Gardening in Waitaki October 11th 2023

Fresh spring new tree growth:

This is such a lovely time of the year, with new fresh growth on trees, splashes of plant colour everywhere, longer days and soil warming, it's all on again in gardens. Tulips are best left after flowering until all green has been absorbed by the bulb, if like me you have a main display of them and need to get other plants in once tulips have flowered, dig them up with leaves still attached to the bulb. Bunched they can be bedded into another part of the garden or stored away in a box where rats can not get at them. Dead head all spring bulbs as they finish flowering leaving leaves to die back into bulbs. If allowing bulbs to make seed will weaken bulbs. With the exception of blue bells, they spread faster if allowed to drop seed. This is the time of the year that kept me busy getting my big, past garden presentable for Spring tours, the ground is damp and warm and just right for planting the abundance of plants on offer, I plant seeds now to be ready for summer flowering and eating. The seeds I planted in late winter are now ready to be planted out or pot on. Compost is heating up and working well with the addition of new grass clippings and plenty of water. A sprinkler on open compost bins is needed from time to time getting warm moisture working right through the middle to create the heat needed. Pansies and polyanthus will keep flowering if dead headed, pansies and violas can be cut right back and fed with liquid fertiliser to come into bud again and flower on a little longer, flowering will not be as strong as it has been but as long as there is a chill in the air they will keep on flowering until it gets too warm for them. Polyanthus soon let you know when it is too hot for them, if you feel they have done all they are going to do, dig them out, cut back and plant in a cool shady place where they can be left and planted out again next year. Coastal gardens will be ahead of gardens further inland, late frosts can be hard on new rose growth, don' t be too concerned because rose leaves recover very fast and will have new buds to open in six weeks time. To avoid mildew problems don't let rose foliage go into the night wet in mild weather, also keep food up to your roses while they are making their buds, it's hungry roses are susceptible to diseased. Fortnightly folia feeding and slow release fertiliser are good right now on any flowering plants and shrubs. The new growth we don't want, convolvulus, couch and clover will be popping up and in large properties spot spaying will be needed while growth is still low, any spraying needs to be done on dull days when bees are fewer. Biddy bid and chick weed needs pulled out before it runs to seed, I do this every year but it still seems to run rampant. I planted sun flower seeds into trays only a week ago which are now up and large enough to plant out, they do best being planted straight into the ground but I like to get good roots going with no chance of birds finding the seeds. Sun flowers are a quick result for Children to plant and watch grow taller than them. I also have almost ready to plant out cosmos, larkspur, nasturtium and marigolds, delphiniums, and alyssum. Attract monarch butterflies to the garden by planting swan plants, planting them now will allow them to get bushy by summer in the hope of attracting or introducing them into the garden. On warm days there are butterflies already about laying eggs so I advise covering your young swan plants with clean frost cloth or clean net curtain (which lets light in )to keep butterflies off until shrubs are strong and bushy. If monarch butterflies have already lain eggs on your young swan plants it is better to squish eggs than caterpillars. Fruit: strawberries, Raspberries, goosberries and currants are starting to flower so give them a boost of strawberry fertiliser watered in around roots. Blueberries like a more acid soil so citris fertiliser will work for them. Vegetables Potatoes are loving the warm ground, mine are well up and have had the first mounding . Veg seeds I planted are germinating in no time as well, Pumpkin, squash, corn and courgette seeds can go in now, if you prefer to buy plants be sure to harden them off outside in a protected place for a while before planting. If your vegetable garden has been disappointing in the past with plants not growing as well as you would like you could do a Ph test and if the PH of your soil needs to be raised you can then add lime. I sprinkle lime on my compost heaps in spring and Autumn which then goes on the garden with the added bonus of lime loving worms. If you have done a soil test and need to raise the PH Sprinkle lime over the soil surface and rake it into the top couple of inches, letting it naturally work down to the root zone, do not dig it deeply into the soil, it will leach down soon enough. Dolomite lime is less likely to drastically change the PH but if your soil is in need of sweetening our local lime (calcium carbonate) will do the trick. Usually application rates are 2 to 3 pounds per 100 square feet of garden area, every second year to raise the pH from 5.5 to 6.5. There are some veg that will tolerate acid soil, carrots, cucumbers, beans, peppers, parsnips, potatoes, and tomatoes so don't go adding lime unless your soil needs sweetening. Cheers, Linda Mound potatoes up as they grow.