Gardening in Waitaki 23rd November 2021

What great spring weather, rain during nights and warmth during most days, I can almost see and hear plants growing. It is time to concentrate on the next stage of spring now, roses, peony roses, delphiniums, begonias, hydrangeas and lots of other beautiful happenings soon make us forget about spring bulbs and blossoms. Roses: Keep an eye on new rose growth, try to go a season giving them plenty of nurishment, folia and around roots to avoid spraying. If leaves develop black spot or rust, remove and destroy them before they fall to the ground. Keep food up during the flowering seasons as it's hungry roses that are more susceptible to disease. Spring bulbs and for-get-me-nots have finished flowering, tie a knot in the leaves of bulb growth rather than cut them off yet as they need to take all the top green into storage. Tulips collapse quickly and can be dug up and stored in a dry place until planting out again in May next year. Blue bells need to be left to seed if you want them to spread. They increase in the bulb but also seed successfully. I cut forget- me -not's back because they can grow back fresh green leaves and sit in nice clumps until they flower again next spring. Keep the water up to Lilies, they are making rapid growth now and the ground they are in must never dry out, stake them now before they become too heavy. Bougainvillea: If you have a bougainvillea, right now is the time to really get the water into it along with some all purpose fertiliser (not slow release) to simulate a rainy season. Once this has been done and your plant is established do not water or feed it again, they do the best flowering when they are stressed. A newly planted bougainvillea will need watered now and then to get it established but NO food, if fed often they put out leaf than those lovely coloured bracts. I have been spraying weeds again, germination from the first lot of spring weed seeds would probably have blown in on the wind, spraying will be an every three week job from now on. There are a number of organic weed sprays available, these need to be sprayed on weeds when they are small at the hottest time of the day. As I have mentioned before, the most economical weed control for small areas is good old common table salt, purchased in bulk or in kilo bags at agricultural outlets. Use it at the rate of 240 grams (about 12 heaped tablespoons) to a litre of warm or hot water to dissolve it, then spray on the foliage of weeds when conditions are dry and sunny . This works very fast on annual weeds but perennials probably needing a further salt treatment. If spraying only the foliage, at the above rates, there will be little residual damage done to soil. To make absolutely sure, give the area a good watering after the weeds have died. Lawns Lawn mowers will be mowing flat out everywhere with all this lush growth, compost bins will have been treated to many full catchers. Spray out the lawn weeds now which means clippings will need to be spread in areas where plants will not be affected by the contamination. On lawns where there are just a few flat weeds spot spray. Never spot spray weeds on lawns with anything other than a lawn weed spray which will not affect the surrounding grass. I have seen disastrous results where normal weed spray has been used to spot spray lawns which has leached from the weed into the grass leaving bald patches everywhere that need to be re-sown with grass seed. Vegetables: Keep mounding potatoes to encourage growing shoots and tuber development, mound until leaf and stalk are approximately 300 mm tall. Consistent watering is important for potatoes and all root vegetables so we should have some good crops after the rain we have had. Leafy veg tends to run to seed during hot days so no extra feeding to help them do this. Keep pumpkin, squash and zucchini plants mulched, their roots are fragile until their large leaves grow to create the root shade needed. Plant dwarf and climbing beans, home garden beans will give heavy crops to fill bags for the freezer. Orchard: Water needs to be kept up to fruit bushes and trees, strong winds tend to thin out over abundant fruit bunches on trees and birds are in waiting for fruit bushes to ripen, a net cover before this happens will keep fruit on until picked. Mulch fruit trees and bushes to retain moisture while fruit is swelling. Cheers, Linda