Gardening in Waitaki March 1st 2023

Here we are already MARCH and how fortunate we are here in the south to have had the privilege of enjoying a perfect summer to lead us into the wonderful, ripening autumn season. The horror for growers and Gardeners in the far north is for me a tragedy like no other that I have known in my reasonably long life time. Affecting so many New Zealanders with some having lost not only crops and gardens but every single hard worked for possession owned. Here is a way to help from a distance. Kidscan: Donate $15.00 https://www.kidscan.org.nz/ Gardens will be tired now so cutting back is the only way to smarten things up and get plants and shrubs to push new growth and colour out. Petunias and begonias are loving the warmth and will keep flowering if dead headed often. Many new seedlings can be planted out once gardens are trimmed back and cleared of annual weeds, cut back what has been flowering and add new annuals to take over. Stock, statice, snapdragon and wall flower are good fillers at this time. Seed collecting: I am still collecting and storing seed pods from summer flowering plants and have a good collection of lavatera, delphinium, cornflower, poppy and marigold seed to name just a few. The hollyhock, foxglove and delphinium I will sow now and carry through winter once germinated, the others I will save for a spring sowing. Roses: Keep the rose dead heading up to encourage the last blooms of summer, it is 6 weeks from a prune to another bud which will take us into April, after that flowering it is best to not dead head, leave blooms to make seed which will help to harden wood for the winter ahead. No feeding roses from now on as it will only encourage soft new growth then die back when frosts arrive. March is defiantly a great planting month, soil is warm for newly planted trees and shrubs settle in well. There are a lot of well grown trees, shrubs and plants on offer right now in Garden centers ready and waiting to be planted. Gardner's further inland will need to read the labels to establish frost ratings before buying, if in doubt wait until spring. Spring bulbs : The widest variety of spring bulbs are now on sale in Garden centers so it’s time to plant for a stunning spring show. During the year surplus bulbs are bought into The Waitaki resource recovery park, they have been dried and stored and are now bagged for sale. Spring bulbs need to be planted 4 to 6 inches deep, that's 4 to 6 inches on top of the bulb, if not planted deeply eventually when they do come into leaf and experience a dry patch they wont take up enough moisture to come into bud. Herbs: This will be the last month to cut fresh herb growth for drying and using through winter. If herbs were cut back before making seed fresh new growth should be ready to cut. I cut rosemary, lemon balm, bergamot, bay, basil, borage, chives, dill, lemongrass, mint, oregano, sage, savory, tarragon and thyme which are bunched and hung or spread out on news paper in a dry well aired place to become dry and crunchy before rubbing and storing in glass jars. The mentioned herbs can be blanched and free flow frozen as well. Lawns. After baking hot days and a lot of mowing lawn growth starts slowing down, although catchers will still be filling up for a while yet. Don't feel you need to cut lower than usual because growth has slowed, a scalped lawn dries out faster and encourages weeds. Autumn is the best time to sow new lawns, weed growth is slowing, the flat weeds can be popped out with the blade of secateurs before they seed and spread. Fruit: Late peaches, nectarines, quince and apples will be ripe now, there are so many ways to use fresh apples, apple jelly, apple and quince jelly, apple pies, apple sponge, apple shortcake. Or just pick, peel, stew and freeze before birds get them all. I have just made chilli Worcestershire sauce, so good. https://www.instructables.com/Chilli-Worcestershire-Sauce/ Grape bunches will be plump and heavy, birds will be waiting. Vegetable Gardeners will be planting new crops for the cooler seasons, leaf veg should not bolt so readily now and will not mind the days getting shorter and root veg seeds will germinate well while the ground is still warm. A second sowing of peas will be up in no time, corn soon picked and the pumpkins will have out grown their space. Pumpkins should be picked before the first frost. Onions can be lifted once leaves have bent over, don't bend or damage leaves before they are ready to bend naturally if you want them to store and keep well. Once dug lay them out in a warm place to fully ripen then store in a cool place. Root veg seed should germinate quickly in warm/moist autumn soil. Cheers Linda