Gardening in North Otago May 4th 2016

The year is marching on! and May is the official beginning of winter for NZ but for me June is the start of winter because in my mind May is all about leaves and more beautiful leaves as we are dealing with right now. Leaves are natures soil food they fall to the ground creating humus but leaves falling around a garden and on lawns are usually raked up, this is why it is so important to add compost to gardens and lawns to put humus back. 

This week has been about getting water onto gardens because the ground is so seriously dry! and plants are showing signs of suffering. Shallow rooted plants like Hydrangeas, rhododendrons, camellias, roses and many ground covers have needed a good soak before compost can be added. Keep the water up to maples as well, they tend to die off in stages if ground stays continually dry, I lost three good sized maples growing on a slope after the very dry autumn & winter we experienced last year. 

I am adding to my compost daily layering with leaves, grass clippings, soft garden and hedge clippings, manure and established compost. Cold weather has a marked slowing down effect on compost organisms and any insulation wrapped around a bin will help them keep working, I do this on my heaps with a thick layer of straw. I do go on about compost don't I?

The cut back is still going on in my gardens and the compost / mulch is going on to provide food for the plants when they need it and also helps to keep the soil a little warmer for plant roots over winter. Once every plant, shrub and tree has been mulched and watered and leaves raked off gardens the pea straw will go on.

Keep planting tulips until the end of this month, plant them deep (10cm) because they like it cool, Tulips need a real chilling before they can perform well, If planting in a warm north facing garden planting needs to be deeper, around 15cm.  if you have a special tulips you would like to multiply plant them against a south facing wall and forget about them they will grow and multiply there for years. Also keep planting and dividing Lilly's keeping them damp at all times, there should be a good range of lillys in garden centres,

 Deciduous trees and shrubs will come into Garden centers at the end of June / July so look about gardens now and take note of the trees and shrubs that colour up beautifully, take a photo of what you admire and ask someone who knows about trees to identify. Now would be a good time to plan what you would like and where it would enhance the garden being an already established garden or the bones for a new garden, remembering to allow room to grow both up and outwards. If we do get rain soon to soften the ground it would be a good idea to dig the area in readiness. Dig out the soil add peat or compost and blood and bone to it then fill back in again until you are ready to plant. If you know which deciduous trees and shrubs you require order them now from the garden centre and you will not miss out.

Hydrangeas are deepening into rich shades as gardens head towards winter, l like to leave this colour for as long as it takes for them to look faded and untidy, this also gives stems time to harden off and once hardened off they can be shifted if needed. Really large bushes can be dug up and root cut or pulled into several individual bushes. In cold districts don't prune back until spring, leave the tops on to protect the new growth. I leave on until I notice new leaf buds opening then cut each stem with a flower head back to the second bud from the bottom leaving all stems that did not flower,

A start can be made on pruning very strong rambler roses by cutting out any dead stems and cutting back all side stems on canes to with in 2-3 buds from the main steam. Shorten back vigorous leaders by about 1/3 to promote branching. If the bush is out of control like some of mine reduce the size with a hedge trimmer then cut some canes right out from ground level.

Veg:
If worms are rare in your garden, this usually indicates that the organic content of the soil is very low, worms seem to always find manure but it needs to be spread as a layer low down under a soil bed for them to come up to it. This would be a daunting task to undertake in established gardens, although worth digging into trenched rows as veg is used, defiantly the way to go when establishing a new veg area where soil is dry and has clay content, the introduction of worms will make all the difference.
Fruit:
Continue planting strawberries, raising the beds where drainage is suspect, At the beginning of the past growing season I covered half my strawberry bed with polythene as commercial growers do and planted out with new runner plants pushed into slits cut in the polythene. They fruited quite well and weeds were not a problem but tended to dry out quicker than the other half which were planted with out polythene (among the weeds). I guess drip irrigation should be in place to get best results. Will cut back runners and trim old leaves then build up the bed with compost and leave to winter over.

Walnuts are dropping here daily, our tree provides very big nuts which need to be picked up every day because they are the favourite food of rats.They mostly fall in a green casing which comes off easily with the roll of the foot in a firm shoe. They then need to dry in the sun to stop mold and once really dry can be stored.