It would be fair to say this week that I am married to a disappointed man. Some ingrate of a garden visitor has stolen his paris seed. Probably ninety nine out of a hundred visitors wouldn’t even recognise his prized paris polyphylla as a rare delight, let alone think to help themselves to the seed which he had carefully pollinated and was watching ripen. Sadly the one in a hundred who was capable of recognising it was also the one in several thousand who would be mean enough to steal this treasure. Continue reading
Author Archives: Abbie Jury
This week 9 February 2007
- Now that summer finally seems to have made an appearance, there is not a huge amount you can do, or maybe want to do in the garden. Sitting under a large tree sipping a mint julep, perhaps? But do stay on top of watering container plants – most will need it every day now if there is no rain. Continue reading
This week 2 February 2007
- The real heat of summer has not yet arrived (and there is no guarantee that it will this year) so the usual summer maintenance of watering has not been necessary but vigilance against weeds is critical at the moment. In many cases it is better to remove the hoed weeds than to rely on the heat of the sun to cook them. Continue reading
Music to watch gardens by
We have been pondering entertainment and music in open gardens. This came about because our local Waitara garden trail was held last weekend. A true community venture, run on the goodwill and hard work of the organisers and the garden openers, this not-for-profit event brings out several hundred people to enjoy themselves over the two day period and entertainment is sometimes part of the package.
I must admit we only got to visit one garden ourselves but music played a large part. Being somewhat purist in our approach, we have steered well clear of the entertainment factor in our own garden. Mark is of the view that he would much rather visitors came to enjoy the garden than to treat it more as a venue for entertainment. But we were really interested in the impact of music in the garden we visited. The owners were playing carefully chosen, contemporary instrumental music which was loud enough to create an ambience on arrival but not so intrusive as to dominate. In the spirit of a fun afternoon, it certainly added to the atmosphere and gave a sense of being where something was happening. Continue reading
This week 26 January 2007
- While grey rainy days may be dreary in mid summer, it has been a steady gentle rain, where we live at least, and absorbed well into the ground with little runoff. This makes for ideal conditions for planting again. Not perhaps large trees and shrubs (best held until autumn) but certainly annuals and perennials for late summer and autumn colour.
- Alas the warmth and the rain will also result in speedy germination of weed seeds so expect to see an explosion of fresh weeds over the next two weeks and get on to them early.
- If you have hybrid clematis suffering from mildew or which have finished flowering, cut them back hard now, give them a feed and start counting. In six weeks time, they should be flowering again on fresh growth. This won’t work on early spring flowering Clematis montana (the pretty but rampant pink or white one which is great for covering disused buildings or ugly banks) because it only flowers once each season, but most of the clematis will repeat flower with encouragement.
- It is still a free for all in the seed sowing department of the vegetable garden but for us it is the last week for sowing corn. Mark makes this last sowing a large one because they will hold much longer in the cold of early winter. Carrots and even parsnips can still be sown although they won’t get to full size.
- Plant brassicas for winter. It is getting too late for brussels sprouts unless you have good plants. Start successional sowings of winter spinach. There are two types of spinach. Winter spinach, or prickly seeded spinach prefers the cooler months of autumn to develop. Smooth seed spinach can still be sown but it won’t hold the same. It is generally sown in the spring.
- Garlic has been harvested here and Mark can confirm that it is a waste of time growing Chinese garlic from the supermarket. The elephant garlic is hugely more productive and the certified garlic did much better. The problems with the Chinese garlic are probably to do with them having switched hemispheres and their growing season being dislocated.
- As soon as you have harvested stone fruit such as plums, it is time to start the main prune on the trees, opening the plant up and thinning two thirds of the new growth. Summer pruning is done to avoid silver blight.
- Grapes need another trim to remove laterals and to set the final length of the fruit bearing canes. Spray with Bravo or similar to prevent mildew and watch for mealie bugs.
- Citrus trees need their summer spray of copper now.
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 