Gardening in North Otago April 10th 2019

Clocks are back and a chill now in the air morning and night but Autumn in North Otago usually delivers golden balmy days. I experienced the true glory of Autumn fringing the aqua lakes and exploding in front of my eyes while driving through to Wanaka last weekend. 

Gardens are slowing down getting ready to rest but there is still end of season growing happening in the warm soil. I have been taking tip cuttings of many plants before the days get cold, so many plants can be produced from rooted cuttings. Snip tips around 10 cm long, remove lower leaves and soft top growth then push them into river / crusher dust to make roots. Once roots have developed in the sand cuttings need to be potted on into small pots and when these pots are filled with roots transfer cuttings into bigger pots until they are large enough to be planted into the garden. Leafy tip cuttings from all hedge type shrubs can be taken now along with tip growth from lavender, daisy bushes, hebes, lavatera, salvias and geraniums, give anything you want more of a go now before frosts halt growth in plants.  Autumn is also the time for collecting / sowing seeds and harvesting herbs to hang and dry.  All this while we wait for leaves to carpet the ground in abundance to make a raking worth while, we have started bagging piles for the compost heaps and I have had the sprinkler on between leaves and green layers as heat needs to be created while the sun is still strong.

Roses are showing lovely shades for the last flowering, no more dead heading they need to make seed heads now which will help to harden wood. 

Leucodendrons develop rich colour as days and nights become colder,  picked bracts will last in a vase for weeks, even months. Picking the bracts is a must to keep both leoucodendrons and proteas from becoming top heavy and blowing over. They resent any form of  phosphates. potassium and nitrates fertiliser a little blood and bone in spring will keep them looking good.

On the coast prune back perennial wall flowers now to encourage new growth for a good winter flowering, do the same to Marguerite daisies. Further inland take hard wood cuttings, pot up and protect over winter. 

Keep planting all the bulbs on offer, ranuncula an anemones also for a vibrant or soft mid height colour to an early spring garden. 

Vegetable garden:  I have mentioned growing a green crop in vacant areas of the vegetable garden to add humus, options on offer now. Pumpkin leaves will soon let you know if there has been a frost, bring pumpkins in to avoid frost damage. When you knock on a ripe pumpkin the rind will sound hollow and the colour should be deep over all. To harvest cut a pumpkin off the vine carefully with a sharp knife, do not tear. Leave a liberal amount of stem (3 to 4 inches will increase the pumpkins keeping time. Cure pumpkins in the sun for about a week to toughen the skin then store in a cool dry place. If you got a lot of vine and flowers but very few pumpkins more bee's would have been needed to pollinate flowers, grow colourful flowers next to the pumpkin patch next time.

Fruit: Still a lot being picked from trees and vines and so many satisfying ways to use this fruit, I like to think when storing autumn bounty we are capturing the summer sun stored with in to be enjoyed during those cold dark months to come. Feijoas should be plentiful right now as well, not all fruit will ripen at once so harvesting may go on until June. Feijoa, vanilla and fresh ginger jam on a warm scone is an autumn treat. 

https://www.bite.co.nz/recipe/1496/Feijoa-jam-with-vanilla-and-fresh-ginger/

Cheers, Linda.