Gardening in Waitaki August 3rd 2022

A full perennial garden

The first week of  August and I am in Christchurch enjoying a Nana stint, it was very wet when I arrived last week but today Tuesday is as mild as any spring or summer day. I can almost sense plants and bulbs wondering, What next, grow or continue with dormancy?? Sunny days with a warm breeze will soon help to dry waterlogged soil after all that rain last week. It is probably a good time to notice where gardens and lawns are retaining water when other areas are recovering well. If plant roots sit in water too long, they will drown. Have a dig around shrubs you are worried about to drain water away by creating low lying channels away from the root area. Where a plant can be lifted gravel / stones at the bottom of the planting hole will help with drainage in the future. During those long wet days I caught up with garden designing for Clients wanting ideas in place for spring. It's time to think about spring and what you would like happening in your garden. In my past big garden I would be dividing, shifting and planting delphiniums, dahlias, daylilies and clumping perennials into sunnier positions away from trees casting summer shade. My long and very wide herbaceous borders had trees becoming taller and wider with each year growing up the length of each border casting shade over plants that once grew in the sun. Shade loving plants needed to be considered as shade became denser and in wide borders I like perennials planted in numbers of the same plant for impact. Here are a few suggestions. Back border Tall, Ligularia, Astilbe, Soloman seal, Bleeding Heart (Dicentra), Foxglove, smilacina racemosa, Monkshood (Aconitum) Aruncus dioicus (Goat's Beard) Medium height: Spigelia marilandica, astrantia, hosters, euphorbia, Heuchera. Low height:  Pulmonaria, Trillium, Alchemilla mollis (Ladies mantle) hellebores (winter rose) If something works well in a garden bed why not fill with drifts of the same plant to make a colourful impact, this way of planting fills space allowing no room for weeds. Old wood can be cut out of weigela and spirea bushes, you can tell which branches they are because the wood looks old and spent compared to the new fresh wood, prickly berberis can be trimmed top and sides, buddleias should be cut well down to encourage soft silver branching and catmint can now have all old growth clipped off. Roses should have been pruned by the end of this month, they look for food long before they start budding. Remove all prunnings and old rose leaves from around the root area then mulch with a manure enriched compost or feed with rose food or blood and bone. I see a good selection of new roses on offer in retail outlets. Vegetables and fruit Vegetable gardens will be drying after the warmth and wind this week, it is time to prepare for sowing growing again. Seeds should germinate once sown into seed trays and placed in a warm well lit place,  once up and pricked out into punnets they can be given cooler conditions to start hardening off ready to be planted out closer to spring. Seed potatoes will be sprouting in a dark dry place to be ready for an early planting. Fruit Trees are still available in Garden Centres, I have mentioned dwarf peach and nectarine trees for the small garden and will now mention Ballerina apples. A very slim non branching variety of apple tree with Medium to large crisp, nice eating fruit. Hight 3-4m by 30cm wide, perfect for adding height in a small garden. A dressing of potash now around fruit trees and fruiting bushes will assist with fruiting. There is still time to get grapes pruned before sap rises, to prune remove all new long growth on the vine other than the fruiting leader, on the leaders prune each new side growth back to the second bud. These fruiting buds should be a hand space apart to ensure adequate sized fruit, this means removing some of the new bud growth along the top of the leader and all of the new bud growth growing underneath. Some of these new budding top growths will throw two lots of bud branches, remove the least stronger one leaving only one lot of double buds to produce fruit. Birds are hungry now and will be beginning to nest, with the help of (Grandies) we melted dripping and stirred in wild bird seed, while it was firming it was pressed into three balls. The Children climbed trees and pushed them into v branches for the birds to tuck into and Scruff the dog to sniff from below in the hope of some falling his way after he ate his share of the chook scraps and cat's food, very sneaky our now chubby Scruff! Cheers, Linda.

Pruning a grape.