Today may herald the start of a new month but until some rain comes, there is not a great deal to be done in the garden. Central and South Taranaki gardeners in particular are under complete watering restrictions now and that is unlikely to change for several more weeks. Set priorities for what water you can use. Moving all container plants to shady spots will substantially reduce their need for water as will burying terracotta pots below the soil surface (plunging). You can recycle dish water, shower water or the rinse cycle of the washing machine.

• While container plants can die from dryness and heat and so can recently planted material, established trees and shrubs may wilt and get stressed but will generally weather the drought out as long as rains come by autumn. There is no point in wasting water on them.
• Digging an irrigation trench alongside rows in the vegetable garden gets the water closer to the roots that need it, as opposed to sprinkling water on the top. Many vegetables like peas, beans and tomatoes will need water at this time if you want a crop.
• You can always weed and at least pulling weeds out or push hoeing means that the sun will effect a good kill rate on them by shrivelling them up very fast so you only need to remove those weeds that have set seed. The sun will not kill the seeds.
• Ignore the brown patches in lawns. Green lawns are a luxury when water is short. Most of the world lives with brown lawns in summer.
• Unless you have your own water supply, hold off planting even in the vegetable garden until some rain is forecast. You won’t lose anything by waiting another week or two before sowing the winter veg. But if you have water to spare, you can be sowing parsnips, carrots, dwarf beans and brassicas as well as keeping lettuces going.
• Pinch back cucumbers, melons, courgettes, pumpkins and similar spreaders to keep them under control and to encourage fruit set. Tender pumpkin tips are delicious to eat, as are stuffed courgette flowers, if they are not infested with white fly.

• No doubt we are not alone this week in having to deal with the unscheduled arrival of the winter firewood, although with older trees than most people, we may have to deal with more. It is a mystery to us why ours fell on a calm Friday night rather than in Tuesday’s winds but the fires here this year will be fuelled by tawa and pine.
• Harvest garlic if you have not yet done so. To store it, garlic is best cleaned up and then hung with plenty of air around it in a cool, dark place. The traditional way is to plait the stems but if you can’t be bothered, recycled onion bags can be used (the orange mesh type) as long as the garlic is dry and not packed in tightly. Keep some in reserve for planting in mid winter. Imported Chinese garlic should be shunned in the garden. It is frequently infected by virus which is threatening local garlic producers and it is not worth the risk of trying to grow it. It is also a waste of time and effort because it has crossed hemispheres and its growing season is so disturbed that yields will be poor.
• Do not be lulled in to a false sense of security by the small amount of rain we had this week. It was not enough to get the moisture content of the soil up and we are highly likely to go back to being very dry. With severe water shortages around much of the province, it is not sensible to indulge in dividing plants and creating gardens which will need watering to keep plants alive. There is not a lot you can do in the ornamental garden in high summer beyond weeding, dead heading, summer pruning roses and general maintenance.
• As plums are harvested (Sultan plums are worth growing here), prune the trees to keep them open and well shaped. Summer pruning reduces the risk of silver blight getting in on the cut surfaces.
• It is down to the last week for sowing corn for late harvest in coastal gardens but too late now for inland areas. Planted now, it will hold into the winter and extend your corn eating season into June. Sweetcorn fresh from the garden is much more tender than sweetcorn from the supermarket or fruiterer as much of the sugar content turns to starch very soon after picking. It is also getting late for sowing carrots so do not delay past this weekend on getting carrot seed in for a winter crop.
• Continue planting lettuces and beans.

