- Prune and shape sasanqua camellias. These are the autumn flowering camellias which are finishing flowering. The rule of thumb is to prune most plants after flowering. Sasanqua hedges can be clipped now or specimen plants shaped and thinned.
- Rose pruning: those in very cold areas might chose to wait until next month but in most of Taranaki, rose pruning is happening now or has been done already. If you don’t want to fiddle with cutting each branch back to an outward facing bud, a pass over with the hedge clippers is less elegant but reputedly effective. Keep rose prunings out of the compost. They need to be burned or fed through a mulcher. Treat any skin wounds from rose thorns with respect. Major infections are not unknown to unwary pruners.
- For those fortunate enough to have macadamia and avocado trees, watch out for rats who will race you to both if you are slow off the mark. There is nothing worse than finding a rat has beaten you to the last of the avocadoes or that it has drilled though the macadamia shells.
- Carrot seed can be sown directly into the garden. Protect the seed from heavy rain until it has germinated. We use a narrow strip of nova roof. Alternatively, a top dressing of compost will stop the soil caking before the fine seed starts sprouting.
- Now is a good time to sow onions, to be harvested in summer.
- Asparagus divisions are available in the shops. This luxury vegetable is a permanent fixture in the garden and takes three years before you can start to harvest a crop. That said, if you have the space and plan to stay, there are few delights to equal heading out to pick your own asparagus in spring. With our good drainage in Taranaki, we don’t need to worry about putting drainage material (gravel and the like) at the bottom of trench, but the recommendation is to prepare a bed by digging 60cm deep and incorporating compost, then planting the divisions at 45cm spacings with the crown 10cm below the surface. Mark thought he had dug to China when he prepared his trench for our new bed (double digging it all, too) but in fact he barely got more than 35cm so the 60cm recommendation may be a bit over the top.
- Mark is just now finishing pruning the grapevines – even we follow our own advice, albeit a week late.
Category Archives: Seasonal garden guides
This week July 21 2006
- If you haven’t planted your garlic yet, (folklore says to plant it on the shortest day of the year) you still have time, but do not delay. Garden Centre garlic should be certified virus free but you will pay more for this. Supermarket garlic should be okay but you are taking a risk because apparently health giving garlic will repel vampires but not viruses.
- Brassica plants (cabbage, cauli and broccoli) can be planted now for late spring harvest.
- Lettuce plants for spring salads can be planted under cloches. It is still too cold to plant them in the open without the protection of a cloche.
- If you have a frostfree spot, new potatoes can be planted for late spring harvest.
- In the home orchard, apple trees should be pruned now along with grapevines. To spur prune grapevines, take them back to two growth points from the main trunk, removing all weak and spindly growth. It looks drastic but grapes respond to heavy pruning.
- Lawn care: it is a good time to oversow bare patches in the lawn or to sow fresh lawns for spring. Ideally they are best done in autumn, but there is still time to get them established before summer.
- In the ornamental garden, now is the time to dig and divide clumping plants. Do not delay this task because they will be going into growth very soon. Summer flowering perennials and hostas like to be divided and replanted into soil which has been freshly cultivated. They will reward your efforts with plenty of fresh vigour.
- Pruning hydrangeas is another task to be finished as soon as possible.
- Daffodils are coming through the ground. Be wary with the Round Up because they don’t like being sprayed at this stage.
- Spring is only about six weeks away. The buds are already swelling on the cherry trees and magnolias, and the snowdrops are in full flower.
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 