Gardening in North Otago April 3rd 2021

Easter will roll into April the cooling down month 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, it is a time to reap and sow lest all be lost to the frost! 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. Because we are experiencing a dry autumn trees and shrubs are colouring up and leaves are dropping, gathering and storing for leaf mulch or composting down with manure, grass and soft hedge clippings will become wonderful garden mulch to apply in spring. Look around your garden before all the leaves fall, because trees and shrubs get taller and wider every year blocking out light. Note 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. Wrenching shrubs and trees can be done now for shifting later or cut out. I have at times changed the whole look of gardens by removing a few front shrubs / trees, to let 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, especially photinia bushes / hedges, a trim now will encourage vivid red leaves to brighten dull winter days.  Clean up garden areas that have been flowering all summer and visit the garden centres to choose more 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. (This does not apply to further inland where frosts are harsh and start early.) Plant: Viola, snapdragon, pansy, polyantha's, stock, calendula, wall flowers, sweet William and good old primula malacoidies.  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 that can be planted without the need of protection.  Keep getting spring bulbs in the warm ground and Hybrid clematis are still on offer, they are the lovely huge bloom, deciduous type, this clematis 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 climbing roses that flower at a different time to them. All clematis like manure and lime.  Lawns: Spray lawn weeds and apply sifted compost with some gypsum added 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: The last of my potatoes have been dug and stored, I layer them with sprigs of rosemary, sage and lavender, the essential oils given off by these herbs not only inhibit sprouting, they will also help to keep the tubers free from bacterial soft rot. Store in a dry, dark well ventilated place, cardboard boxes with holes in the sides do the trick. Eliminate any light, even a little light will cause potatoes to turn green. Leave pumpkins to ripen until the threat of the first frost.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,  Fruit:A busy time for the jam, pickling and preserving Gardeners with such an abundance of fruit and veg for the picking but so worth while to know through winter the warmth of summer can be tasted. Cheers, Linda.