Tag Archives: Mark and Abbie Jury

Outdoor Classroom (for absolute beginners): how to plant a tree

1) If you are planting into grass or paddock, remove the turf from the area first. The rule of thumb is to dig a hole at least twice the width of the root ball of the tree and a little deeper. Break up the clods of dirt thoroughly as you go, because you want friable, well cultivated soil so the tree can get its roots out easily. If water ponds at the bottom of the hole as you dig, look for another site. It will rot the roots. Keep the top soil to one pile and the subsoil and clay to another for when you refill the hole so the subsoil can go back in first.

2) If the plant is in a plastic bag, cut the bag off to avoid damage. Examine the roots. The fine roots are the most important ones. If there are strong roots wound round and round the outside, these need to be cut, because they will stay in a corkscrew shape and not spread out.

3) Often there is a mass of fine roots and the plant is difficult to get out of its pot or bag. Roughen up the outside of the rootball with your hands or make several shallow cuts down the sides. However, do not try and tease all the roots out to spread them. You are far more likely to cause damage than to do any good. As long as you plant into friable soil, the plant will get its roots out on its own. However, if the roots have grown into an envelope shape at the bottom of the planter bag, these can be trimmed off.

4) Getting the plant at the right level in the hole is extremely important. If it is too deep, you risk rotting the stem, too shallow and the roots will be exposed and the plant will dry out too easily. Measure with a stick and backfill the hole with compost and soil to get the level right.

5) Only stake the plant if it is necessary because of strong wind or instability. Trees grow better unstaked because the rocking movement in wind makes them form a strong tapered trunk. Staking can slow this process so never have a stake more than a third of the tree’s height. Put the stake in beside the plant before you refill the hole. Never drive a stake in close to the trunk. You are shearing off an entire section of roots.

6) Where soils are poor or heavy, layering in compost gives better soil texture. However, there is no point in adding extra fertiliser to the hole at this time of the year. Plants take up fertiliser when they are in growth so the time to feed is in spring and summer. Added in winter, it will leach out and disappear with the winter rains, giving no benefit.

7) Once the tree is in place, fill the hole with the original dirt which you have broken up to form a finely textured soil. Firm the plant and gently tread the surrounding soil but do not stomp heavily close to the stem or you risk tearing off the roots. A final layer of mulch will stop weed competition and protect the roots.

8) Where staking is necessary, always use a soft tie such as the stockinette shown here (available from garden centres) or old pantyhose. These do not cut into the bark of the tree. Cross the tie between the stake and the tree to reduce the bark rubbing on the stake. Make sure that the top tie is never more than one third the height of the tree.

Grow it yourself: strawberries

If you have been thinking of growing strawberries, do not delay. They should be planted immediately. As with most edible crops, they need full sun and plenty of rich, well dug soil to get them away to a good start. Good drainage is important. If you mound the soil, you get maximum exposure to the sun for the berries but you also hasten drying out over summer. Commercially, strawberries are usually grown in black plastic. This heats up the soil faster for early production and keeps the fruit clean by stopping splashing of mud. If you prefer not to use plastic, the traditional mulch is straw – hence the name of strawberries, perhaps? You may need to keep applying mulch as the season progresses.

Netted already - mostly because of our unwelcome resident rabbit.

Netted already – mostly because of our unwelcome resident rabbit.

Space plants at about 30cm, usually staggered in a double row. Garden centres will be selling reliable named varieties or you can take runners off your last year’s crop if you grew them. The runners are the plant’s way of increasing itself and good strong ones will be full of vim and vigour. Expect the biggest and the best berries in the first season (maybe even for Christmas dinner). If you keep the plants well fed, you will get more but smaller berries the following summer but it is not usually worth persisting with the same plants past the second season.

Plan from the start how you will cover your plants. If you don’t, the birds will beat you to every red fruit. We cover ours from the start to stop the birds from raking over the mulch and to foil the elusive resident rabbit from excavating the plants, using netting spread over cloche hoops.

If you are going to grow them in pots, they will need frequent watering and liquid feeding as soon as temperatures rise again.