• Keen veg growers will be starting to think about winter vegetables. If you use small plants, you have plenty of time but if you start from seed (which is of course much cheaper), you can be looking to sow most winter seeds (particularly brassicas) from now on. You have missed the boat on Brussels sprouts from seed. Winter vegetables grow through summer and autumn but you don’t want to get plants in too early or they can bolt to seed before you are ready to eat them. You can still sow a late crop of carrots.
• Many of the summer flowering clematis can be cut back hard if they have finished their flowering flush or are succumbing to mildew badly. Water them, feed them and they will romp away and start flowering again in about six weeks time.
• Rhododendrons, camellias and most flowering shrubs and trees (excluding roses, michelias and vireyas) have done most of their growing for the season so you are too late for heavy pruning this time around. Leave them for another six months unless they are fruit trees or flowering cherries. Otherwise you will be cutting off all the spring flowers.
• From the school of do as we say, not do as we do, the best time to prune raspberries is when the crop has just finished. Take out all this year’s fruiting canes. Next year’s fruit will come on the new growth.
• Try not to neglect container plants. They really need watering daily at this time and pots of annuals or perennials will benefit from a liquid feed. Hanging baskets are usually grossly overplanted so will need your TLC twice a day with water as well as a weekly liquid feed.
• Keep removing the laterals from tomato plants and grape vines and get a copper spray on the tomato plants to prevent blight.

• The gentle rain this week is likely to cause an explosion of fresh weeds. Nothing beats vigilance on this battle frontline.
• Do not delay on dividing autumn flowering bulbs such as nerines, colchicums and cyclamen hederafolium because they will be starting to go into growth. Nerines are best with their necks above ground and cyclamen are planted to a shallow depth only.
• It is the last chance to get deciduous cuttings in. Hydrangeas and some viburnums root easily for the home gardener. So do grape cuttings and willows.
• Deadheading and tidying up renga renga lilies makes them look a great deal more presentable now that they have finished their season of glory. Tidying around the bases may also reduce some of the snail infestation that can afflict them.
• Keep trimming back wild and wayward wisteria shoots.
• If you have not pruned your flowering cherry trees yet, then schedule it in. Now is the time to remove dead wood and witches broom. The latter is a fungal ailment, recognisable by much denser leaf growth and it needs to be cut out. These branches will not flower and can take over the tree. Cherry trees are not long lived in our climate. We are too damp and they suffer from root problems. If you have one in major decline which needs removing, do not plant another cherry tree in its place or it too is likely to suffer from root disease. This is probably the single best reason why avenues of matched cherry trees are not a good idea in Taranaki.
• Take advantage of the rain this week (which soaked in to dry ground nicely) to keep your vegetable garden moist over the next month. It is easier to keep moisture levels up than to get water to penetrate bone dry ground.
• If you have not yet summer pruned your apple trees, then do it now. Shorten the non fruiting branches back to half a dozen leaves which will encourage the formation of flower buds.
• You have until the end of this month to continue planting corn and peas for late harvest. You can continue planting green beans into February.

It has been a great season for roses with low humidity and rainfall. I summer prune roses constantly, both deadheading and cutting back long stems to a leaf bud. Roses put on a phenomenal amount of growth and if you keep pruning them, they stay bushier and will respond with new shoots which counteracts the defoliated look of leggy black spot infested bushes as the season progresses for those of us who don’t spray our roses.

• Roses carry some pretty nasty fungi and bacteria. Take wounds from roses more seriously than other minor afflictions lest you find yourself hospitalised with cellulitis (not to be confused with the late Princess Diana’s puckered cellulite). It does happen – ask any hospital nurse.
• Don’t scalp the summer lawn. Set the level higher on the lawnmower. Leaving more length will keep your lawn greener and healthier. Using a sprinkler to water the lawn is probably as unacceptable as driving an SUV these days and if you are still indulging in this practice, it may be time to question how necessary it is.
• You can still plant pumpkins, runner beans and tomatoes for a late crop but do not delay.
• Seed sown vegetables such as carrots need watering daily in the early stages to prevent burning off at the base in the sun. They need a little assistance to get well established.
• Keep up the successional sowings of corn and green beans and you can still plant main crop potatoes. Keep a few of the early maturing varieties back to plant in autumn for a winter crop of new potatoes.
• If you buy plants from garden centres at this time of the year, take note as to whether they are being held in the full sun. Often annuals and seedlings are displayed on a shady side of the building and you are going to have to harden them off before planting them out in the full sun or they will fry. Hardening off involves giving them an hour or two only in full sun to start off with.
• Keep watering container plants daily.