- Now is the traditional time for dividing up hellebores. The idea is that it is better to dig the plant and divide it into smaller pieces than to move the whole plant. Cut all the flowers off and divide in to individual pieces with a shoot.
- Daphne odoras can be given a light prune now to keep them bushy.
- Slugs and snails but particularly slugs are getting started. This is the time to nip the population explosion in the bud. Some of the slug baits do not seem to be as attractive but they can not resist bran as a lure. If you don’t want to use toxic slug bait, (which can kill household pets as well as hedgehogs), just bran alone will keep the slugs on site and docile until you get there in the morning to squish them. Cover the bran to keep it dry – we find paua shells are excellent for this purpose and unobtrusive in the garden.
- It is the last chance to fill in holes and over sow patches in the lawn. Cover new sown areas with shade cloth or similar to keep the birds off and to retain moisture. Be careful using hormone sprays now to kill out flat weeds and clovers as deciduous material is starting to go in to growth. Never spray on a windy day and keep well away from deciduous plants – yours or your neighbour’s.
- You should have fertilised your citrus trees by now, so don’t delay if you haven’t done it. Citrus benefits from two applications – the second one in Feburary. The summer rate for application is half the spring rate.
- In the vegetable garden, you can sow all brassicas, peas and root crops now. Celery can be started in pots to be planted out in December. Likewise, pumpkin and courgettes can be sown in containers to be planted out in a few weeks.
- Dwarf beans can be started in individual pots to be planted out at the end of the month.
This week 8 Sept 2006
- If you have any luculias in your garden, now is the time to prune them as they are
preparing to burst into spring growth. Usually you can see little leaf buds down the stems. If you prune back to these, it spurs them into growth. Even a light prune will encourage bushiness instead of legginess. - Stay on top of the freshly germinating weeds at this time of the year and we make no apology for the fact that we will remind you of this often. Remember the old adage “one year’s seeding, seven years weeding”. Good gardens need vigilant weed control and weeds are easier to kill when they are young and small.
- As you give the garden its spring clean up, consider laying mulch wherever you can. Compost is best because it feeds the plants as well as adding texture to the soil and being a barrier to weeds. Other alternatives are pea straw (expensive because we don’t grow peas here commercially and it has to be shipped in), bark, sawdust or shavings.
- If you have patches of spring bulbs which are looking very congested, put a plant label beside them now to remind yourself to lift and divide them when they become dormant. While you think you will remember where they are and what they are, it is not so easy to remember when they have returned below the ground.
- If you have citrus trees with fruit going rotten and leaves falling off, a copper spray can help even if you are too late to save this year’s crop. Remember to get it on earlier next year. The good news is that now is the optimal time to get a copper spray on to deciduous fruit trees which will all be poised to break into growth. The copper deals to a whole range of bacterial problems which will affect plant health and fruit yield.
- All but the coldest areas should be safe for potatoes now but it is still much too early for kumara.
Continue with early sowings of vegetable seed such as carrots and peas and even onions will still produce a crop if put in now. Don’t delay on the onions now as it is nearly too late for these slow growers.
This week 1 Sept 2006
- 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.
Buyer Beware or Out of Control Lawnmowing Contractors
Our trade magazine, Commercial Horticulture, keeps talking about the New Zealand do it yourself ethic having been replaced by “Do it for me”. You can see this in the explosion of lawnmowing contractors, section maintenance people and landscapers. Even I will admit that not everybody derives the same pleasure from gardening and being creative with plants that we do here.
But I had somebody in recently who told me a horror story which may serve as a cautionary tale. Uncertain what to do with her large section which had some mature plantings, she engaged the services of somebody who called himself a landscaper. She thought she had made it clear what she wanted – a pretty garden which complemented her period villa. Alas she came home from work one lunchtime to find he had chainsawed out all her trees, including her mature apples and plums. She was simply devastated. This cowboy “landscaper” planned to create a minimalist garden in their place – rocks and spiky things and grasses.
Continue reading
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.