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

Tikorangi Notes: Friday 15 June, 2012

And the winner for colour this week - the persimmons

And the winner for colour this week – the persimmons

Latest posts:

1) The sweet smell of daphne in winter (though the showiest is D. genkwa which has no scent at all).

2) Good things come in small packages and may take a long, long time to reach maturity. Chamaecyparis obtusa “Caespitosa”

3) Taking another look at your common or garden radish (of the European persuasion).

What a difference a week makes... frost damage

What a difference a week makes… frost damage

What a difference a few days can make. Last Friday, I wrote about the tree dahlias. One frost and now they are mush and over for the year. Frosts are an unpredictable event here. Some years there are none (or no visible frost at least), other years we might get two or three rippers. It was a ripper on Wednesday. On the bright side, there has been remarkably little damage and our run of calm, sunny weather continues. We are making great progress in the garden and I am thinking about perennial combinations and more active management to keep them looking good. Mark and Lloyd entertained themselves bringing an old shed across the road to convert into a pigeon house. Lloyd is now replacing the door and re-roofing it. I am hoping new sides will be next so by then there will only be the framework and the window left of the original.

Plant Collector: Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Caespitosa’

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Caespitosa' is a little honey bun of a plant... after 50 years

Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Caespitosa’ is a little honey bun of a plant… after 50 years

I can’t help but think that if conifers had user-friendly common names, they might have staged more of a revival as desirable plants. There is nothing easy about this name. Even the pronunciation of ‘Caespitosa’ is problematic. But it is the cutest little honey bun of a plant. We once produced a line of these to sell. After about 7 years, they measured no more than 10cm across. It is difficult to sell tiny gems like that. After 50 years or more, the ones in our rockery are about 40cm high and 50cm wide. They are like dense mushrooms and have never been clipped or shaped in any way. I sometimes clean out some of the dead debris in the middle and I clip off the occasional larger leafed stem but that is all the care these plants get.

The reason I clip off any odd looking foliage is because this is a bit of a freak seedling derived from what was a timber tree in its native Japan – commonly referred to as the Hinoki Cypress, though it would be more correct to refer to it as the Hinoki False Cypress because chamaecyparis are known as false cypress. It is obviously highly variable and prone to throwing sports because there are a host of different named selections. Such sports can revert to larger and stronger growing forms which is why it pays to clip out any peculiar, larger foliaged branches on a dwarf like this.

This is such a wonderfully tactile plant. The instinct is to pat it as you pass and it completely dense and firm. ‘Caespitosa’ was raised from seed before 1920 in England so it has been around for a while. It is still seen as a gem for alpine gardens. Cold climate gems that also tolerate the mild humid conditions that have here are not common.

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

Plant Collector: Picea albertiana 'Conica'

Picea albertiana 'Conica' after a mere 20 years

Picea albertiana ‘Conica’ after a mere 20 years

“So how old is the small Picea albertiana ‘Conica’?” I asked. “Not very old,” he replied. Then we worked out that this little specimen, under 2 metres high, is in fact over 20 years, whereas the big one (a scaled up version about 4 metres high) is 60 years old. Time can fly in the garden.

When conifers fell from grace after their heyday in the 70s, we threw some babies out with the bathwater. P. albertiana ‘Conica’ is a dwarf sport from the timber tree, Picea glauca. Glauca just means blue, and the fine foliage of the dwarf form retains a blue-grey hue. P. glauca is commonly known as the white spruce growing naturally right across from east to west of the northern states of USA, Canada and even Alaska. It is a valuable timber tree. You would be waiting a long time to get any timber out of P. albertiana ‘Conica’. In fact it is such a slow grower that it is a favourite candidate for bonsai. Our two specimens are in our rockery and the perfect icecream cone shape that gives them a wonderful silhouette. The leaves are fine, short needles, densely packed. I always want to put stars on top of them at Christmas.

That said, they may be on borrowed time. Coming from a very cold climate, they survive here because Mark is willing to treat them each year for red spider. These are two of the only plants in the garden he still sprays. If we get much more purist in our quest to garden without chemical sprays and fertiliser and shun treating even these, they are likely to kark it over time. We know this because the one in our park that he didn’t get around to spraying died. I would miss their tight cones.