Category Archives: Seasonal garden guides

Weekly garden guide, In the garden this week, In the Taranaki garden

May 9, 2008 Weekly Garden Guide

Just last week we were talking about autumn and continuing mild temperatures. We were a bit taken aback by the sudden descent into winter temperatures (forget three dog nights, it has been two full on fires here each night).

While temperatures should rally somewhat, it is timely to remind gardeners not to delay on battening down for winter. If you grow frost tender material, be prepared for an early frost. It only takes one unexpected frost to do a large amount of damage.

  • Cold weather saps the motivation of all but the most determined gardener, so grab any mild days to progress the autumn clean up round. Only inland gardeners in cold conditions will put their gardens to bed for winter. The rest of us have year round growth to some extent but a clean up round does make the place look much more loved. Mark hostas or other deciduous perennials now that you plan to divide when dormant. It makes finding them a great deal easier when they have gone underground.
  • Leaf drop will happen quickly now that temperatures have dropped so markedly. Obviously paths, driveways and sealed areas need to be kept clear of fallen leaves or they can become slippery (we still love our blower vac for this task but if you lack one of these, leaf rakes are much easier to use than garden rakes). Autumn leaves should be seen as part of nature’s bounty, not a nuisance or, horrors, something to be burned. Raked into a moist heap, they rot down really quickly to give wonderful leaf mulch.
  • It is definitely time to get broad beans sown. These are a real treat when harvested fresh and young.
  • As you complete autumn harvest of pumpkins, corn, potatoes, tomatoes etc, clear the beds and sow down green crops. Lupin is ideal at this time of the year and has wonderful nitrogen fixing properties.
  • Make weeding and mulching a priority. Reducing the weeds at this time of the year will greatly reduce their impact in spring and summer coming.
  • Pick up walnuts for drying. You need to beat the rats to them. If you are promising yourself to buy a walnut tree, look for grafted ones. Seedling grown walnuts are extremely unreliable and you may waste many years only to find that yours will never fruit properly.

    • Two hundred years ago, Samuel Butler wrote:

    Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

    Were he from Taranaki, this could be interpreted as advice not to forget to pick up your feijoas.

In the garden 02/05/2008

Further rains mean that autumn has well and truly arrived but while temperatures remain mild, there is good and bad. The good is that it is now ideal for planting anything woody and it remains pleasant to work outside. The bad is that wet and warm weather not only brings on mushrooms and facial eczema, but also every fungal disease possible in the garden. They may well have taken out your cucurbits and tomatoes already. If you still have the upper hand, keep up the copper sprays but if the fungi have won, then give up and pick all the remaining produce before it rots.

  • Plant trees, shrubs and hedges of all descriptions.
  • Lawns can be fed now while it is still warm and if you have not yet sown your planned new lawns, get on to it immediately.
  • Repot root bound container plants. You can either move them to a larger size of container or you can root prune and return them to the same pot. If you are doing the latter, hose off as much of the old potting mix and dead root as possible and if you are savagely attacking the root ball, make sure you prune the top of the plant by a corresponding proportion to reduce the stress. After repotting, place the container in a shaded position for a few weeks.
  • Not all potting mixes are equal in quality by any manner of means. While cheap mixes are fine for temporary pots of annuals or for starting off seedlings, where you have semi permanent plants in containers it is false economy to use inferior mixes.
  • Look out for an explosion in slugs, snails and freshly germinating weeds brought on by the rains.

Really keen gardeners will be sowing their onion seeds now, in preparation for planting out in a couple of months’ time. Less keen gardeners will pay more and buy plants closer to the time. The Curious Gardener’s Almanac points out that onions have been used since the sixteenth century to treat gunshot wounds and that General Grant refused to move his Union troops without supplies of onions, so gun-totin’ onion growers may like to plant a few extra in reserve. However, Cervantes pointed out in Don Quixote that one should not eat garlic or onions for their smell will reveal that you are a peasant.

In the garden 25/04/2008

Plan to get onto planting woody trees and shrubs. While our soils are still pretty dry, the next rains should get the moisture levels up sufficiently to plant with confidence. April and May are infinitely better times for planting than spring, especially if we get more drought. There is still sufficient warmth for the plants to keep growing and they will establish nicely long before the threat of summer dry.

