Crystal ball predictions for the 2010 gardening year

Ah, that wonderful Christmas – New Year hiatus. In the days before the Boxing Day sales and indeed before seven day trading, it used to be more of a coma than a hiatus but even now, in this country, we settle in to holiday mode. Why else would we tolerate the truly appalling offerings on television where there is rarely anything worth watching? Clearly we are all meant to be reading the Christmas books or chatting to family and friends instead. And the print and electronic media, yours truly included, sink into a period of reflection, summarising the year past and bravely making predictions for the year just starting. This is at least one step better than recycling earlier offerings under the headings of “ 2009 Highlights” or “Best of…”. So I shall resist the temptation to recycle a piece from earlier this year (though I will admit to being proud of the series I wrote on English summer gardens which is still on this website) and look into my crystal ball.

I believe we will diversify from vegetables. Veg gardening is not fad or fashion but the all consuming obsession is showing signs of dilution. There is a hint that some would like to read about other types of plants and gardens as well as home food production. I recall an Auckland journo wryly commenting on the $70 lettuce. That is the cost for some of producing their first and sometimes only produce after buying planter boxes, the bagged potting mix and compost, the most basic of tools and punnets of small plants from the garden centre.

Serious vegetable gardening will continue for some, but many of those who follow fashion and trends will be realising by now that to be a successful vegetable gardener requires some expertise and skill and quite a bit of time. You can not just plant the seeds or baby plants and then ignore them. Dilettantes will lose heart and move on. The declaration that one will only plant productive trees and shrubs may be a sign of naivety and not the higher moral ground. It could be argued that the doom and gloom of the recession had us all looking to survival mode. Now that the clouds are lifting, increased optimism allows space for aesthetics and beauty in life as well. And I can assure you that while the walnut tree I see outside my window fruits and we enjoy its harvest, it is but a poor aesthetic specimen compared to the magnolia nearby which is lush and opening its summer flowers. We need to nourish more than just the body and to titillate more than the taste buds. In our eyes, the complete garden goes well beyond just fruit and vegetables, although they are an important element.

The upside of the vegetable craze has been the return to some old fashioned values of seasonal eating, taking pride in home produce and super fresh ingredients given a new twist with some rather more sophisticated international flavours. I reviewed a rather large number of cook books last year for the food pages (Second Daughter was fearfully impressed last week with my shelf of recipe books and I only keep the ones I like) and certainly the current focus is very strongly on eating locally sourced foods in season. The delight in being able to transcend seasonal limitations by buying food which has crossed the hemispheres is a thing of the recent past for many of us. We now care whether the garlic and onions come from China, the grapes and nectarines from USA, the kiwifruit from Italy and the pork from Australia. We would rather it came from Te Kuiti or the Rangitikei, thank you, if we are to move outside our local area. So I would expect we will see farmers’ markets go from strength to strength.

The local focus of the farmers’ markets may well extend to wider gardening practices. Here, we raise our eyebrows at the widespread use of mulches, potting mixes and composts shipped across the country when there are local alternatives with much smaller carbon footprints. Pea straw is the classic. It has a great reputation as garden mulch (though it is a myth that it adds nitrogen to the soil because the nitrogen is in the roots of the pea plant and pea straw by definition, is the dried tops only) but have you ever asked yourself where the nearest commercial production of peas takes place? It is being shipped hundreds of kilometres in a large truck in order to cover your garden when there are local alternatives which will do just the same. Try locally produced granulated bark or compost, pine needles, even barley straw from South Taranaki.

The move away from poisons and sprays is a trend we expect to see escalate. Our tolerance level in this country for the use of some extremely heavy duty toxins is very high indeed, often justified as a lesser of two evils. 1080 is the classic: this mass poisoning on a grand scale with a particularly unpleasant toxin which enters the food chain is government sanctioned but we are seeing the tide of public opinion turn. At least 1080 is tightly controlled, whereas the over the counter poisons that are freely and abundantly sold here are arguably worse. Rats, mice, possums and rabbits – you too can bowl into a shop and buy some nasty poisons. The trouble is that many will enter the food chain, some have no antidotes, some are appallingly slow acting and unpleasant and in this country we are all too cavalier in our use of them. Worry whenever you see the term by-kill. It is the unintended death of other life than the target. A cute little dog named Wilfred, in our case, and the poison that killed him did not originate from our property. While we shoot all our possums here, a common possum poison used by others is very slow acting and can enter the food chain. We are having to review our long held practice of feeding the carcases to our animals. The time when we see a sharp reduction in the usage and availability of such toxins can not come soon enough for us, or indeed for the environment of our country.

