Tag Archives: garden tasks

In the Garden: February 18, 2010

Rather too high a ratio of barely edible pumpkin to seed yield

Rather too high a ratio of barely edible pumpkin to seed yield


· Do not delay on summer pruning cherry trees as time is running out.

· Get on to planting the winter vegetables too. They need the rest of summer and all of autumn to grow because once the winter cold comes, they stop growing though they will hold in the garden so you can harvest fresh each day. Fresh veg are usually much more expensive to buy in winter and spring rather than the bountiful summer and autumn so it makes economic sense to grow your own, even aside from the pleasure and satisfaction of gathering your own produce. So get the parsnips, carrots, peas, Florence fennel, beetroot and brassicas in. The turnip family too, if you regard them as suitable food for humans.

· We have been trying out growing pumpkin for seed this year – a variety that has no hulls so needs no separation. It is an oil-seed variety. Certainly the fresh pumpkin seed is delicious but based on the first gathering, it appears that you would need a very large area to attain self sufficiency in pumpkin seeds. And alas, the pumpkin flesh itself is of no merit. If you were starving, it might be okay to eat but it is nearly as bland as marrow.

· We have been a little slow on the uptake revisiting beetroot here but, as many others have discovered, when picked young and tender (about golf ball size), they are delicious cooked in a variety of ways but especially roasted. Beetroot can be sown from seed pretty much all year.

· Rocket and mesclun bolt to seed in summer but with cooler weather just around the corner, it is fine to return to sowing these crops from seed.

· If you have been intending to spray your rhododendrons for thrips (the cause of irrevocably silver leaves and a weaker plant), now is the time. You need to use a systemic insecticide so the plant sucks it into its system. Contact insecticide only kills where it touches and as the offenders are on the undersides of the leaf, you can’t get total coverage. The alternative is bands of old carpet or similar soaked in neem oil and secured around the main trunk. This approach seems to be getting good reports though we have yet to get around to trying it ourselves. Soaking a band in Confidor or similar insecticide will also work but wear gloves when handling it.

A handy implement for dealing to lawn weeds

A handy implement for dealing to lawn weeds

· Autumn is an optimum time for sowing or over sowing grass so if your lawn is looking very sad, you can start preparing it now for resowing in a few weeks time. Getting out the flat weeds is a good start. You can either dig them out (I have a very handy tool for this), sprinkle them with sulphate of ammonia or use a designated lawn spray. Don’t feed your lawn at this time. We are too dry and it is more likely to kill the remaining grass instead.

In the Garden: February 11, 2011

• My optometrist tells me that the most common cause of embedded foreign objects in eyes he sees is… gardening. He mentioned this as he fished out what he thought was part of a seed head well stuck to the cornea of one eye. As I couldn’t spot anything wrong, I had thought I must have an eye infection and was rather slow off the mark to seek help, during which time the condition of the eye deteriorated rapidly. I just mention this so readers know to be less stoical and faster to seek treatment should they experience escalating eye problems after being in the garden.

• Bearded irises can be lifted and divided now. These spring flowering beauties need attention every three years or so and we did an Outdoor Classroom on the topic last year which you can find on this site (type “dividing bearded irises” in the search box on the right of the page). In summary, discard mushy or old sections of the tubers, trim off the roots from the sections you are saving, chop off two thirds of the foliage and replant to a shallow depth in light, friable soil in full sun.

• Bulbs are arriving in garden centres so keep an eye out. Anything choice or unusual is likely to disappear quickly.

• If you planned to lift and divide daffodils in your garden or lawn, do it now because they will start putting on fresh, white root soon. The same goes for bluebells which are early starters.

• Pinch back rampant runners on cucumbers, melons, courgettes, pumpkins and other vegetables that grow in the same way. You want the plant to concentrate its energies on ripening its crop rather than making a run for the neighbour’s place. The tips are delicious when young and tender – steam them lightly.

• The recent wet and humid weather means there will be an explosion of fungal ailments in both the vegetable and ornamental gardens. These often show as a white powder over the leaves. It is a fact of life in our climate. You can be out there spraying your cucurbits every week if you want to but we just live with it. Thin the foliage to allow as much light and air movement as you can but don’t spread the diseased foliage through the garden or compost heap, unless you make a hot mix. You either have to bury it or put it out in the rubbish.

• I was going to do the next Outdoor Classroom on making cold compost (by far the most common for home gardeners) but dealing to wasp nests is more timely so we will return to the final instalment on compost a little later.

In the Garden this week: January 28, 2011

• A point of clarification from last week: if you want to try water retention crystals (Saturaid, Crystal Rain or similar) on a dry lawn, you must rake them in, not just leave them scattered on top. Otherwise you will just hoover them all up with the lawnmower.

• If you read the article on the food pages of our local paper last Tuesday about pine nuts, you may be interested to know that they are easy enough to grow here. Pinus pinea, the Italian stone pine, is the most common variety though there are other species suitable for seed (pine nut) production. However, and it is a big however, as soon as it comes to harvesting the seeds and peeling off the outer coating of each seed, you will realise why they are relatively expensive in the supermarket. You are more likely to decide that they are actually extremely cheap to buy instead.

• If you needed an extra reason to get motivated to plant a winter vegetable garden, the Australian floods may be it. Vegetables are tipped for hefty price rises this year – it is all a matter of supply and demand. So start digging. If you are working on grassed areas skim off the top layer of turf and stack it to one side to rot down. Or, if you are not determined to be organic, spray with glyphosate (formerly known as Round Up) which will also kill off most of the perennial weeds (but not clover). Current evidence is that glyphosate is safe to use when applied according to directions. It has been around for many years now so there has been time to discover lingering ill effects or contraindications.

