Gardening in Waitaki April 15th 2025

Easter  break soon and North Otago will be glowing in Autumn splendor " A second spring when every leaf is a flower "   (Albert Camus If the weather holds, it will be a joy to be outside in the garden for many, I am sure. Because I have spent a good deal of my time doing that during the year, Easter break has become a time when I catch up with family. But then it was back on the job again, leaf rake and blower in hand!! Right now I am dealing with a new garden of someone else's planting after another shift, so I am doing a lot of viewing and thinking. Compost bins will be filling fast with leaves and grass clippings, adding manure and ready compost, then wetting between layers will get things decomposing while there is still warmth. Soil that is expected to produce year after year to ensure adequate growth needs a helping hand, just as farmland does. While composts and manures must be accorded their place in soil management, they are inadequate to ensure proper mineral nutrition of plants but can be supplemented by fertilisers during the growing season. Generally speaking, stable and poultry manure contain practically all the elements required, particularly Nitrogen, phosphate, and potash in a natural organic form, but manure too fresh can cause rank growth, so all the more reason to break it down with composting. As I mentioned last week, plants that will not tolerate phosphate fertiliser are Leucadendrons, Proteas, Banksia, and Erica. Dried Blood is high in nitrogen and is an easy way to replenish the nitrogen content in the soil. Plants like Polyanthus, Primulas, and Cyclamen love it and will flourish when you add dried blood to their diet. 100% Pure and Natural. Trim seeding flower heads from hebes to stop them becoming leggy with foliage only on top and bare woody branches below. During a dry autumn spell, gardens respond well to a deep, gentle soaking, especially around maples and rhododendrons but with rain being forecast, it may be a job you don't need to do. Lily bulbs will become available this month and can be planted from now until June as can all other spring bulbs apart from tulips, they are best planted during May. Vegetables  Time to dig up and divide Rhubarb crowns, mixing in heaps of compost before replanting , and a good time for sowing spinach, Snap Peas and spring onions. Fill the top of a shallow pot with Spring onions and pull them as they’re needed. Harvest Pumpkins now and remember not to remove the stalk from the Pumpkin, this stops it from rotting.   fruit: I would be harvesting apples and quince and gathering walnuts in my past large garden this week and would surely come across the odd not-found Easter egg among plants after the big Easter egg hunt in the garden. Cheers, Linda.

Gardening in Waitaki 9th April 2025

More rain this week with a temperature drop — the first frost on the coast can't be far away. It’s that waiting time of year again — waiting for the deciduous trees and shrubs to put on their spectacular autumn show before leaf drop, waiting for plants to finish flowering so they can be back. Roses: Also waiting for the roses to set seed. It’s tempting to want to tidy roses up now, but resist the urge to deadhead. As untidy as they may look, it's best to leave them until the proper pruning time in July. When a spent bloom sets seed, the plant continues drawing sap upward to feed and develop the seeds. While this is happening, the bud shoots along the stem will remain dormant, as sap bypasses them branch wood is hardening. If you remove the seed heads now, the plant redirects sap into new growth which will be too soft to survive winter. For now, the best thing to do with roses is to remove and dispose of any diseased leaves from the plant and surrounding ground. Follow this with a spray of Guild or Super Shield to help prevent the overwintering of rust, black spot, and mildew. Now is a good time to move camellias, rhododendrons, and conifers, as long as they’re still a manageable size. If wanting to shift larger specimens, trenching now in preparation for shifting during winter would be the way to go. Trenching... dig down around one half of the root ball, cutting through feeding roots, then backfill with compost for new feeding roots to establish. The other untouched side of the rootball will keep sustaining the shrub or tree until the time to relocate it. Get the last weed spraying done if needed. Driveways, paved areas, and fence lines. Choose a warm, dry afternoon when the weeds are thirsty. Any new weed seeds that germinate will likely be taken care of by the frost, so that’s it for the weed spraying until spring. In the glasshouse, start increasing light by removing any shading and reduce watering now that growth is slowing down. Lawns: If damp conditions continue, now is the time to put down grass grub granules. The grubs are actively feeding on grass roots until May, then they go dormant and reappear as night beetles around November. There’s also still time to de-thatch lawns and resow any bare patches. The soil is still warm enough to get a good strike, but not for much longer, as nights are cooling quickly. I like to give struggling lawns a dressing of sifted compost — about half a bucket per square metre — and work it in gently with the back of a rake and mow without a catcher often to add humus. This improves both light and compacted soils. If your soil is especially compacted, add some gypsum to the compost for a better result. Vegetables & Fruit: There’s still time to sow a green crop once space becomes available in the veg garden. Dig in any vegetables that have gone to seed and any annual weeds before they seed — all great for building humus in the soil. Keep planting winter vegetables. Cover any pumpkins still growing if a frost is forecast . Apply cleanup sprays to all fruit trees and fruiting shrubs that have shown signs of leaf spot. Super Copper or Nature’s Way Fungus Spray works well. Citrus trees with leaf or fruit spot can also be treated with Super Copper. Cheers, Linda