliser / manure leaching out which will create green slime growth in the pond..

Fruit and veg:

I have been digging in fabulous pig manure, moulding potatoes, planting beans and salad greens, peas, corn and beetroot and I am determined to keep the water up to ensure that my time planting was not wasted .....I have been known to get busy and return to a limp display past restoring and have to start all over again, NOT THIS YEAR I plan green, crunchy and plentiful.! 

Watch your fruit trees and Grapes for fungal diseases, if affected spray with an organic fungicide while growth is new.

If you have had trouble in the past with codling moth, get traps in place now before fruit forms.

CODLING MOTH – Codling moths attack apples, pears, walnuts, quinces, crab apples and stone fruit such as plums and peaches. The females lay their eggs on the foliage near a young fruit and when the grub hatches it crawls to the fruit and eats its way inside. Once inside it is very hard to control. After a period of time of feeding it emerges and forms a cocoon in the loose bark or under the tree, where it will winter over to emerge as a moth in the spring/summer and start the cycle again. A female moth can lay up to 300 eggs during her short life. Some trees never attract the moth, but if one dose you can be sure others will be chosen close by.

Eradication of codling moth, quarter fill a tin or plastic milk container with treacle and hang in the tree to attract male grubs, the treacle is said to smell like the female codling 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.

Pop out to Weston soon and walk about our pretty spring garden, "Rockvale Gardens"Bring a picnic seating is plenty, toilet available / donation entry.

Cheers, Linda

http://nzstyleforever.blogspot.com

Gardening in North Otago October 13th 2015

The town of Oamaru is looking especially pretty even after all that drying wind, growth soon freshened up after the rain we were lucky enough to get on Monday night.Tulips are taking center stage now along with the beautiful bright pink blossom of prunus Kanzan. Tulips are best left after flowering until all green has been absorbed by the bulb, if like me you have a main display of them and need to get other plants in once flowered, dig them up with all still attached to the bulb and bed them, bundled into a spot in the garden where not noticed until the die back is finished. Then store them away in a box where rats can not get at them. Dead head all spring bulbs as they finish flowering, leaving them to make seed will weaken bulbs but leaves are left on to die back into bulbs, with the exception of blue bells, they spread faster if allowed to drop seed.

This is the time of the year that I am busy getting my garden presentable for Spring tours starting this week, the ground is damp and warm and just right for planting the abundance of plants on offer and planting seeds to be ready for summer flowering and eating. The seeds I planted in late winter are ready to be planted out or potted on, I see them out the corner of my eye beginning to climb out off trays as I rush past, I have even been known comment SOON to them while keeping the water up when I really should be potting up!! 

Compost is heating up and working well with the addition of new grass clippings, mine are open heaps layered with soft hedge clippings, grass clippings, manure, soil,and seedless weeds. The sprinkler is needed on them from time to time to get warm moisture working right through the middle to create the heat needed.

Pansies and polyanthus will keep flowering if dead headed, pansies and violas can be cut right back and fed with liquid fertiliser to come into bud again and flower on  a little longer, flowering will not be as strong as it has been but as long as there is a chill in the air they will keep on flowering until it gets too warm for them. Polyanthus soon let you know when it is too hot for them, if you feel they have done all they are going to do dig them out, cut back and plant in a cool shady place where they can be left and planted out again next year.

Coastal gardens will be ahead of gardens further inland, late frosts new rose growth can be a problem but don' t be too concerned because rose leaves recover very fast and will have new buds to open in six weeks time. To avoid mildew problems don't let rose foliage go into the night wet in mild weather, also keep the food up to your roses while they are making their buds, it's hungry roses that get diseased. Fortnightly folia feeding and slow release fertiliser is good right now on any flowering plants and shrubs. I have been spot spraying convolvulus, couch and clover as it pops through the ground, and pulling out biddy bid and chick weed before it runs to seed. I do this every year but it still seems to run rampant. 

If roses get even a sniff of hormone spray it will deform the foliage into wispy yellow leaves and the rose bush will eventually die so don't risk spraying on a windy day. 

