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

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