Gardening 27th July 2021

Almost August and some milder damp days have been experienced here in Waitaki during the last fortnight for a time still considered winter! Much is beginning to awake in the garden and spring is definitely in the air with swelling of buds, fragrance from winter sweet, witch hazel, Daphne, boronia and violets. Birds are beginning to nest and I see the first blossom, jonquils and daffodils about the town. Still time to shift perennials like tall phlox clumps if they have become shaded or out grown their spot. Tall phlox have a wonderful musk perfume which I always looked forward to wafting about the garden in the late afternoon.Tall phlox come in a number of shades, and die down over winter, they need all day sun in a open windy spot or they can be susceptible to powdery mildew, great fillers for perennial boarders. Hostas are starting to move as well, they will be still dormant enough for clumps to be reduced by digging up and slicing through with a sharp spade making sure not to knock the showing green tips. If you have planted bedding plants like polyanthus, forget-me-nots, dianthus, sweet peas, pansy, viola. Any new plantings can be Helped along along by liquid feeding with diluted worm tea or a commercial liquid food to get roots going and keep them green and strong through any cold snaps yet to come. Slow release fertiliser is a good idea this month as well, sprinkle around established ornamental and newly planted trees and shrubs to be there as plants are needing food on awaking. Hydrangea wood has hardened and should be producing plump buds, Prune only those stems that have flowered, cut at the second bud from the bottom, leave all other stems because these are the flowers for this year. Spread old stable manure around the drip line and a dressing of lime for pink flowers and aluminum sulphate for blue, White never changes, but are best planted in light shade. If the PH of your soil is high blue hydrangeas will always revert to pink no matter how often you add aluminum to the soil. Pot grown hydrangea's can be controlled successfully by tailoring soil to requirements, peat, pine needles and coffee grinds can be added to an acid planting mix for blue and lime can be added for pink blooms without the worry of leaching around the roots as it would when hydrangeas are planted in the ground. Pot grown hydrangeas need to be watered daily during summer. Cuttings from the hardened geranium steams can be taken now, fresh grown geraniums give amazing colour to a warm sunny garden for all of the growing season and even into the winter, they are so easy to grow from cuttings. Take short cuttings, semi hard wood, (not a new green steam) and let them dry out a little before planting, this means you don't have to deal with them straight away. Plant them firmly into a soil and river sand mix, Potting mix is too light to get a tight seal around cuttings. I am forever taking cuttings off geraniums I like when I come across them in other gardens. Trim dentata lavender now if you haven't already after it's winter flowering. Dentata is the tall growing one with the pale lavender bumblebee flower and serrated leaf. They are budding up now, so will recover quickly from a cut back, leave trimming other lavenders until it is warmer but you can give all lavenders a dressing of lime. Plant dahlias and gladioli from now until September and cut back leggy, straggly bush lavatera, they get very woody if left. I can't stress enough about the importance of feeding roses now they are making a move to break bud, powdered rose food needs watered in around the drip line, slow release fertiliser will work each time it rains, manure around the drip line not up against the crown will give them oomph for the first flowering. Vegetables It has been so good not to worry about bugs during the last few months when planting out leaf veg. Gardeners in cold frosty areas will be making a start now, add compost and a little lime in readiness for when you plant later this month. It is seed potato time again, potatoes have a natural dormancy from the time they are harvested to when they begin to sprout, starting their next growth cycle. This can only be modified slightly by storage conditions. I set them out in a box on damp news paper, and leave in a dark place in the warmth of the house. Some leave them in a warm well lit place, what ever works for you I go with the theory that it is very dark down in the soil where they eventually end up. Seed potatoes will be on offer now. FIRST EARLY VARIETIES: Cliffs Kidney, Jersey Bennes, Maris Anchor, Rocket. SECOND EARLY Ilam Hardy, Karaka, Red king. MAIN CROP: Desiree,Agria Mondial, Nadine, Pentland Dell, Red Rascal, Rua Cheers, Linda

