We will soon be rolling into the cooling down month of April but thank goodness days stay warm a little longer even if the nights and mornings are cooler. Autumn here in NorthOtago is usually more predictable than spring or summer, a time to reap and sow lest all be lost to the frost. Leaves are very dry after that hot spell last week and are now carpeting the ground in our garden ready to be used to make good humus for the spring garden.
I have been viewing the light situation around our garden before all the leaves fall, because trees and shrubs get taller and wider every year blocking out light. I am noting what trees and shrubs to reduce in height and width and which trees and shrubs to remove altogether. Sometimes one tree or shrub will do the job of the two or three in one spot. Sacrifice trees that give little interest for trees close by that offer more, and shrubs that have grown too big in the front of a garden hiding what is behind need to be cut back, maybe wrenched for shifting later or cut out. I have at times changed the whole look of gardens by removing a few front shrubs / trees, letting more sun in then planting out sun loving plants.
Here on the coast keep cutting back large daisy and lavatera bushes to encourage new buds that will flower over the next two months. Also get all hedges cut back now before frosts start, this will be the last cut until the new growth in spring.
It is just the time to clean up garden areas that have been flowering all summer and to visit the garden centres to choose plants for planting now to bud up and bloom through winter, if they are planted while the ground is still warm to get the roots going they will continue to get enough winter sun to carry on and bloom.
Suggestions are, Viola, snapdragon, pansy, polyantha's, stock, calendula, wall flowers, sweet William and good old primula malacoidies. Other than plants, seeds of all mentioned can be sown and they will pop up very quickly to be pricked out and potted on into punnets to plant out if we have a mild start to winter or held over and protcted until spring.
Planting shrubs: If you want to plant evergreen shrubs other than conifers now is the time or wait until the frosts are over, once frosts start it is only deciduous trees / shrubs and conifers that will cope with the really cold nights ahead.
Keep planting spring bulbs in the warm ground and Hybrid clematis are still on offer, the lovely huge blooms, deciduous type which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. This type are not as invasive as the Montana variety. They love being planted into warm autumn ground and are so pretty growing in with other climbers and scrambling through climbing roses that flower at a different time to them. All clematis like manure and lime.
Roses cut back will be budding up for a last flowering then are best left to make rose hips and harden wood before the big winter prune back in July / August.
Gardening professionals suggest gardeners should apply potash to their plants as winter starts, Potassium hardens up plant growth and helps prevent damage from winter chills.
Lawns: Spray lawn weeds and apply sifted compost and gypsum to lawns if they are compacted ( a bucket to the square metre). the compost will improve the humus content and the gypsum will soften clay soils. If you have had a good strike with a newly sown lawn delay cutting until grass is 7-8 centimetres high, set the blades high and avoid cutting when the ground is wet and soft.
Veg: I have dug the last of my potatoes and stored them with a covering of herbs, I have not harvested any pumpkins yet, will leave growing until the threat of frosts. Time to dig up and divide Rhubarb crowns, mixing in heaps of compost before replanting.
Sow: Spinach,Snap Peas, brussel sprouts, board beans and spring onions, fill the top of a shallow pot with spring Onions to have handy by the back door, start thinning when plants are still quite small, pull them as they’re needed.
Cheers, Linda.
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