Buffy the cat, potential by-kill, even even though Mark shoots all our possums. Slow acting over-the counter poisons may mean the carcase is already toxic.

Buffy the cat, potential by-kill, even even though Mark shoots all our possums. Slow acting over-the counter poisons may mean the carcase is already toxic.

Organics, we predict, will become more mainstream and increasingly widely practiced. It may not be organics as the purists know it. Indeed it is highly likely to be a heavily diluted form and possibly derided by the dedicated converts. But anything which sees gardening move away from practices and habits which rely more on the use of chemicals than on good gardening strategies has to be an improvement. If we follow the European trends, ever tighter government controls will stop home gardeners having access to a range of sprays and artificial fertilisers which have been used to prop up poor gardening practices, poor plant selection or unsustainable habits.

The wheel is turning. After a decade or more of rampant consumerism, conspicuous wealth and people who are time-poor, gardening is on the up again and for that we have the vegetable craze to thank. It all looks a great deal more wholesome and cheerful than a few years ago. Happy New Year and may 2010 be one of good gardening cheer for readers.

In the garden 01/01/2010

  • If you are making only one New Year’s gardening resolution, for long term gains resolve not to let weeds go to seed. Long term it is labour saving. The light rains this week will have given enough moisture to start the next round germinating. Get them early with the push hoe. If you have ignored the last round and they are setting seed now, weed with a bucket at your side or you will be spreading the seed. Unless your compost heap generates high temperatures (and the black plastic types rot the contents, rather than sterilising by heat), keep seed heads out of the compost. You can either put them out in the rubbish (hopefully they get buried so deep in landfill that they can not germinate there) or if you don’t have rubbish collection, putting them in a black plastic rubbish bag in full sun should work.
  • Do not delay on dividing the autumn flowering bulbs which will be triggered into growth soon. These include nerines, belladonnas, colchicums (often called the autumn crocus), most ornamental oxalis and cyclamen hederafolium. The rejuvenated clumps will reward you soon enough.
  • Flowering cherries are summer pruned to avoid the effect of silver blight. If you have a tree with witches broom, you will have noticed in spring that you had sections which did not flower and where the foliage was much denser and came while the rest of the tree was flowering. Cut out the witches broom before it takes over the entire tree (which it will over time) because then you will have to cut out everything.
  • If you had a problem with silver leaves on rhododendrons last year, check for fresh infestations now by looking underneath the leaves. The problem is leaf sucking thrips. The adult thrips are black and thread-like while the youthful offspring are white. The usual approach is to blast them with a systemic insecticide which the plant sucks into its circulation system. If you are not at all keen on this approach, cut out weak and badly infested plants (the damage won’t be showing in the new leaves yet but it will happen), and open up around other plants to increase air movement. Theoretically, an oil spray will suffocate the little critters and you can use a mix of light cooking oil with a squirt of detergent mixed with warm water. However, the problem is that you have to spray directly onto the underside of all leaves because it will only suffocate on contact so this is only practical where you have a very small number of plants. We haven’t tried them but apparently the collars of insecticide wrapped around the trunk can work well. The DIY approach is to secure a band of carpet around the trunk and then inject the concentrated systemic insecticide into the carpet. Wear gloves.
  • Garlic can be harvested when you think it has reached a good size. Lift it and leave it on the ground while the foliage dies off. After being given a large bulb of smoked garlic at Christmas, we are keen to try smoking some of this year’s crop to see if it extends its shelf life through the season. Garlic tends to lose its oomph after about six months. The smoked garlic is wonderful for aioli and summer dressings.
  • Unlike garlic, you have to wait for the tops of onions to bend over and start to wither before lifting the crop.
  • Keep successional sowings of sweet corn, lettuce, salad veg and beans going and in a warm spot, you can plant a late crop of tomatoes.

