• A few mild days mid week were the klaxon heralding spring. In New Plymouth if you look to the right as you drive along Powderham Street between the radio station and the well known liquor store, you will see the campbellii magnolias in all their glory. These are the first of the season to flower every year. Our English snowdrops are starting to pass over and the dwarf daffodils are flowering their little heads off. It is very much countdown to spring. Be prepared for some relapses to miserable, bleak weather as well.
• It is still garlic planting season but don’t leave it too much longer.
• Don’t delay on pruning grapevines because the sap will start to move soon and they weep and bleed if you prune too late. However there is no harm in taking a little longer on the roses, wisteria, clematis and hydrangeas.
• If you are enjoying eating the yellow kiwifruit and want to grow a vine, you will need to try it from your own seed. As far as we know, the fruit you buy in the shops all comes from cultivars still owned by the plant breeders [Hort Research] and not available to buy for the home gardener. There is, however, nothing to stop you from trying your own from seed although there is no guarantee you will get a top cropping one from seed. Mark has several plants which he raised and we will be planting them out in the field to see which is worth keeping. Just use seed from a good specimen of fruit you have bought.
• Continue sowing broad beans. If you don’t think you like them, try eating them at the juvenile stage and you may become a convert. They are a most useful spring bean and, as an experienced veg gardener noted, once you have harvested the beans, the remaining plant makes a wonderful green crop for digging in to the garden..
• The optimum time for feeding plants is just as they are about to go into growth which is… [wait for it….drumroll…] now – for most plants. Prune, clean up the garden beds, feed and get mulch on. The mulch is really important if you have poor soils and if you dry out easily in late spring. We still advocate blood and bone or Bioboost as garden fertiliser. Leave the plastic coated prills (Osmocote, Nutricote, Plantacote type) for container plants and don’t waste your money using them in the garden.
• If you have ugly, leggy or otherwise crusty looking rhododendron plants, now is the time to cut them hard back. For brutal pruning back to bare woody trunk and stems, don’t delay. You are going to shock the plant and you want to maximise its new growth so sacrifice this year’s flowers. Cut back hard, feed and mulch. It won’t flower next year but you should have a really attractive, renovated plant which is bushy and fresh. No guarantees – it is kill or cure with sick plants. You can cut all the foliage off on both rhodos and camellias but only at this time of the year.

• Spring is just around the corner. The first of our campanulata cherries has opened its flowers so we expect the rest of the tuis to return post haste. Be careful using glyphosate around areas of bulbs. The emerging daffodils do not like it at all.
• Do not delay on the winter pruning because time will run out sooner rather than later. Roses, wisterias and hydrangeas all need an annual prune along with raspberries, grapes and kiwifruit in the orchard. Dwarf deciduous fruit trees or espaliered specimens such as apples and pears need a winter trim to keep them in good shape but if you have granddaddy old big trees, it must be admitted that few people prune these and most will continue to fruit. Our colleague Glyn Church advocates finishing all pruning before the birds start nest building for spring.
• For the record, we are continuing to harvest and eat avocados from our two Hass trees, as we have since January but the rate is slowing. The late summer corn cobs are pretty well at their end and are now somewhat lacking in flavor and really only good for soups and fritters. Brussel sprouts, Chinese greens, brassicas and parsley provide most of our daily greens though we should also have been picking leeks. We are still eating apples, kiwifruit and potatoes out of the store cupboard and should have had our own pumpkin. The orange trees provide plenty of fruit on an ongoing basis. All I need to buy from the supermarket are the missing leeks, carrots and bananas.
• Give some winter attention to lawns even if you have joined the movement to shun spraying and fertilizing. Flat weeds are easy to remove by hand. Fill in hollows and dips. Use the garden fork to lift and aerate sodden or compacted areas and oversow bare patches.
• The rule of thumb in the vegetable garden is that you dig in green crops at least six weeks in advance of replanting. The rate of breakdown is slow in current cold conditions. So it you are preparing areas for planting early summer veg in September, you should be starting to dig in any crops.
• While some vegetable gardeners are meticulous about crop rotation in prescribed sequences, sound practical experience over centuries backs up the idea that at the very least, you should rotate different types of crops to avoid building up pests and diseases. There are gross feeders such as tomatoes and corn, legumes such as peas and beans, green leafy crops which includes lettuce and brassicas and root crops (parsnip, carrots, onions). Don’t fertilise your root crops this year (and definitely shun animal manure for them) but plant them in an area which you fertilised well last year. So they go where your corn or tomatoes were. Mix and match the other crops to avoid replanting a crop or a close relative in the same patch it was in last season. Crop rotation does not come any simpler than that.

