Gardening in Waitaki 12th December 2023

I know all gardeners will be busy with end of year happenings right now, the only important job if you have time is to pull weeds before they seed. Nature just carries on regardless and would have much joy in spreading weed seeds throughout your garden. Right now summer weeds are flowering and ready to move on to ripen seed. Wild grass is doing the same, cut those seed heads off to save yourself the work they will give you if you don't. Keep deadheading roses, don't just cut the flower off, cut at an outward facing bud on a lower section of the branch strong enough to support a new flower to keep new blooms coming. Begonias are really pushing through now and I see that I have lost a few that I left in the ground from last year. I did dig and store some of them over the winter which I am now glad about. The food begonias most appreciate is any fish based fertiliser, as a folia spray or watered in around their roots.  Hydrangeas are producing flower heads now so it is important to keep the water and food up to them, old stable manure, blood and bone dry or  liquid or slow release fertiliser will keep them happy and flowering well. Remember it's lime for pink and Epsom salts or aluminum sulphate to keep them blue.   Fuchsias are making a lot of growth now as well, if you missed cutting any back do it now, they will flower later but will soon catch up Fuchsias are on sale right now and are wonderful in pots for a shady spot and they soon become bushy and to fill a pot. Tip cuttings can be taken from fuchsias now, if you spot some you like in a friend's garden ask for some cuttings. I break a cutting off at a heel or a bud section, remove some of the top growth and push into firm wet river sand.Tip cuttings cuttings from Hebe's will also root now with no trouble in river sand .  Lawns: keep lawn food on hand for the next good rain, lawns get really stressed from now on as the heat of the day intensifies. If your lawns are inclined to crack when dry they have probably been planted on clay soil, apply gypsum ( soluble lime) and water in. After a couple of years of doing this your lawns will have a spring back in them. Gypsum works clay to become more like soil, especially near the sea front. Vegetables: The days are warm and the nights a little cooler, just right for growing. I am amazed that the white butterfly is STILL not a problem in our garden, long may it last. I had bad luck with the runner beans planted directly into the ground before labor weekend, they popped up then were eaten off I am guessing by snails / slugs!. So more beans have been planted but this time into trays to be transplanted when big enough to make a start on climbing up the frame. Tomatoes will be getting taller and starting to fruit now, the removal of leaves shading tomatoes will benefit your plants by allowing more nutrients to the fruit along with more sun to encourage flowering and allowing flowers to become more visible for pollination. Cheers, Linda.