Gardening in Waitaki July 21st 2021

Gardens still sleep through the cold short days but buds are swelling and bulbs are up answering the call of spring. While growth is slow and there is not a lot of urgency right now to do what needs to be done in the garden, there is time to plan and maybe construct for the coming growing season. Raised gardens have proven to be easy care but need to be put together well in the beginning. Advantages of a Raised Bed Garden: Raised gardens warm quickly in spring, allowing you to work the soil and plant earlier. Being raised they drain better. No compaction of soil, because they are not walked upon. It's easy to tailor the soil to suit the plants in a raised bed. Contained raised beds are not difficult to construct using wood or (here in North Otago) Oamaru stone seconds as a surround. If you need time to think about a permanent position for a raised beds you could make some using straw bales as surrounds for a year. Once in place to the size required fill them with soil and compost and plant out. A sunny location is a must for growing vegetables and herbs. Access around all sides with a wheel barrow is recommended for ease of maintenance, keep the garden around four feet wide, this way you can access the middle. Access to water is essential with drainage being greater raised gardens need good soakings. Filling a raised bed: First layer: Gravel or rocks for drainage. Then twigs sticks old stump matter, grass clippings / straw, then soil, manure, compost mixed to fill. A raised bed of six inches above the soil is enough to grow leaf vegetables and herbs and at least ten inches for root veg but I don't see the sense in not raising it to a height that will reduce the amount of digging and bending you do. If winter has left your garden looking a little too bleak, Garden centers will have potted colour to brighten things up. I have noticed on offer pansy's, wall flower, pollyanthas and primula malacoydies which look fresh and bright planted in groups or as a border before bulbs bloom. - Tulips planted in May should be through the ground now, don't give them any fertilizer as this will only promote leaf growth which will take away from the bloom. Tulips store the food needed in the bulb. Veg: Here on the coast get seeds in for broccoli , cabbage, cauliflower, broad beans, onions, spinach and silverbeet. Keep moist in a warm spot and they should be ready to transplant in 6 -8 weeks from germination. Approximately 4 cm high with a good amount of root. Cheers, Linda.

Gardening in Waitaki July 14th 2021

Good hard frosts now here on the coast so it's frost cloth on plants like bougainvillea, hibiscus, pelargonium and established Margarette daisy bushes.  If any of these have taken a knock from frosts just leave frosted top growth to protect new growth beneath but still cover.Further In land and up the Waitaki valley gardeners will need to have taken cuttings of daisy bushes, geraniums and pelargoniums,  protect them until spring. Hydrangeas: Here on the coast pruning back hydrangeas can be started now wood has hardened, further inland prune just before spring by cutting each flower stem off at the second bud from the bottom, leaving the stalks that did not flower because these are your flowering stems for this year. Give pink hydrangeas a dressing of lime now. Blue hydrangeas unfortunately will always revert to pink if planted in sweet soil. I have tried using sulphate of allium around hydrangeas I have grown from cuttings of blue flowering type which did not stay in the soil so I found this only works on blue hydrangeas that show a slight tinge of pink. If you planted a blue hydrangea and it flowered with no sign of blue you will not correct this as it will be growing in alkaline soil (sweet soil). If the bush is still small enough to dig up, plant in a large pot using rhododendron / azalea potting mix and flowers will bloom blue.Rose pruning will be full on now as rose buds swell, make sure all pruned branches and old rose debris is removed from around bushes to avoid the spread of disease. Roses start looking for nutrients long before they start putting out new growth so a dressing of manure enriched compost for worms to take down to roots is so beneficial now in winter then a rose food product throughout the growing season. Winter perfume while moving about the garden: The presence of fragrant winter flowering shrubs, winter sweet, daphne bholu, witch hazel,  sarcococca (sweet box) will be caught on a breeze if you are lucky enough to have them in your garden. Hardwood cuttings: are taken in Winter, The ideal time is just after Autumn or just before bud burst in early spring, if taken now cuttings will sit a while until early Spring before new growth will encourage rooting. Select vigorous healthy shoots grown in the current year, remove soft growth, cut into sections 15-30 cm a sloping cut above a bud at the top, cut straight across the cutting bottom, below a bud. Dip this end into hormone rooting powder / gel which will promote rooting and protect against rotting. Cuttings can go into a prepared slit in the ground ( shaded in summer) or a pot of river sand with two thirds of the cutting below the surface,  Some cuttings may need to be left until the following Autumn and hopefully you will have a number of well grown beginnings of shrubs and trees. Some cuttings will produce roots much faster. This is the perfect time to select cuttings for future hedging projects, buxus (box), corokia, Sarococca, hebe, viburnum, conifers, Lavender (choose lavender hard wood that has not flowered) Bulbs: of every sort are pushing through sodden cold ground reminding us this coldness will be over soon, all bulbs store food within the bulb and if fed extra nutrient's now it will be put into leaf growth not the flower, only feed bulbs after flowering.  Fruit: Once again winter is the time you will find the best selection of fruit trees in garden centres. It may be cold and miserable outside but it's the best time to buy your trees for planting. They are usually grafted and tall growing so plant up to where they were planted in the bag and stake well to protect against the wind. Because it was such a good season for apples birds are still feasting on the apples and crabapples remaining on trees  Apples produce fruiting spurs on wood 2 years and older that are productive for 6 to 10 years so if apple trees are young only prune the new growth height if it has grown beyond picking height. Thin out branches from the middle to allow light to all parts of the tree; this will encourage new spurs to develop. Remove older, unproductive spurs as the tree matures. If trees tend to become too heavy with fruit you may need to thin spurs after blossom to reduce the crop. Vegetable garden: Time to start preparing the soil for spring planting. Cultivate vacant spaces, digging in green crops sown earlier. Add compost, Dig compost mixed with sawdust into wet, boggy soils. If your veg garden did not produce well last growing season, a simple home soil test can tell you if your soil is excessively acidic or alkaline.  Home soil test: Dig up a tablespoon of dry soil and drip several drops of vinegar onto it, any fizzing will indicate the pH of the soil is above 7.5 and therefore is alkaline. it may need to be sweetened with lime. Most vegetables require a slightly acid soil to grow well. Oppositely, dig up a tablespoon of moist soil and sprinkle a couple of pinches of baking soda over it. If you see or hear fizzing, that means the pH of the soil is below 5 and highly acidic.A soil pH between 5.8 and 6.3 is ideal. In areas where the soil is a lower pH and therefore too acidic for growing vegetables, a regular supplement of lime is beneficial. Acidic soil is often found in areas that experience high levels of rainfall. Rain washes calcium out of the soil over time, and lime must be added to replenish the depleted nutrient.   Cheers, Linda.

