Tag Archives: in the garden this week

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.

In the garden 11/12/2009

  • The advice on care for cut Christmas trees from the good folk at Cedar Lodge (they who know more on this topic than anybody else around) is that the critical issue is to re-cut the main stem of the tree when you get it home and plunge it immediately into a bucket of cold water. This fresh cut enables the plant to keep sucking up water which is what extends its life. You will need a hand saw of some description to carry this out. Keep topping up the water every few days but the advice that circulates from other quarters about sealing the cut in boiling water, adding sugar or aspirins is unnecessary and unlikely to add to the longevity of your cut tree. A tablespoon of bleach should stop the water from going stagnant.
  • Should you be hoping to impress the whanau or extended family who are gathering at your place for Christmas Day, start this weekend instead of expecting to do it all on Christmas Eve. If your lawns are looking long and tatty, mow them now so that they will just need light trimming before the day. This avoids having too much mown grass sitting turning brown and sticking to everybody’s shoes. Deal to weeds in pavers and concrete cracks (boiling water works a treat), give hedges a light trim and use the spade to cut a neat edge along garden beds. Even if you are not up to weeding, these few actions will make a big difference to making your outdoors look better cared for.
  • If you have the yellow Primula helodoxa planted alongside a waterway in your garden, deadheading it is the action of a responsible gardener. It can be a bit of a problem plant with its seeding ways.
  • Citrus trees will benefit from a spray of copper and summer strength oil at this time of the year. It can help prevent the fruit rotting and falling off the tree prematurely.
  • Pinch out the laterals on your tomatoes. These are the vigorous side growths which will make the plant too dense. If you can keep the plant open with good air movement, you stand a better chance of ripening the fruit and keeping fungal diseases at bay.
  • You can still plant tomatoes and cucumbers at this time for a late crop but you need to use plants, not seed, to get a jump start. However, corn, lettuce, leeks, carrots and green beans can all be direct sown into the garden by seed.

    • If you are into Christmas shopping from the computer screen, you may like to look at www.touchwoodbooks.co.nz for the best collection of garden and lifestyle books in the country (and a very efficient mail order service). Or www.italianseedspronto.co.nz are offering both interesting vegetable seed and the safe option of gift vouchers as on line purchases.

The case of the missing hedge clippers

I felt sure we had another pair of hedge clippers somewhere

I am not sure what it says about us here, that we hadn’t noticed that we were missing one set of hedge clippers. All I can say is that it was not the good pair. But when Mark went to give the Michelia yunnanensis (syn. Magnolia dianica) Honey Velvet its annual or biennial trim, lo and behold, there were the clippers providing a perfect platform for the nesting blackbird family. In vain does Mark protest that he has no idea how the birds got the hedge clippers up there. We know, and never again will he be able to deride me for my carelessness with secateurs and trowels which frequently lose themselves in the compost heap.

