I am loving this real summer weather, the light rain which fell late last week had me out doing some early morning lawn fertilizing and results were noticeable the next day.
With all the growth I do tend to repeat myself with the cutting back all early summer perennials and shrubs before they make seed. You can be especially hard now on hedges if height and width need reducing, grow back rate is fast to cover any unsightly scalping and height can be taken out of shelter shrubs like pittosporum, laurels and conifers should they be getting taller than required. Remove the center leader to a point where lower branches will cover the cut, this will stop these shrubs from becoming the trees they were created to be. Growth removed from top's and sides will regenerate but branches removed from the bottom will seldom regrow so remove.
The heat this summer is hard on the shallow rooted rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas and pushing spent flower heads to make seed. Removing as many as can be reached will benefit growth, some here have out grown the space allotted so width and height has been reduced now before budding becomes too advanced. I am collecting rose petals on sunny days for potpourri, laying them out on a table until dry then storing in a large paper carrier bag which needs to be shaken about often to keep petals separated. Seed collecting is well under way now, a few warm days in a row ripen pods that have been slow to mature. I like to store mature pods into small paper bags / envelopes where they can pop in their own time.
Continue to mulch with light scatterings of un-sprayed grass clippings to keep moisture in the soil, they break down into humus quickly with summer rain. Tree foliage benefits from moist summer soil, this time last year hot drying winds had really effected the new growth on our trees.
Lawns are scorching badly as they experience day after day of intense heat, they will eventually come back, early morning soakings and feeding during rain helps.
Weeds can be sprayed out during dry days, there are a few different lawn weed sprays on offer, even one that weeds and feeds at the same time. Use a product at the suggested strength and consider spot spraying for the sake of worms.
Fruit & Veg: It's proving to be a bumper year for both fruit and veg, corn and pumpkins have really taken off here now after a slowish start, and gardeners are telling me their tomato and cucumber plants are producing and ripening really well so pollination has been good. Plums are plentiful for plum sauce and we still have a few black currents ripening for the last pie. Keep rotating root and leaf vegetables to get the best results. French, butter and runner beans should be flowering and producing well now and new potatoes will be loving the warmth. I leave them in the ground until ready to use even when the tops have died back. I have dug a wonderful crop of garlic planted from local Kakanui stock around the shortest day now ready to tie and hang, I still find it surprising when I lift such large bulbs produced from single cloves.
The moon calendar for the 25th January ( The first quarter) suggests sowing green manure such as mustard in vacant areas, dig in before flowering stage, also the best time to plant seedlings especially crops with seeds inside and dwarf beans for autumn harvest.
Cheers Linda
No comments:
Post a Comment