Gardening in Waitaki July 17th 2024

Only a few fine days were allotted for the School holidays this July making it hard for Mums, Dads, and Grandparents. With low cloud and rain keeping frosts away the ground and plants benefit from the softness for new root development but it also benefits slugs, snails, and other annoying pests so it is important to rake out all garden litter, dry leaves, twigs, and past plant foliage and stalks. It's time to tidy up the dieback from dahlias, peony rose leaves and catmint, any plant that has gone through the winter die-back, leaving no coverage to pests. However frosts will be back after the rain so it's frost cloth on plants like bougainvillea, hibiscus, pelargonium, and young daisy bushes, established Margarette daisy bushes will take a knock from the frosts, leaving any frost-affected growth on the outside will protect the new growth beneath. Inland, further up the valley, gardeners will need to take cuttings of daisy bushes, geranium, and pelargoniums and protect them until spring. I always felt very fortunate to have help once a week from Gardener Stan in my former large garden as there was compost and pea straw to spread while the gardens slept. Although not all plants sleep during winter, bulbs push through, pansies, polyanthus, violas, poppies, and primulas are tough little plants that stand up to frosts and give spots of colour. Leggy rhododendrons with leaves and buds on the top of long woody branches can be reduced in height, cut them all right back to a healthy bulging nodule, and then mulch with compost, it will take several years for them to bush up again but new growth is better to look at than stalky growth. More rose pruning this week, I had to invest in some new secateurs as the pair I have been using did not cut clean and rips on a rose prune will not allow the cut to seal well which will then result in die back, this can sometimes claim the whole branch. Winter is the time you will find the best selection of deciduous trees in garden centers, it may be cold and miserable outside but it's the time to buy these trees for planting. They arrive as grafted stock from growers, if you have bought bare-rooted trees identify where the graft section is as it should stay above the dirt line. If the tree has been bagged, plant to where planted in the bag, and remember to include a stake at planting time to protect against root movement by wind. Fruit: A tip I have used works to eradicate codling moths attacking apple trees. Quarter fill a tin or plastic milk container with treacle and hang it in the tree to attract male grubs, the treacle is said to smell like the female codling moth pheromone, so male grubs come to a sticky end. A double bonus is that the treacle will attract grub-eating birds. Tidy up fruit bushes now they are bare, black currants can be pruned now until late winter, they fruit best on younger wood so aim to remove older wood to retain a basic structure of 6 to 10 healthy shoots. For red and white currants cut out only diseased or very old branches in winter then prune new growth back to two buds in early summer by pruning leaders to outward-facing buds but if branches are bending cut to upward-facing buds. Vegetable garden: Time to start preparing the soil for spring planting, cultivate vacant spaces, and dig in green crops sown earlier. Add compost, and lime if you feel the ground is sour. Compost mixed with sawdust can be spread on wet, boggy soils. Sow seeds of broccoli, cabbage, broad beans, cauliflower, peas, (butter crunch) lettuce, onions, radish, spinach, and silverbeet into trays filled with potting mix and a layer of seed-raising mix on top, sit trays in a well-lit protected place to germinate. Asparagus crowns are now available and can be planted out in a well-composted bed. (no animal manure ) Cheers, Linda.