* There we were thinking that a Taranaki winter is not so bad after all, when wham bang. Winter struck with a vengeance on Tuesday. A nasty little frost was not even followed by a sunny day, as is usual. Instead cloud kept the temperatures low and then the rain started. Nobody in their right mind would have been outside gardening in the prevailing weather as I started to write this but then Wednesday dawned calm and sunny. We are only two weeks off August which means a short space of time until magnolia season starts and temperatures rise. Our winters may be patchy, but they are also enviably brief.

* It is seed catalogue season. Italian Seeds Pronto have their new catalogue of heirloom vegetables and herbs of Italian origin. On a bleak winter’s day, it is wonderfully evocative of an Italian summer. Find them on line at http://www.italianseedspronto.co.nz or at Vetro or Fresha Food in New Plymouth. Lots of Italian style and big packets of seed which mean plenty to share with friends.

* The latest catalogue from Kings Seeds has also arrived in the mail. This is a large format affair which covers flowers, herbs, organic seed, microgreens, seeds for sprouting and all manner of vegetables from utility to gourmet. There is quite a lot of information packed into it. You can go on line at http://www.kingsseeds.co.nz or send $7.50 (a cheque or even in 50c stamps) to PO Box 283, Katikati 3166 if you want to get a copy. Inspirational stuff.

* We have been asked about pruning feijoas. The rule of thumb is that the wonderfully forgiving feijoa does not require routine pruning. The only reasons to prune are to keep the bush to a smaller size or if the fruit was disappointingly small this year. If you rejuvenate the bush you will get larger fruit, fewer in number but larger. Thin the plant by taking out firstly any dead wood, then weak branches, then the oldest branches. Removing a third of the canopy is safe and you will get the best fruit on vigorous young growth. Use secateurs and loppers, not hedgeclippers because you are taking entire branches out, not just shortening the leafy growth. Do not shear the plant like a hedge if you want a crop next season as you will cut off the flower buds which are concentrated at the tips.

* The same pruning principles apply to olives and guavas. Prune soon after harvest.

* If you are buying feijoas, buy named cultivars (not cheap seedlings). If you are only planting one, check that you have a variety which is self fertile. Not all of them are and without a pollinator, you may not get fruit. This is one South American fruit that we have virtually made our own in New Zealand.

* Keep digging and dividing clumping plants – time will run out for this soon.

* Continue the winter pruning round on roses, wisterias, hydrangeas and all the rest.

* Last call for getting your spring bulbs planted out if you still have some poor anemones, ranunculus, daffies or similar sitting around. You have just about missed the boat on them.

* In the vegetable garden it is onion time. Seed can be sown directly into the ground but onions are gross feeders and like well cultivated soil so take the time to dig over the bed well. The rule of thumb is to sow onions where you had a heavily fertilised crop such as corn or tomatoes growing last summer.

