Gardening in North Otago November December 1st 2016

Still cutting back spring flowering perennials and cleaning up after more hedge trimming here, things are looking a little too neat and tidy now but nature will do it's best to soften things up again in a couple of weeks. Roses: Most of my roses have started flowering after what seems like a long wait, thank goodness for all the rain to get them off to a good start. If you are at the stage of dead heading roses, don't just cut the flower off, cut at an outward facing bud on a lower section of the branch strong enough to support a new flower. Begonias are really pushing through now and I see that I have lost a few that I left in the ground from last year. The food begonias most appreciate is any fish based fertiliser, as a folia spray or watered in around roots. Hydrangeas are producing flower heads now so it is important to keep the water and food up to them, old stable manure, blood and bone, dry, liquid or slow release fertiliser will keep them happy and flowering well. It's lime for pink and Epsom salts or aluminum sulphate to keep them blue. Fuchsias are making a lot of growth now as well, if you missed cutting any back do it now, they will flower later but will soon catch up. Fuchsias are on sale right now and are wonderful in pots for a shady spot, they will soon become bushy and to fill a pot. Tip cuttings can be taken from fuchsias now, if you spot some you like in a friends garden ask for some cuttings. I break a cutting off at a heel or a nodule section, remove some of the top growth and push into firm wet river sand.Tip cuttings from Hebe's will also root with no trouble in river sand . Abutilon (Chinese lantern: If you are looking for something non invasive to make a show of colour against a wall why not try Abutilon they come in three strong colours, yellow, orange, burgundy and white. I planted yellow, burgundy and white together in a large container with nice lime green grass's below them, being a rather spindly plant I intertwined them and they now look like one bush. If trained against a wall leave some longer branches and shorten back others to get a good cover of flowers. Peony roses: What a wonderful addition to the flower garden peony roses are, they look fantastic this year and I am seeing more in peoples gardens. Remove seed pods once blooms have finished to stop plants putting energy into making seed. Low hanging tree branches: With the weight of the rain I could see which branches needed lifting on large deciduous trees, if left they will cast too much shade over surrounding plants. Any branch growing downwards with a canopy branch directly above it can be cut back or removed altogether. Lawns: keep lawn food on hand for the next good rain, lawns get really stressed from now on as the heat of the day intensifies, if your lawns are inclined to crack when dry they have probably been planted on clay soil. Apply gypsum ( soluble lime) and water in, after a couple of years of doing this your lawns will have a spring in them. Gypsum works it's way through the clay helping to break up a pan and improve drainage.. If lawn weeds are a problem spray before cutting or remove flat weeds with a knife when noticed. I spot spray with lawn weed spray because I don't want to upset the work going on in the soil by contaminating with chemicals. Vegetables: The rain this spring has been a treat to veg gardens as hosing dose not give the same results as a good rain, but of course with all lush growth weeds will take over if left unattended. Hoeing while small is still the best weeding methode I know. I am amazed that the white butterfly is STILL not a problem in our garden yet. My runner beans have been slow to start with being eaten, for this reason I opted to start them in pots to get them up off the ground and see they are away now. But, yes I know with the wet ground slugs & snails will still be a problem so why not make beer traps out of empty plastic fiz bottles by cutting the bottles with the lid in place through the middle, bury the lidded half in the ground then fill with beer, force the other half on top with a door cut out for snails & slugs to slide in. The bottom of the bottle will be the roof to keep the rain out. Tomatoes will be getting taller and starting to fruit now, the removal of over half the leaves on a plant will benefit your plants by allowing more nutrients to the fruit along with more sun to encourage flowering and flowers to become more visible for pollination, try it and see if you get a better crop. If you are noticing a lack of bee's to pollinate tomato flowers gardeners have been known to take an electric tooth brush into the glass house and gently waft it among flowers to spread pollen. Cheers, Linda.