Gardening in North Otago November 17th 2015

Not a bad week behind us even with the couple of late frosts here in Rockvale gardens, even though we have been blessed with some rain it is never enough so I am still dragging hoses from garden to garden unlike sensible gardeners who have installed irrigation!

I have been weeding and cutting back heaps of plants finished flowering, alyssum, ground cover phlox, aubrietia, aquilegias and forgetmenot. if you cut them back now they will green up again and look good over summer, same goes for Erica's, cut all the brown spent flower stems back and they will green up again in no time.

After spreading compost, I started filling every gap with flower seedlings like cosmos, petunias, static, blue salvia, natushims, and lobelia not leaving any room for weeds to grow, hence the need to water often.

All trees have leafed up now, don't be afraid to cut out over crowding branches to let light in to plantings underneath. If there are two branches filling the same spot take the lower one out. Maples and Oak trees tend to grow thick canopies so I have been thinning mine out. I remove heaps but when I stand back and look it is not noticeable and now there is dappled light coming through.

This year my dahlias are slower to leaf up than past years, but they will still get tall so put stakes in now before they get up too far.

If your daffodils did not flower so well this spring, It's a good time to break up large clumps while you can still see where they have been, flowering can be restricted when the clumps get over crowded. Plant out in small groups in about 20cm of compost...plant, feed with blood and bone and mulch so they don't dry out over summer.

Autumn flowering bulbs are now in garden centers, belladonnas, crocuses, nerines, plant in full sun where they will not be disturbed.

I see the spittle bug is about again, they don't do plants too much harm but when numbers settle into lavender and other plants they spoils the look of plants. I force them off with the hose each time I water.

My pond is full of baby gold fish, the water lillies / oxygen weed having been slow to move this year until now. If your pond is stagnating it means that it is not working ...as mentioned  in past notes old un -sprayed barley straw weighed down with a rock so it does not float around will help clear pond water. At first water will look a bit murky but will clear and stay clear once things start working naturally. The bottom of the pond should be a little muddy, but the top should be clear.

Add some oxygen weed from a pond already filled with fish, the fish blow their eggs into the weed at this time of the year. I am happy to supply weed for new ponds. 

Lawns:  mowers need to be lifted a notch now and fed each time we get a decent rain. I sprayed the daisies and weeds two weeks ago and now have bare patches where they died off, these patches need roughed up for grass seed to be sown then covered with fine compost or sifted soil and watered often. Dry soil makes it almost impossible for grass seed to germinate. If you miss getting a new lawn sown before the heat of summer another sowing in autumn will not have to compete with annual weeds as in a spring sowing..

Fruit: Check your fruit trees now for over crowded bunches, thin bunches out by snipping small fruits off with sharp scissors. Give each fruiting tree and bush a good root soak now and then in dry weather and they will reward you well.

Vegetables:

Everything should be romping away, main crop potatoes can be planted now, allow plenty of space for growing and mounding 

Varieties:  

Agria  long oval shaped with yellow flesh it is a great all rounder.

Heather distinctive purple skin, it is oval shaped with white flesh and like Agria is versatile in its range of uses.

Red Rascal takes 100 days to mature. It has red skin and white flesh and is a good floury potato.
Moonlight takes 95 days to mature. It is a high yielding variety white skin and flesh that is a good all purpose potato.
Rua takes 100 days to mature. White skin and flesh. Good all rounder. High yielder and a good keeper. Many flowers.
Desiree takes 90-100 days to maturity. Pink skin and cream flesh. Good all rounder. Many flowers.

Harvesting / Storing 

Harvest early varieties when flowers fully open (3 months after planting)

Main crop and late varieties ready when foliage dies off

Dry thoroughly, place in shallow boxes in cool, dark position

Cover with dry sacks to keep out light, I place cut herbs on top of mine to slow sprouting.

Cheers, Linda.

email: linda.lsw@gmail.com  Blog: nzstyleforever.blogspot.co.nz