• We returned from our UK sojourn to view the results of what Mark described as the largest frost he has not seen. Judging by the damage, it was a once in a decade frost (the renga renga lilies were burnt, for goodness sake) so Mark was relieved he had constructed a winter shroud for his precious bananas. Areas such as ours where severe frosts are rare, suffer considerably more damage from one-off events than colder places where plants are better hardened. We won’t be rushing to cut off the frost damaged foliage because this will give some measure of protection should we get another bad one.
• In the vegetable garden, you can continue planting brassicas (that is if you need more. If you have been faithfully planting them every week, you may want to take a week off lest you drown under the harvest of cabbage and cauli). For a change, you can start sowing carrots and onions. Cover carrot seed with a board or a strip of nova roof or similar to stop the fine seed from being flooded out before it germinates. We are assuming that by now all vampire repelling garlic aficionados will have planted their crops but it is not too late if you have yet to do it.
• Sow broad beans and if you have a good sheltered spot, really keen gardeners will be racing to get in the first crop of early potatoes. Make sure they are well sprouted. Peas are hardy and can be sown now. We saw crops of green peas to die for in English allotments which make our modest offerings look pathetic but picking fresh peas from the garden remains a taste treat for all, even if the peas never make it as far as the pot.
• Prune grapevines. If you are not sure how to do this, we will be featuring this in the Outdoor Classroom next week.
• Get a copper spray onto citrus trees if you have not yet done so. At the same time, you can put a protective copper clean up spray over all fruit trees if you are thorough.
• Prune, prune and prune. Roses, wisterias, hydrangeas and anything deciduous that needs a shape-up or trim back (except for cherry trees).
• If you haven’t yet done so, take off last year’s fruiting canes on raspberries and thin out the new canes so you don’t over crop. A bit of work now tying down the canes pays dividends when it comes to harvest time when rasps can put up quite a battle.

• As you read this, we should be high in the air flying back from a few weeks looking at early summer gardens in southern England. Alas July is the most miserable month at home but at least we have a short winter in Taranaki compared to large parts of the world. It is already countdown to spring and within a few weeks the day lengths will be noticeably longer and temperatures significantly milder.
• We will be home to prune pretty much everything but those who heed our advice will be well ahead of us on the winter prune. Because we live in a mild coastal area, we prune hydrangeas at the same time as everything else. Those in cold, inland areas may wish to hold off on the hydrangeas until August. As with wisterias, do not cut off your hydrangeas at ground level and then wonder why they fail to flower. They flower on last year’s growth so you are taking out all spindly growths, anything too woody and ugly and then reducing the very long growths to the fat flower buds. If you look, you will see small buds and fat buds. The small ones produce leaves, the fat ones flowers. So cut back to the lowest fat buds you can find.
• As you work your way around the garden, get a good layer of mulch onto garden beds. This does wonders for your soils, encourages worm activity (as long as you use organic matter as opposed to inorganic weed mat, black plastic, gravel, stones or, horrors, tumbled glass), suppresses weeds and makes your garden look a great deal more loved and cared for. If you are in a summer drought area, you need to follow this up with another layer of mulch in spring to keep moisture levels up. Our preferred mulch is compost. Leaf litter is good. Pine needles work, especially around acid loving plants such as rhododendrons. Bark chip looks good and can be locally sourced. Calf shed shavings are good if you have a local source. Pea straw is a classic quality mulch but because we don’t grow peas commercially in our area, it is expensive and represents quite a hefty carbon footprint moving it here for you to buy when you can find local alternatives.
• Get your locally sourced New Zealand garlic planted soon, if you have yet to do it. It is a bit cold to be planting much else in the vegetable garden though sowing broad beans is fine.
• If you are getting cabin fever and you lack a glasshouse, cloches are worth investigating. Mark bought a Rolls Royce cloche last year. It takes a bit of putting up and down but greatly extends the planting opportunities. A cloche is relocatable and somewhat like a mini mobile poly house – support hoops that you move around and cover with clear plastic. As temperatures rise and the crop grows, the cloche is dismantled. A cloche will lift the internal temperature by several degrees, protect from frost and stop the worst excesses of rain from flattening tender young plants. The classic glass bell jar is Ye Olde English version of the protective covering for individual plants and you can buy modern repro bell jars. Cut off pet bottles are not as large and certainly lack any style, but will work to cover individual plants.
• If you are trying to make a hot compost mix, make sure you remember to turn your compost (it is what the garden fork is for, though to be honest we do it with the front bucket on the tractor here). You need to keep it aerated and ideally keep the cold rain off it. We cover ours with a heavy sheet of plastic.