Gardening in North Otago May 1st 2021

The year is marching on! with May being the official beginning of winter for NZ but I think of June as the start of winter because May often produces warm Autumn days along with the beautiful leaves. In nature leaves are soil food, they fall to the ground creating humus but leaves falling around a garden and on lawns are usually raked up, this is why it is so important to add compost to gardens and lawns where trees grow. This is the gardening  month to hoard like squirrels what nature gives us, leaves, soft garden waste, pine needles even seaweed if available to create compost and mulch to give back to gardens in spring. May hoarding will apply also to, pine cones, fire wood, fruit and veg to take us through those non productive winter months.Winter: With not having the big garden now I am reviewing the gardening practices that worked for our soil and climate, North Otago climate is  varied depending on where your gardening. With Weston being on the verge of inland frosts start earlier than closer to the coast and further inland, Enfield, Ngpara way frost will have been happening last month and will be harder the further inland. Get to know how winter happens in your garden and try to be one step ahead with prepping for winter. Those well inland will have fire wood sorted, fruit and veg picked and stored, compost covered to retain heat a little longer, gardens cut back and mulched and tender plants protected. Here on the coast we still have this month to put these things in place.  Compost: Layer soft hedge trimmings, leaves, grass clippings, garden waste, manure and any established compost remaining and watering between layers. Cold weather has a marked slowing down effect on compost organisms and any insulation wrapped around a bin or over heaps i.e. straw, old carpet or weed mat will help them keep working. Compost / mulch put on gardens now will provide food for the plants when they need it in spring and it helps keep soil a little warmer for plant roots over winter.  Snails & slugs: The heavy rain will have encouraged snails into the garden, my bantams were great slug and snail hunters but I still found them in dark sheltered spots among pots or behind plants growing up against walls, flax and agapanthus are especially bad for harboring snails to multiply fast and be ready to destroy plants in spring. It is no good transporting snails to a vacant area away from your garden because they have homing instincts and travel long distances to return to their garden of choice. I cannot bring myself to stamp on them or drown them in a bucket so if you are like me you can gather up as many as you can find and put them in a plastic bag, close it tight and put in the freezer, this way they will go to sleep and not wake up,  yes I know "what is she on about"? working with Nature is what gardening is all about with me and snails belong in gardens until you remove them. Hydrangeas have deepened into rich shades, l like to leave this colour for as long as it takes for them to look faded and untidy, this also gives stems time to harden and once hardened they can be shifted if needed. Really large bushes can be dug up and shifted, roots cut and pulled into several individual bushes. In cold districts don't prune back until spring, leave the tops on to protect the new growth. Plan new plantings of deciduous trees and shrubs remembering to allow room for them to grow both up and outwards. Deciduous trees and shrubs will come into retail outlets at the end of June / July. If your ground tends to get wet and sticky in winter it would be a good idea to dig the area up now while the soil is easy to work. Dig out the soil add peat or compost and blood and bone to it then fill back in again until you are ready to plant. If you know the deciduous trees and shrubs required order them now from garden centres so you will not miss out. Veg: If worms are rare in your garden, this usually indicates that the organic content of the soil is very low, worms seem to always find manure but it needs to be spread as a layer low down under a soil bed for them to come up to it. This would be a daunting task to undertake in established gardens, although worth digging manure into trenched rows, defiantly the way to go when establishing a new veg area where soil is dry and has clay content, the introduction of worms will make all the difference. Fruit: Continue breaking up and planting strawberry plants, the runner closest to the Mother plant is the one to plant. Raise beds with compost where drainage is suspect, if weeds have been a problem cover the strawberry patch with  polythene then cut criss-cross holes, plant then push polythene corners back around the plant roots. An added bonus is that polythene keeps ground warmer. Cheers, Linda.