I have noticed some of my front shrub plantings are too big now, hiding smaller plants behind, It takes only a few years for gardens to close in with out us really noticing and what a difference can be made by opening up and creating distance for a new and interesting planting. One area opened in my garden is deep enough to allow me to mass plant with blue bells and include a new maple tree, it was two scrappy over grown shrubs blocking the planting space behind. 

I planted sun flower seeds into trays only a week ago which are now up and large enough to plant out, they do best being planted straight into the ground but I have little bantams who scratch out the seed and eat hence pre growing them. Sun flowers are a quick result for Children to plant and watch grow taller than them. Also up and almost ready to plant out are cosmos, larkspur, nasturtium and marigolds, delphiniums, and alyssum. I would love to attract monarch butterflies to the garden but can never get the swan plants to stay alive through the winter, planting them now will allow them to get bushy by summer in the hope of attracting or introducing them into the garden.

Vegetables

Potatoes are loving the warm ground, mine are up and ready for mounding.....hopefully this weekend! 

Seeds are popping up in no time as well, Pumpkin, squash, corn and courgette seeds can go in now, if you prefer to buy plants be sure to harden them off outside in a protected place for a while before planting them out. If your vegetable garden has been disappointing in the past with plants not growing as well as you would like you could do a Ph test and if the PH of your soil needs to be raised you can then add lime. I sprinkle lime on my compost heaps in spring and Autumn which then goes on the garden with the added bonus of lime loving worms. If you have done a test and you need to raise the PH Sprinkle the lime over the soil surface and rake it into the top couple of inches, letting it naturally work down to the root zone. Do not dig it deeply into the soil, it will leach down soon enough. Dolomite lime is less likely to drastically change the PH but if your soil is in need of sweetening our local lime (calcium carbonate) will do the trick. Usually application rates are 2 to 3 pounds per 100 square feet of garden area, every second year to raise the pH from 5.5 to 6.5. There are some veg that like a more acid soil so don't go adding lime unless your soil needs sweetening.

Cheers, Linda

Blog: http://nzstyleforever.blogspot.co.nz/

Gardening in North Otago October 6th 2015

Is it Spring or Autumn?? with those damaging winds North Otago has been experiencing I have spent day after day raking up leaves and branches and watering. Drying winds are the last thing fresh Spring growth needs but they have arrived so we need to deal with it. Soak hoses are the way to get moisture down into  the ground, wind and evaporation is zapping the ground and gardeners as well I am sure. I have been leaving the majority of the watering until late in the day in the hope that the wind will die down but no it kept up it's destructive blowing through most nights. Keep an eye on the shallow rooted shrubs like rhododendron, camellia and azaleas, newly planted tall tree's will be moving about if they are not secured to stakes, stopping roots from establishing. A couple of large rocks around the base will add weight if bare rooted trees have just been planted. Hydrangeas and roses are just making leaf so need watered daily while the winds are happening. I am pleased now that some of the cherry blossoms are late this spring, the few that had blossom here in our garden have been stripped. 

Bedding plants: All bedding plants, once planted need attention, water and folia feeding. I have been 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 and here long before we had so many other growing medium choices! BUT planting comes to a stand still on windy days, don't be tempted to plant out anything until the ground can hold moisture. Plants will last in pots and punnets until the time is right. 

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, roses or hellebore's in these areas. It's best to group 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: Large bold, dark green shinny leaves, I have it planted in so many problem spots and area's where a statement plant is required but it needs to grow in a big space on its own because it has a massive root system.

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. 

Ponds: I know wrote about ponds not long ago but 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 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 water lilies with Manure some may have leached out into the water. I have mentioned barley straw being used to clear a pond however this will be hard to come by for most people, there is a product called Barley straw extract if not able to get it locally go on line www.fishpond.co.nz/ I have heard this is a good natural product to clear ponds. Oxygen weed and pond snails help to keep ponds clear as well and fish blow eggs into the weed. When I first wanted fish in my ponds I just put in some oxygen weed from a pond full of fish and the baby fish eggs all hatched, with no older fish in the pond to eat the eggs or hatching's they had no predators so all survived. Fish start chasing each other around the pond and laying eggs when the water warms up enough for water lillies and water iris to put on growth.

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 fed and watered in a sunny spot. 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. Beans can go in now, the soil is a perfect temperature for veg growing, every seed planted will germinate and do well.

Cheers Linda.