Author Archives: Abbie Jury

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About Abbie Jury

jury.co.nz Tikorangi The Jury Garden Taranaki NZ

Buyer Beware or Out of Control Lawnmowing Contractors

Our trade magazine, Commercial Horticulture, keeps talking about the New Zealand do it yourself ethic having been replaced by “Do it for me”. You can see this in the explosion of lawnmowing contractors, section maintenance people and landscapers. Even I will admit that not everybody derives the same pleasure from gardening and being creative with plants that we do here.

But I had somebody in recently who told me a horror story which may serve as a cautionary tale. Uncertain what to do with her large section which had some mature plantings, she engaged the services of somebody who called himself a landscaper. She thought she had made it clear what she wanted – a pretty garden which complemented her period villa. Alas she came home from work one lunchtime to find he had chainsawed out all her trees, including her mature apples and plums. She was simply devastated. This cowboy “landscaper” planned to create a minimalist garden in their place – rocks and spiky things and grasses.
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This week 25 Aug 2006

  • Last chance to prune and shape maples before they come into growth and while you can see what you are doing. It is always best to prune before the sap starts rising. This advice applies to pretty well all deciduous plants except flowering cherries.
  • If you can be bothered, it does pay to deadhead hellebores (winter roses). They set seed freely and over time the seedlings start to compete and hellebore beds get very congested. These are promiscuous flowers so the potential colour and form of seedlings is unpredictable unless you hand pollinate or isolate the different colours. If you have prized double forms planted near singles, the vast majority of seedlings will be single, alas.
  • Pleione orchids (teacup orchids) are starting to put up their flower spikes. As they do this before they put out their roots, you can move them around and divide them at this time if you handle them carefully. But be very cautious not to break any shoots you can see at the base of the bulb. Pleiones like to sit just on top of the soil so may need some protection from birds scratching around them if you are using them as garden plants.
  • Tuesday night’s frost was a bit of a wake up call for those of us getting lulled into some degree of complacency. It hit many plants here which we have never seen touched before and turned the first display of magnolias brown. Don’t relax yet on cold, calm, clear nights when the weather is coming from the south.
  • If you have a patch of daffodils which are in full leaf but with hardly any flowers, it is an indication that they need lifting and dividing or that you are growing them in conditions that are too fertile and hospitable or too shaded. Daffodils flower best when they are grown somewhat hard. But don’t try lifting and dividing them until the foliage has died down in late spring.
  • Now is a good time to do a winter oil spray on dormant fruit trees. This spray will help control red spider, scale and woolly aphis which can be problems later in the season.
  • In the vegetable garden, you can keep planting practically anything as the soils will be starting to warm up soon. If you have a glasshouse, you can get an early jump on the season with tomatoes.

This week 18 Aug 2006

  • If you feel the need to use hormone spray on lawns (Tordon Gold and the like), this is your last chance to do so without causing damage to nearby deciduous shrubs and trees which will be in growth soon. Magnolias are particularly vulnerable to hormone spray damage when they are coming in to leaf (the result is deformed, curly foliage) so take special care if you have specimens nearby or planted in your lawn and avoid all hormone sprays around them in springtime. Hormone sprays are used to take out broadleafed weeds.
  • Hostas and most spring and summer clumping perennials can still be divided but time is running out fast for this activity. All spring and most summer bulbs will be in growth now and are best left undisturbed.
  • With this drier weather, weeds are germinating. Push hoeing and raking the garden now may save an explosion of weeds in a few weeks.
  • If you use green crops, remember to dig them in at least a month before you wish to plant a crop to give them a chance to start breaking down. Green crops such as lupin or oats are a time honoured way of returning fertility and texture to soil which is being cropped repeatedly, as in the vegetable garden.
  • Trim and tie down raspberry canes. Near and dear to the writer’s heart (or face) this advice, after a wayward cane launched an unprovoked attack a few days ago.
  • A wide range of fruit trees are currently available and should be planted as soon as possible before they start moving. Apples and plums are probably the most successful in the wider Taranaki climate. Add in feijoas, kiwifruit and citrus in mild coastal areas. Peaches and apricots prefer a drier climate and are mostly disappointing here unless you spray repeatedly.

Glam Gardening with a Nod to Things Italianate

Anything La Bella Italia is the New Cool.

Glam gardening is the fashion of the new millenium.

I decided this, dear Reader, based on rather slender evidence but everywhere I look, I see confirmation of these two conclusions. Time was when anything from France was the height of sophistication and style but these days it is Italy that is in vogue. Italian gardening, Italian cooking (anything with olive oil and sun dried tomatoes), to Italian shoes and handbags, to clipped cypresses and tiled entranceways – all add up to Italian style. And we want it, indoors and out.
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This week 11 Aug 2006

  • A bit of an oops last week when we advised harvesting remaining crops of carrots and onions. It should of course have been carrots and parsnips. The onion crop has just been sown.
  • If you are a bit ho hum about cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower or a little bored by utility veggies generally, there is a wonderful array of gourmet seed available locally. Mark could not resist strawberry spinach (can’t wait), asparagus pea (the mind boggles) and Florence fennel. The Florence fennel should yield the fennel bulbs used in Italian cooking but not generally available in greengrocers and supermarkets.
  • Peas are best staked when young to avoid damage and to give them something to climb. Peas can be sown at two weekly intervals to keep a succession in summer.
  • New potatoes planted now should be up by the end of August. They can be protected from late frosts by mounding up soil if it looks as if the new shoots may get burnt. There is a splendid range available in garden shops at the moment and one enterprising New Plymouth garden centre has a pick and mix where you can select as few as five of each variety so you can experiment with different types and not have to buy the whole 3kg bag of one type.
  • While camellias are just starting to come in to their own in the garden, potted plants in garden centres usually open blooms earlier and most will be in full flower now. It is an ideal time to chose and for planting in the garden. Camellias also make splendid specimens in containers – just make sure you have plenty of drainage holes at the bottom of your container and don’t drown a small plant in an oversized pot.
  • Container plants need to be repotted every couple of years. Winter is a good time to do it, especially if the plant is struggling or you plan to trim back the root ball. The cooler weather reduces stress on the plant. If you trim the roots, make sure you trim the top as well so that a reduced root system is not struggling to support on oversized top.
  • Buying deciduous plants in winter when they look like a cluster of bare sticks takes trust, but now is the best time for planting and garden centres will have their best selection available at this time.
  • It is a good time to look at your young deciduous trees and to keep them to a single trunk while you can see what you are doing and before the sap rises. Double leaders can lead to structural problems later and don’t look great.