In the garden 18/12/2009

Often called the New Zealand Christmas tree, the pohutakawa or Metrosideros excelsa is flowering right on cue

Often called the New Zealand Christmas tree, the pohutakawa or Metrosideros excelsa is flowering right on cue

In our local city of New Plymouth this week, the sight of the flowering pohutakawa on Currie Street which should gladden the hearts of all but the most determined haters of this wonderful coastal genus. They are flowering right on cue for Christmas. This should mean that both the Patea and Waitara plantings are coming in to their own – well worth an annual trip around to admire this plant which has become an icon of our area.

Got it - Gladiolus papilio

Got it - Gladiolus papilio

Update: By 7.30am this morning, I had received the first phone call after this item appeared in our local paper: If anybody can name this species gladiolus, we would be pleased to hear. It is indubitably beige in colour with a burgundy flare edged in gold inside the bell flower, very pretty and a million miles from Dame Edna’s gladdies. Despite spending some time on Google, we still have not managed to identify it.

So now we know it is Gladiolus papilio, syn. G. purpurea-auratus, also referred to as the butterfly gladiolus from the Cape of Africa. It is a variable species but we seem to have two distinct forms in NZ – the one shown above and a two-toned red form. A kind reader has promised to send me the red form.

A cautionary tale from a disappointed neighbour who tied up his tomatoes with the stretchy stockinette bought in rolls – the wet weather kept the tie so wet that the poor tomato stems rotted off. A timely copper spray may have helped. Tying more loosely, using freezer twists or nylon string instead could have avoided the constant damp.

If you are feeling a tad discouraged by the weather, you are not alone. While it was brilliant during early November, the past month has been all downhill and everybody else is probably suffering similarly. Friends report roses turned to slush, buxus blight spreading rampantly along with blights and mildews on anything and many things. The good news is that we probably will not have a drought this season and the bushfire risk is non existent.

Weeds are the number one priority. It is much easier to kill them while they are small and conditions mean that they are fair rocketing away at the moment. Make the push hoe your friend and keep it at the ready. We shouldn’t need to mention it, but push hoes are better for the environment than glyphosate and if you don’t have one or more, ask for one from Santa.

In the veg garden you can sow most crops but lay off the brassicas until later in the season. It is not worth the battle with the white butterfly. You can still get tomatoes in for a late crop, but use plants now, not seed. Last chance for planting water melons. Keep successional sowings of corn, beans, peas and salad vegetables going. Thin earlier crops and eat the thinning as micro veg.

As Christmas Day falls next Friday, we will not be back for a fortnight which sees us into the New Year. May we wish all readers a happy and safe festive season. If visitors outstay their welcome, you can always head out to the garden with your secateurs and push hoe. There is something infinitely restful and soothing about the repetitive tasks of gardening.

Perennial cuttings: a step-by-step guide with Abbie and Mark Jury

A step by step guide by Abbie and Mark Jury first published in the Taranaki Daily News and reproduced here with permission as a PDF.

New Outdoor Classrooms are uploaded fortnightly.

Tales of the Christmas Tree

Fortunately this handsome Abies procera beside our house was not cut off in its infancy fifty years ago to act as a Christmas tree for two short weeks

The need for the Christmas tree is starting to weigh upon me. The deadline is December 17, the day when our first returnees arrive home for the traditional family Christmas. We could of course join the throngs who have sacrificed authenticity for convenience and bought an artificial tree. I was listening to a panelist on National Radio last week who mentioned his tree. A man’s tree, he called it. It comes complete with all decorations glued on to the branches so all he has to do is fold it out each year. It just would not do here. I would be pilloried and derided by the returning children who would take such a purchase as a cop-out on every front. They would probably assume that it indicated their mother was entering premature old age.