Gardening in Waitaki July 7th 2021

Some moisture this week to replenish gardens after heavy frosts in a row had drawn moisture from soil and plants, this is proving to be a real winter so far. Rose pruning through the day then removing thorns from fingers at night will be happening with some Gardeners this month, some thorns are stubborn to remove requiring a dab of magnesium sulphate paste held in place with a plaster, this helps to draw the thorn closer to the surface of the skin. Roses go on to flower without pruning but being deciduous they respond well to a good prune in winter, doing this will give you new shoots to replace the old, keep the plant young with more flowers per season on shapely bushy plants. Roses are very forgiving if you get it a bit wrong so don't worry! It is handy to have a good set of tools to make pruning easier (leather gloves, secateurs, loppers, and a pruning saw. New seasons rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas and daphne's will be on offer soon with fat healthy buds to tempt the gardener, moist soft ground is perfect for getting these settled in the ground. Early sasanqua camellias are flowering now, these camellias are fast growing and probably the most sun tolerant of all camellias. They are extremely tolerant of shaping, clipping or espaliering and are ideal as hedges, screens or growing in containers. Transplanting young trees and shrubs if needed now is a good time to do this whilst they are at their most dormant stage, plant with a firm stake if height is involved. Keep protecting tender plants from frosts and winter chill, wind chill can be just as damaging as frost on tender plants. If a special plant is young and going through the first winter rather than hoping it will survive, protection from wind chill and frost will take that worry away. Compost: Add some lime now to sweeten, then moisture if you have not already done so. Compost heaps will have lost heat now but bacteria, molds, and mites all survive and need energy to do their jobs so keeping a compost bin warm is important if you live in an area that has harsh winter temperatures and strong winds. Pile straw or hay bales or packed leaf bags around your bin This will ensure that all of the beneficial happenings in the compost will stay warmer and continue to work at breaking the layers down. Prunning: It is better to not prune at all than to prune for the sake of it, work out exactly what you want as a result of pruning and have an understanding of how the shrub or tree grows before cutting it. Does it flower or fruit on new or old wood? Does it grow new shoots in one go at the start of a season or do shoots steadily grow over a season? Does a fruit tree need maturity to create spurs that produce fruit or do they produce at the tips of the branches? Does a plant heal well or is it a bleeder like cherries and plums, if so when does it produce least sap for pruning? if in any doubt don't prune. Timing of pruning: The pruning of shrubs, trees and plants that flower in the first part of the year do so on wood formed between last year's spring and autumn. The safest time to prune these is immediately after flowering. If pruned in winter or early spring you will have an abundance of new growth but no flowers. This applies to all trees, shrubs and climbers. The exact opposite applies to plants that flower in the second half of the year, they form flower buds on new growth so you can be as hard as you like with these before spring to encourage new flowering. The result of pruning means when growth starts again there is less demand on the amount of food stored in the roots, therefore more food being delivered to the unpruned parts of the plant. Vegetables On the coast plant seedling veg plants that are now on offer in full sun, if your veg garden loses sun in winter use this time to spread manure/compost and a sprinkle of lime to sweeten then let the worms take it into the soil.

Whether it is a thick 6 to 12″ layer of straw, or a heavy coat of leaves or pine needles, placing a layer of organic insulation on top of your compost pile helps it to retain heat and moisture.