In the garden 04/12/2009

  • The rains this week will give rise to all manner of fungal attacks (moisture and warmth, even relative, encourages fungal growth). Watch tomatoes, potatoes, courgettes and other vines including grapes carefully. You may need to get an urgent copper spray onto them if you want a harvest later.
  • Roses will be similarly afflicted. If you don’t spray your roses (we don’t), keep working at light summer pruning, deadheading and removing diseased leaves. Good hygiene and air movement will help reduce the impact of fungal and bacterial attack.
  • Wisterias need frequent restraint as their tendrils are ensnaring anything around them. You do not have to be too particular with the summer prune and a pass over with the hedge clippers is fine. If you have a plant near a building, be vigilant. The time from fine tendril to embedded woody stem which is capable of lifting weatherboards and splitting the spouting is less than a season.
  • Convolvulus is rocketing away and can become a major problem alarmingly quickly. If you are not organic, Woody Weedkiller is the way to go. If you are organic, you will probably have to start unravelling the vinous growths and trace them back to ground level where you dig the whole thing out, taking care to get all the roots because any left behind will grow again.
  • Don’t ignore Wandering Jew either and the recommended chemical assault on this is Shortcut (sold in larger quantities as Buster). It is a systemic spray (gets absorbed into the plant’s circulatory system) and has a very quick kill. You can increase the hit rate by raking off as much foliage as you can first (but put these rakings into black plastic bags to rot because they are quite capable of growing again – every bit of it) and then spraying. Follow up with a spot spray a month later. Apparently Wandering Jew can cause terrible skin irritation to dogs and cats which is another good reason to clear it off your property. If you don’t want to use chemicals, you will have to hand pull every bit of it (wear gloves) and keep returning to the patch as it re-grows. Eventually you can clear it but it takes perseverance.
  • The rains this week mean you can continue digging and dividing perennials and clumping plants a little longer.
  • Vegetable planting continues with corn, beans, peas, salad veg, carrots and the like but lay off the brassicas now unless you are prepared to spray or cover them.
  • We are running out of time for pruning. Try and get this finished as soon as possible.
  • The Christmas hint this week is to try making flavoured vinegars and oils for gifts, using herbs from the garden. Wash and dry herbs such as sprays of rosemary, French tarragon (I wish), bay leaves, lime leaves, even thin parings of lemon rind. Leafy herbs like parsley don’t work so well and tend to go off. The rule of thumb is to bring the vinegar to the boil before pouring it over the herbs in the bottle. White vinegar is a neutral base for flavouring. For flavoured oils, use a neutral oil such as grape seed or rice bran and warm it before pouring into the bottle. A word of warning: the flavoured oils and vinegars in shops will be sterilised and sealed whereas home efforts are not. The liquid needs to cover the flavouring herbs. To be really safe, strain off the liquid after a few weeks or store in the fridge. If you have decorative smaller bottles, one bottle of white vinegar or grape seed oil can go a long way and make attractive and thoughtful gifts.

November 20, 2009 In the Garden

And the prize for likely the best flowering anywhere in the world of the beautiful but difficult vireya rhododendron orbiculatum in the week ending November 20, 2009 goes to friends of ours at Oakura, near New Plymouth

November 20, 2009 In the Garden
• If you have grape vines that you pruned in winter, they will be in rampant growth now and you will be needing to shorten the laterals and thin some of the growth. Our Albany Surprise are already starting to flower and we will keep them to one or two per lateral (side shoot) and trim at two leaves past the outer bunch. If you let the growths get too long and heavy, they snap off without warning.
• When you get a good steady rain after a dry spell, such as last Tuesday evening, the snails come out to feed in their hordes. You can get a really good kill rate if you head out with torch and umbrella to their favourite haunts. A foot stamp is environmentally kinder than poison.
• You can keep digging and dividing clumping perennials while they are in full growth. You should be safe continuing to do this up until Christmas or so. Always dig over the ground well and loosen up clods before replanting, preferably adding compost. New roots are tender and fine and will have trouble getting into heavy, compacted soils.
• Deadheading roses can be a big task but it makes a difference to keeping pests and disease at bay. It is best to do it with a bucket at your side and take off diseased foliage as you go, removing all from the site. Roses give maximum flower for your efforts but if you don’t spray them, they do take a little extra care to keep them looking healthy and bountiful.
• Get onto planting kumara runners if you have yet to do them. Keep sowing seeds of corn, salad veg, beans (dwarf, butter and runner) to ensure a succession of crops later. If your courgettes, cucumbers, pumpkins and similar running plants are up and growing well, keep pinching them out after about six strong leaves have formed, to encourage side growths (laterals) rather than just a few long runners.
• Time is running out for picking asparagus. Commercial growers will pick through to Christmas but this a mistake in the home garden. You need to leave sufficient shoots to form a mass of ferny growth in order to nourish the crowns below ground. When you stop picking, give a feed if you have not yet done so and get a layer of mulch on to suppress summer weeds getting a foothold.
• It is still relatively cool so there is time to get tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, melons and pumpkins planted but don’t delay and you are better to buy plants if you have not got your own seed sown in pots and well underway. Keep a copper spray on tomatoes and potatoes if they are already established in the garden. Wet weather followed by warmer weather will almost certainly lead to blight.
• Cover strawberries without delay to beat the birds.
• Anybody who has grown vireya rhododendron species will know that it is difficult to keep many of these alive. So when local friends sent us photographs of their R. orbiculatum with probably over 60 flower trusses this week, we figured that they probably take the award for the very best flowering of this very tricky vireya species anywhere in the world for the week ending November 20. We have never seen such a spectacular orbiculatum before.