Grow it Yourself: Peas

Peas are a marginal crop in mild climates. They tend to be much more reliable and productive in cooler areas. The frozen products in the supermarkets are ridiculously cheap to buy and of very high quality. So the reasons to grow peas at home are less related to quality and volume and more related to life’s simple pleasures. The satisfaction of picking fresh peas to serve with Christmas dinner is an adult pleasure. The opportunity to browse fresh peas in the garden, popping them from the pod straight into the mouth is a delight that every child should experience and one that does not wane with age. Raw, fresh peas don’t last well so are rarely nice if you buy them. You need them straight from the plant.

If you want peas for Christmas, sow them straight away. They take about three months to mature. The seed is the dried pea so they are large and are sown direct into well cultivated soil, about 5cm apart. Cover the area. The birds will destroy the germinating crop as soon as it bravely pokes its shoot above the ground. We use low chicken netting hoops for peas and various other germinating crops. Other people string cotton across the patch, cover with a cloche or even raise in seed trays under cover to stop the ravages of our feathered competitors. Once the plants have reached about 10cm in height, they are generally safe but soon they need some support to cling too. Even dwarf peas benefit from support. We tend to use a length of wire netting with a wooden standard (or post) every few metres. This can be rolled up when not required and used repeatedly. The supports need to be about a metre high. We do not spray peas at all. Ever.

While you may read the advice that peas are predominantly an autumn crop, our experience is that applies best to colder climates. It may be relevant if you live in areas like the King Country with its cooler autumns and winters but in mild, humid areas, autumn sowing is more likely to be a waste of effort as peas are vulnerable to mildew. We have given up on autumn crops but will sow from June to late September. So don’t delay. You will have harvested them by the end of the year and can use the area for a late crop of corn.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 23 September, 2011

Looking a little like a froth of pink candy floss this week - our magnificent Iolanthe (again)

Looking a little like a froth of pink candy floss this week - our magnificent Iolanthe (again)

Latest posts: Friday 23 September, 2011

1) Tropaeolum tricolorum, a distinctly refined member of the nasturtium family in Plant Collector this week.
2) Yates Vegetable Garden – yet another NZ gardening book in that folksy-wolksy vein that NZ publishers think is all we can cope with these days.
3) Managing bulb meadows and drifts – Abbie’s column
4) GIY Peas A little introduction to growing peas in warmer climates.
5) Even we can lower our sights – the first of our clearance specials. First up a splendid hedging line of Camellia Jury’s Yellow.

No apologies for continuing to lead with Magnolia Iolanthe this week. In a season which will not rank as memorable for magnolias, Iolanthe has not wavered or faltered and is simply beautiful. The first flowers on Serene are just opening – she is always the last of the season to flower for us. The magnolias will be drawing to a close in a matter of weeks, but the rhododendrons are coming into their own. The camellias battle on, badly affected by petal blight but doing their best. Mark uses the blower vac on them to blast away the blighted blooms which otherwise refuse to fall. It is such a disappointment, is camellia petal blight, but there is no point in railing against something we can not alter.

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 16 September, 2011

Magnolia Athene in our park this week

Magnolia Athene in our park this week


Latest posts:
1) The yellow Camellia chrysantha – looking rather more spectacular in the photo than on the bush. Plant Collector.
2) Trees for small gardens – Abbie’s column.
3) In praise of Bok Choy (aka Pak Choi) (this weeks GIY).
4) Tikorangi Diary with effusive praise for Magnolia Iolanthe and a plaintive complaint about people who can not read the important notes on our website explaining repeatedly that we do not mailorder or courier plants.

Magnolia Iolanthe in all her magnificence this week

Magnolia Iolanthe in all her magnificence this week

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 16 September, 2011

While much of the country is in the grip of rugby world cup fever (save us should the All Blacks fail to deliver the silverware. Elections have been lost on less and the country may plunge into deep depression), it is magnolia time here. I read a colleague advocating planting magnolias at the bottom of a slope so you can look down on them but I disagree. I love looking up through them from below and I prefer my magnolias displayed against a blue sky rather than framed by other greenery. With some of our trees around 60 years old now, they have considerable stature. In fact the original plant of Iolanthe has a diameter of about 10 metres – that is a lot of Iolanthe on show. The other mid season magnolias – Athene, Lotus, Milky Way, Atlas and the like- are all opening and the coming week will be one of the highlights of our gardening year.

Plant Collector – Camellia chrysantha

Indisputably yellow - Camellia chrysantha

Indisputably yellow - Camellia chrysantha

It is a camellia and it is indubitably yellow – bright yellow. Camellias don’t only come in pink, white and red. There was huge excitement in the west when the yellow camellias started to become available out of China in the early 1980s and they are certainly a curiosity though hardly great garden plants. Our specimen of C. chrysantha is now about 4 metres high and 4 metres wide. It took many years before it started to flower and even then, the flowers are few, far between and rather small. What is more, the flowers face downwards, well hidden amongst the foliage. I had to pick these to get a photo – don’t be thinking this is how they look on the bush. But even the fat yellow balls of buds are interesting. We have other yellow species which are not flowering yet, after about a decade! So these are plants for the curious collector and the plant breeder rather than the home gardener.