  • Tedious though digging may be, the better you prepare the soil the healthier the plants will stay. We only ever see the tops but it is what is happening below the surface that determines how good the bits above will look. Adding compost and humus improves the soil texture and fertility. Bio boost or good old blood and bone are cheaper options for fertiliser than the plastic coated bubbles (Nutricote, Osmocote etc) which are best reserved for container plants. After you have planted, lay a 10cm layer of mulch to keep the weeds down.
  • Only stake if you really need to and use as short a stake as possible. Believe it or not, over-staking causes the plants to be lazy (bit of anthropomorphism going on here) and they don’t work as hard to establish a good root system and strong trunks. The swaying and movement is what encourages them to establish well but that is of no comfort if you can’t keep the plant upright in the howling gales which may sweep down your garden. So less is better but some may be necessary.
  • We do not advocate stomping around plants in size ten workboots to tamp them in after planting either. You don’t want to compact all the soil around them and heavy footed stomping can also cause significant root damage. A gentler approach can firm the plant without needing to treat it like a wooden fence post.
  • Divide rhubarb clumps now. Rhubarb is a gross feeder so double dig the area where you are going to plant it and add lots of compost and plant food.
  • Plant broad beans which are really-o truly-o delicious when eaten fresh and young from the garden. These go in as seed, not plants. Don’t add manure to broad beans but compost never goes astray.
  • Get straight onto sowing down green crops in bare areas of the vegetable garden where you are not going to plant again until spring time. The importance of green crops can not be over stated in maintaining healthy soil capable of repeated cropping.

If you are not an inspired gardener, you may like Czech writer, Karel Capek’s comment:

There are several ways to lay out a little garden; the best way is to get a gardener.

April 18, 2008 Weekly Garden Guide

The heavy rain this week almost certainly heralded the end of our protracted Indian summer and the quick transition to full scale autumn. The drought is highly unlikely to return now. So while we may moan about the showers and greyness (are some of us never satisfied?) it does mean you can get back into the garden with a vengeance and start planting, dividing and moving.

  • Keep an eye on your favourite garden centres. They will be taking delivery of new season’s stock now and it pays to get in early because it is not always possible for them to re-order.
  • It is autumn clean up time in the ornamental garden, particularly with perennials. You may like to take note of what feeds the birds before you get too carried away with cutting back. Perennials really need to be lifted and divided every few years (few meaning three to four years) and if you can’t see yourself getting around to it, you can excavate some of the congested clump out as you cut back the top foliage. Top dress with some compost to keep things tidy and to add goodness to the soil.
  • Make the final cut to large plants you are wrenching in preparation for relocation and plan to get them moved over the next three weeks or so to give them time to re-establish roots before the cold and wet of winter strikes. For the same reason, early autumn is the best planting time for all trees and shrubs, especially in areas which are prone to dry summers.
  • Now is a suitable time for pruning and shaping most evergreen shrubs and trees but if you are giving them a haircut, you will be taking off the flower buds. Think of shaping now and haircutting later (after flowering). Shaping uses saws (a chainsaw even), loppers and secateurs. Haircutting uses hedge clippers.
  • Planting in the vegetable garden at this time is geared up for harvest in spring. If you are keen, you plant garlic and onions in May but prepare the ground now to give it time to settle. They grow better in ground which is a little more compacted than freshly dug fluff. Beds are often better raised a little for winter crops. Autumn is the traditional time for composting all gardens, especially the vegetable garden. If you are continually harvesting from the same area of garden, you have to keep adding humus to the soil or it will become poor and depleted. Synthetic fertilisers are a poor substitute for green crops and good compost. They add short term nutrients but not humus.
  • With the wet weather, keeping a copper spray on the tomatoes is even more important to extend the season if they have not already succumbed to blight.

If you have a surplus of cucumbers, The Curious Gardeners Almanac says that they were much cherished by the Ancient Egyptians who made a drink by cutting a hole in one end and stirring up the flesh with a stick. To us this just indicates a diet which is sadly lacking in greater delights such as fresh coconut, pineapple or even orange juice.

April 11, 2008 Weekly Garden Guide

  • Plant spring maturing cabbages, caulis, lettuce, spinach and broc. Strawberry runners can be also be planted out now. Plants need replacing often and you may well be able to harvest your own runners right now to save having to buy any.
  • Successful vegetable gardening involves good hygiene and tidy habits so a tidy up round removing spent foliage, getting rid of weeds and general housekeeping is always desirable but especially as you harvest autumn crops and prepare for winter.
  • Wrench trees and shrubs which you plan to move during winter. Wrenching involves cutting around the roots of the plant. It can force the tree into early hibernation but also encourages the plant to form fresh roots from the cut area. Plan to move as large a root ball as you can physically manage and the larger the top of the plant, the more roots you need to plan on keeping. After wrenching, leave the plant to rest for several weeks at least and don’t think about moving it until we get a great deal more rain.
  • With temperatures cooling down considerably, evaporation has slowed right down but do not forget to keep watering container plants as long as the promised rains fail to materialise. If your evergreen shrub in a container suddenly starts to drop its leaves, it is suffering extreme stress, probably from drought. Or it may be dead already.
  • Leaf fall appears to be starting early this year which is in part due to trees coping with the stress of the drought. Raking the leaves back under the plant or into a damp heap in the shade will encourage them to break down into lovely leaf litter which you can then rake back out as a friendly mulch.
  • Do not delay on the pre-winter tidy-up trim of the hedges.

    • The quote this week is from E.B.White (author of Charlotte’s Web) who wrote:

    Our vegetable garden is coming along well, with radishes and beans up and we are less worried about revolution than we used to be.