Last weekend's rain means it is safe to return to planting out herbaceous material

Last weekend's rain means it is safe to return to planting out herbaceous material

• With the heavy rain last weekend and more forecast, we have resumed planting but only of herbaceous material, not woody trees and shrubs which will get stressed when we next dry out again. Herbaceous material is quicker to establish itself and to get its roots out and it responds much faster to watering if necessary. I have been digging, dividing and replanting an enormous clump of Ligularia reniformis (the tractor seat one) – but cautiously. It is within reach of a hose just in case.

• If your potatoes are showing signs of blight (dark brown wet patches on the leaves), you have to be in really early with a fungicide spray to stop it. If the foliage is already collapsing, it is too late. Dig the potatoes immediately and you may save some of the crop. Delay and the blight will also infect the potato tubers. You have to remove all the diseased foliage and tubers to try and stop the fungus from remaining. Either burn the affected plants, put them out in the rubbish or hot compost them. Don’t just throw them in a heap or cold compost them. It is this blight (Phytophthora infestans) that caused the Irish potato famines.

• On the grounds that a few phone calls asking the same question may indicate a landslide of curiosity out amongst the readership, I found the rolling compost maker shown in Outdoor Classroom last week at Mitre 10 Mega in New Plymouth. This is not to say that other outlets do not also have it in stock – I did not look further.

In the Garden: January 21, 2011

Dry bulbs can still be planted

Dry bulbs can still be planted

• Saturaid or Crystal Rain can look like a good idea at this time of the year. These products generally resemble rock salt crystals when dry but absorb large quantities of water, expanding and changing to chopped jelly in appearance. Use them for hanging baskets, potted annuals or short term potted vegetables. Don’t make the mistake of using them in the garden. While they look appealing at this dry time of the year, with our high rainfall, for ten months of the year they will hold water and ensure that our free draining soils become water logged. Once you have them in the soil, they will stay for years. Longer term container plants don’t want to be kept waterlogged in winter either. So restrict their use.

• However, I am told that these water retention crystals can be very good on lawns which dry out badly over summer and turn brown. I have yet to try this myself but I will in a couple of small problem areas. Carol at my local garden centre says that scattered lightly on the lawn, they have proven very effective and there is good logic to that but be sparing in the quantity used.

• Summer prune cherry trees.

• We have pretty much stopped planting any ornamentals here now until we get significant amounts of rain. If you insist on continuing to plant, you must water well before, during and after the planting process and continuing to water over the next weeks. With water restrictions being imposed in much of our area, it is better to delay all but vegetable planting.

• You can plant dry bulbs and leave them for nature to take its course though garden centres will not generally get any of the new season’s bulbs in stock until the start of February.

• If you grow your own vegetables from seed, you should be getting onto sowing winter vegetables – brassicas, parsnip, carrots, winter spinach and lettuce, leeks and celery. If you are going to buy plants, you have plenty of time. However, starting from seed will save money and give you extra to share.

• This does not apply to Brussel sprouts which must be planted immediately, using young plants, if you are to get a crop through. They have a longer growing season and need to be big, strong plants by winter. This is assuming you eat these gourmet baby cabbages, as we do.

• The food pages of our local paper had a piece tea this week. You may be interested to know that you can grow the tea camellia easily here, as long as you do not get very heavy frosts. What is more, it is sometimes available to buy. Look for Camellia sinensis. Mark brewed the best tea from ours when he bruised the leaves and left them to ferment slightly for 24 hours – apparently closer to Oolong tea. Our home grown product has not replaced our favoured Earl Grey but it is not a bad substitute for those in search of self sufficiency or those who love the freshest of green tea.

In the Garden this week: January 14, 2011

The first corn cobs of the season

The first corn cobs of the season

• A bit of a treat here this week with the very first servings of fresh corn on the cob for the season. Corn being Mark’s number one favourite vegetable, he has been planting successive crops and we will continue eating it from here to June. You can still sow corn from seed with the expectation of getting it through in time this season.

• Keep sowing leafy greens, salad veg, carrots, beetroot, and dwarf beans. The dieticians’ advice is that at least half your dinner plate should be comprised of vegetables (excluding starchy carbs) and it is much easier to achieve this state of affairs if you can harvest your own veg and have plenty of leafy greens to bulk out salads.

• Preparation will be starting for winter veg planting which mostly takes place in February though any spare areas in our veg patch are getting filled with annuals to feed the butterflies. The monarchs are around in abundance here. Having sufficient swan plants to feed the burgeoning caterpillar population is only half the equation. Providing nectar rich flowers for the butterflies encourages them to stay around. Marigolds, cosmos, poppies, phaecelia, zinnias and the like will all provide food.

• Keep mounding soil up over potato plants to keep the tubers deep, cool and away from light.

• Keep tomato plants to one or two stems only and remove laterals (side shoots), along with excessive foliage around the forming fruit. You want maximum warmth, sun and air movement around the crop.

• It is time to get a copper and summer oil spray onto citrus trees. This can help prevent the premature drop of fruit later in the season and cleans up various other nasties.

• Make sure you keep up the daily watering on container plants. If you have let your pots dry out too much, a few drops of detergent on the top can help the water penetrate rather than running straight off (called a surfactant).

• Having advised readers to get onto digging and dividing or planting autumn bulbs last week, I would counsel you not to delay. The nerines are already showing fresh white roots and others will not be far behind. In fact, it is already the time to be thinking of seeing to winter and early spring bulbs – snowdrops, jonquils and even other narcissi, lachenalias and the host of other options.