Nuccio’s Nursery in USA has apparently done a lot of work breeding new cultivars using the yellows but we have not seen any of the progeny in this country yet. That said, with its big, glossy, heavily textured leaves (called bullate foliage) C. chrysantha is a handsome plant in its own right for large gardens, even if it is shy on flowering. In this day and age, you are not likely to find it offered for sale in this country though it is around in camellia collections if you are determined to track it down. Grafting is the best option for getting your own plant. It does set seed, apparently, but we have never seen seed on our plant.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.

Trees for Small Gardens

The handsome Queen Palm (Syragus romanzoffiana) comes with a warning

The handsome Queen Palm (Syragus romanzoffiana) comes with a warning

While I am a big garden specialist, gardening across hectares, not square metres, I have spent enough of my life selling plants and dispensing advice to understand that trees are problematic on the tiny urban sections that have become the lot in life for most people. I still think trees can be an option in small gardens or courtyards where a bit of height and form can give stature to an otherwise closed in space.

Worry about width, not height. I call it the footprint – how much space it takes up. Many people think that Magnolia Leonard Messell is a good option for small gardens because it only grows about 3 metres high. True, we have a specimen that is coming up to 30 years old and it isn’t much more than that – but man alive, it must be getting on for 5 or 6 metres wide. That is a lot of space. In fact it is about the same footprint as our large specimen Magnolia Iolanthe and nobody in their right minds would plant that in a tiny garden.

Magnolia Burgundy Star - a good choice where space is very limited

Magnolia Burgundy Star - a good choice where space is very limited

By contrast, Magnolia Burgundy Star is very narrow and upright. After fifteen years, the original tree here is about 5 metres tall but it is not much more than a metre wide. This means it can give height and presence without casting deep shadows and taking up room.

Prunus serrula - exquisite bark and narrow, upright growth

Prunus serrula - exquisite bark and narrow, upright growth

Flowering cherries tell a similar story. If you only look at the projected height so keep to lower growers like Prunus Shimidsu Zakura or sweet little weepers like Falling Snow, you are highly likely to get caught out by the width of the canopy over time and end up either brutally hacking into it or facing removal. Prunus serrula won’t give you the mass of fluffy flowers but it has wonderful bark and an obliging habit.

Palms, you may be wondering. Some upright, single trunked varieties like the bangalow (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) or the more desirable Queen Palm (Syragus romanzoffiana) grow splendidly tall while taking minimal space. They are much favoured by landscapers for confined areas. However, they should come with a warning. They become too tall to groom so you have to let the spent fronds fall naturally and the sheath at the base of the frond is so heavy that it will break anything in its path, potentially ripping the spouting off your neighbour’s roof or causing panel damage to any vehicle in its path.

Conifers are often favoured – the narrow pencil cypress is the traditional look. Personally, I think they are a bit funereal and sombre, but others disagree. Conifers are not an area in which I have any expertise but you need to make sure that you have a variety which is not prone to red spider mite and be cautious if you think you will trim – many conifers don’t appreciate trimming and you can end up with unsightly bare patches.

Key pointers for choosing trees for small gardens:
1) Choose one that grows from a single trunk. Multi trunked and branched specimens take up a lot more room.
2) Keep to very narrow, upright growth. Shun anything with danger words like spreading, cascading, weeping or arching in the description. Think pillar-shaped (known as fastigiate).
3) Be cautious about a specimen you will have to prune regularly to keep under control. Anything over 2 metres high means you need a ladder and probably a pruning saw and loppers. It is better to plant the right sort of tree in the first place so that trimming requirements are minimal. By my definition, if it is under 3 metres, it is a shrub, not a tree.
4) Remember that it is not in the nature of trees to grow rapidly to the height you want and then to stop getting any taller. Trees that grow quickly will usually keep growing well beyond that. Small tree usually means slower grower. If it matters to you, pay the extra and buy an advanced grade specimen.

If you can find a tree with lovely bark or a seasonal flower display, then it is so much more interesting. Apropos of this, I came across a wonderful book recently by Waikato authors and tree-lovers, John and Bunny Mortimer. “Trees and their Bark” was published in 2003 but, being self published, I don’t think it received the attention it deserved. It is a delightful book, very readable with plenty of colour photos, by authors who know the topic inside out. It is still available and what is more, it is being remaindered at a ridiculously low price. I would not pass it by – it is worth having in the bookcase even if you are not in a position to plant trees. You will find the Mortimers listed in the Hamilton phone book or the white pages on line – there can only be one Bunny Mortimer.

Bunny’s pick for a small tree which can be grown on tiny sections is psuedocydonia which she feels ticks all the right boxes. You may have to get a copy of their book to find out more about it – it certainly has very striking bark as well as quince-like, fragrant fruit following on from japonica flowers. The only problem is finding it. You will probably have to grow it from seed.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.