Alternatively, we could join the throngs who go out and buy a tree. Wash my mouth out with soap. How could I suggest such an action? No, our tree must be harvested at home.
Mind you, if you head out and buy a tree, you will generally buy a nice, dense tree of the correct, prescribed pyramidal shape. In New Zealand this tends to mean a choice of a pine tree, another pine tree, the common pine or pinus radiata. We have made the pine tree (a native of Monterey in California) our own in this country, for Christmas trees as well as timber. In the past Mark has been stung by criticism of his selection of wildling pines and has even resorted to wiring in additional branches to increase the volume in sparse areas. Last year he selected a particular tree which he then trimmed a couple of times to encourage shorter, bushy growth. Alas, in the ten days between checking it for the final time to make sure that there were no feathered friends of the ornithological persuasion resident in the tree and when he went out with the pruning saw to harvest it, a family of chaffinches had moved in. He could not cut it down and we had to make do with an emergency installation of four clipped matai trees in pots.

Over the years we have had a variety of different trees. One year I despaired of the pine needles with which my vacuum cleaner struggled to cope and I tried a tree skeleton, spray painted white. It was not a hit with the children. These days it might be seen as more environmentally friendly because when you think about it, entire forests of conifers are felled each year to furnish the homes of the western world for a few short weeks. I was in London in early December one year when the markets were full of Christmas trees which had been shipped in from Norway and Scotland. These were beautiful, dense trees, mostly Abies nordmanniana or Abies procera (the Noble Fir), and, being horticulturally inclined, I knew that such plants are initially very slow growing. The trees had to be at least eight years old and probably more. My oh my, eight or more years of growth to furnish the front rooms of Londoners for two weeks. Second Daughter was equally struck by these and I recall a blog she posted soon after her first Christmas away from home. Wandering around Maida Vale where she was staying, she took photos of the discarded trees out the front of all the residences where they were awaiting the green collection. Christmas Is Over in London, she entitled this on-line photographic essay.

An American friend is a little scathing about our New Zealand habit of using pinus radiata. The needles, she points out, are too long to allow the decorations to stay on easily. If you look at synthetic Christmas trees, they are certainly not modeled on the pine tree. Most are abies (fir trees) which have tufted growths that are much shorter and easier to work with. But the ideal tree needs a certain amount of horizontal branching from which to hang individual Christmas baubles. If the cone shape is too tight, all you can do is to wreathe it in tinsel and lights. In the US, my friend points out, you have a choice of several different varieties of tree. Internationally, abies are favoured because they don’t shed needles, picea or spruce are common but are less happy about surviving cut off in their prime and show it by shedding needles and there are many different pines to the common radiata which are used overseas. The Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla) and its smaller cousin Araucaria columnaris make perfectly shaped trees. If you want to be indigenous, matais and miros could be suitable candidates (totara are a little too prickly, as are rimu). But the bottom line is, which trees are you willing to cut off for a mere two weeks Christmas gratification? Call me a snob, but I worry less about sacrificing the common pine whereas it is distinctly sacrilegious to sever the nobler conifers from their roots. My conscience is soothed even further when we recycle trees or branches that are for the chop anyway, even if this means some rather odd installations. This year it involves the extension ladder and cutting the top out of a mature golden chamaecyparis because its top knot has reverted to a much more open growth. The difficulty for Mark may be getting it down intact from ten metres up but my challenge is greater. See, it is a green and gold variegation and they are devilishly difficult to decorate with any aesthetics at all because they just make tinsel look even tackier than usual.

The final word on the topic has to rest with our dentist who regaled us with the charming story of heading out to buy a Christmas tree one year from the foremost supplier locally and finding that he had managed to bring home a specimen with a nest containing a fledgling thrush. The mother had presumably scarpered at the first sign of disturbance (and we won’t dwell on the mental image of bereft Mother Thrush left behind). Said dentist and wife then spent the two weeks leading up to Christmas hand rearing the thrush with worms dug fresh each morning. After all, how could you have a Christmas tree in the house knowing that you had consigned its now homeless inhabitant to an early death? As the thrush gained in size, they set about teaching it to fly with regular lessons outdoors, tossing it in the air until it caught on to the process. It would be a sentimental lie to say that it flew to freedom on Christmas Day. In fact it spent some time sitting around perched on the washing line (and no doubt pooing indiscriminately on the washing) but let that not detract from what is a charming home grown Christmas story.