With the open garden high season upon us, owners will be relieved to hear that the terror threat in gardens is low this year.

While just about every activist group in the country has been implicated in the para military training in the Ureweras (peace activists, Maori sovereignty advocates, animal rights activists and environmentalists), there is no suggestion that active gardeners in horticultural societies have been recruited yet. However, vigilant garden openers may like to keep their eyes peeled for Latvian ex-KGB agents who are easily identified by their bad hats and the notebooks they carry.

• If you have naturalised annuals which self seed year after year (thinking particularly of pansies but there are many others too), pull out plants with inferior flowers or yukky colour mixes before they seed or you will find that increasing numbers of plants have these undesirable characteristics in future seasons.
• When we said last week that serious inorganic gardeners will use Orthene to combat white fly, we were in fact advocating that home gardeners look to a more environmentally friendly option, of which there are several. You need to be a certificated, card carrying chemically qualified person these days to buy Orthene.
• Labour Weekend is the traditional time for major plantings in the vegetable garden but the cold wet weather this week may deter all but the most hardy of traditionalists. It won’t matter if you delay a week or two before starting to sow your corn or to plant out your tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and courgettes. Or corn can be started in small pots if you are too cold and wet to direct sow. It is a crop best planted in succession to ensure a longer harvest season. Don’t delay on getting your carrot seeds in, however. It is also time for planting main crop potatoes and kumara runners can be planted in warm areas. Keep successional sowings of peas. All grandparents should sow peas as part of their duties to young grandchildren. It doesn’t matter if none make it to the pot. Pity the poor child who misses out on the pleasure of eating peas fresh from the pod in the garden.
• Once you have garden borders weed free, laying a good thick layer of mulch (around 10cm) will deter the next crop of weeds from germinating as well as adding structure the soil and feeding the plants if you use compost mulch. Just make sure that the mulch is free of weeds or you will multiply problems ten fold.
• Keep pruning in between showers. Despite the dripping foliage, this is the best time of the year to prune most plants (but not cherry trees which are summer pruned).

• It is 3P1F this week. That is Panic, Plant and Prune. And Feed. Get woody trees and shrubs into the ground as fast as you can now so they can settle in before we start to dry out. We are only a few weeks off the time when temperatures can start to rise dramatically.
• Most plants are best pruned straight after flowering. This is particularly true for rhododendrons, including vireyas. As soon as they have done their seasonal spurt of flower power, get in with the loppers if they need it. Rhododendrons only put on one growth spurt in spring so you need to prune before that happens so the plant can grow in the right places and channel its energies where you want it.
• It is important to allow bulbs such as daffodils and bluebells to take their own time to die down and become dormant. Do not cut off their green leaves and tying the foliage in knots is pretty tacky. If the splayed foliage worries you, tying a clump loosely with a narrow thread of flax leaf looks greatly preferable to knots.
• If you grow lilies, watch for aphid infestations now. These nasty little suckers may be responsible for spreading virus in lilies and are best eliminated. Serious inorganic growers will use Orthene but there is a range of pyrethrum based aphid sprays which are less heavy duty.
• It is full steam ahead in the vegetable garden preparing for L Day (that is Labour Day planting, a time honoured tradition). Corn can be started in little pots to be planted out in three weeks time.
• Thin out early sowings of vegetables.
• Earth up potatoes and keep a copper spray on them to keep blight at bay. Broad beans also need a copper spray every few weeks to stop rust.
• If you want to boost growth in the vege garden, a light sprinkling of blood and bone is a good move at this time.

• Weeds are growing madly. Be vigilant at this time of the year and prevent anything going to seed or you will be fighting the successive waves of germinating weeds all summer. While glyphosate or Round Up will kill weeds, this takes a few days to work so you still need to hand pull any weeds with seed heads formed – particularly the bitter cress which pops everywhere and goes from germination to seeding in what seems like days.
• Rejuvenate tired citrus trees at this time by pruning hard, fertilising and mulching. If you prune very hard, you will sacrifice the crop of fruit for the next season or two but you should have a better looking bush or tree. Citrus trees are grafted so do not cut off at ground level because all that will regrow will be the thorny root stock. If you have a problem with borer, cut out the infected branches.
• Evergreen azaleas and most camellias, however, can be cut to ground level if you have ugly old specimens and they will grow again though you are unlikely to get flowers next year. Make sure you feed and mulch any plants you have subjected to extreme decapitation.
• If you want a summer bedding plant display, you should be getting your annuals in now. If you have bought “potted colour” (the larger specimens which are sold in garden centres), removing the current crop of flower buds at time of planting allows the plant to establish better before it puts its energies into a floral display. Deadheading them throughout the season can be tedious but will considerably extend the flowering. The plant’s drive is to set seed and reproduce itself so if you delay that process by preventing it seeding, it will keep on trying by setting more flowers.
• In the vegetable garden, don’t rush planting out if your soil is still cold. It can in fact delay the growth of the seeds and plants whereas if you wait until later in the month, they are more likely to grow away unimpeded. Experienced vegie gardeners learn to judge the optimum times and conditions for getting early crops in but Labour Weekend is traditionally the magic planting time.

Start forcing kumaras by giving them a bit of bottom heat or by putting them in a box with moist straw or sawdust in a warm place to get an accelerated start when you plant them out in a few weeks time.

• Dwarf beans can have their first sowing of the season now.
• Garden centres are full of young tomato plants and in warm areas you can plant them out now in a warm, sunny, sheltered spot.
• Stake broad beans as they will grow very quickly now. The same goes for clematis.
• Roses are all in full growth now so you can fertilise them and mulch them. Those who keep their roses beautiful by applying regular sprays will want to keep a close eye on any signs of black spot, aphids and the multitude of other greeblies and nasties that most roses are susceptible to.
• Mowing the lawn with a mulcher mower improves lawn health, rather than constantly removing the clippings. Farmers know you can not repeatedly cut hay without heavy fertilising and the same principle applies to lawns.
• Give deciduous fruit trees a copper spray as they burst into growth. This is the most important spray of the year for them.

• Sow 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 which will be upon us before you expect.
• Feijoa bushes can be thinned and opened up to encourage them to produce larger fruit next season. Give them a feed at the same time.
• Keep pinching out the flowers on strawberry plants while the clumps build up size and strength, before you let them fruit.
• Dwarf beans can be started in pots now but it is a little early to plant them in the garden yet unless you have a really prime spot.
• Pruning out any dead wood from shrubs such as rhododendrons improves their appearance considerably and pruning tends to be more fun than weeding.
• You can still lift and divide hostas but time is running out as they are in growth. This also means that every slug and snail in the vicinity will be packing their bags and moving in to munch them. Laying a ring of sawdust, sand or grit can act like a barrier and discourage them from sliming across to reach the delectable shoots.
• It is a good time to give your spring bulbs a feed of blood and bone as they finish flowering. This growth period is critical for them to build strength in the bulb for next year’s flowering. If your daffodils have not set flower buds it is either because they are too shaded or they are too congested and need to be divided up for next spring.
• Readers who enjoyed Vicki’s piece on peacocks last week may like to have a look for photos of Isola Madre, the island villa and garden in Lake Maggiore, Northern Italy. They specialize in pure white peacocks (presumably rare albinos) and as they pose on all the substantial stonework, they make possibly the most elegant picture imaginable. Notwithstanding that, sadly peacocks and gardening do not go together at all. Birds of that size do a substantial amount of damage.