- Take a look at your rhododendrons and prune out any dead wood, if you haven’t done so already. Deadheading can start early on the big leafed rhodos this year as the frost turned them brown last week (in our garden at least).
- It is the last opportunity to do late divisions of herbaceous plants such as hostas. After this, you will need to leave it until next winter.
- Where you have established clumps of deciduous plants or bulbs (Mark is thinking of his treasured trilliums here), as they start to appear and you know where they are, a light forking of the surrounding soil to aerate and a mulch of compost will encourage stronger growth and better performance. This can be done to your asparagus bed too but it might be getting a bit late now as the early shoots are on the move.
- This is the optimum time for sowing seeds under cover for summer annuals and summer vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumber and courgettes. The aim is to have them in top condition for planting into the garden around Labour Weekend.
- Annuals for spring display can be planted now as seedlings, as long as they are not frost tender. Coastal areas are now over most frost danger but a mild late frost in the next week or two is not unheard of.
- Continue planting peas and new potatoes to ensure a succession of crops over summer. Dwarf beans can be started in pots now but it is a little early to plant them in the garden yet.
Category Archives: Seasonal garden guides
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.
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.
This week 4 August 2006
- If your magnolias are opening with some badly deformed flowers, the likely cause is a possum with a taste for the buds. It will eat the centre out, leaving the bud looking fine until it tries to open. The best solution we know is high velocity inter cranial lead but if you are in town, you will have to resort to trapping. It is usually only one critter that discovers this morsel. It is not part of their staple diet. If you want to make sure you have caught the offender, you can do an autopsy (as Mark does) and examine the contents of its stomach but this is not compulsory.
- Now is the time to prune deciduous trees of all makes and models except prunus (flowering cherries). The idea is to do this before the sap is flowing, which won’t be long. Cherries get pruned in summer because of the fear of introducing silver blight.
- Slugs and snails are on the move. Remember that slug bait is toxic to dogs and hedgehogs and should not be laid on like fertiliser. One bait can kill a number of the slimy creatures and a little often is a great deal better than a lot in one application. Strategically placed, one bait per plant is all that is needed.
- Harvest remaining carrots and onions now and store in the fridge or a cool place. If you don’t harvest them, they will go into growth shortly and lose their flavour and texture.
- It is all go for planting in the vegetable garden. In sheltered warmer positions, seed and plants of most brassicas and other utility vegies including beetroot, onions, carrots and peas can all be planted.
- Salad lettuces and lettuce mixes can be sown into the garden or, for quicker results, into trays in a covered area like a conservatory for harvesting as micro greens.
- A light application to lawns of a nitrogen based fertiliser such as urea or Bioboost will give a quick fix to tired or yellow grass. “Light” is the key word here – spring is the main time for feeding the lawns. This application is a pick-me-up only.
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 