Garden Advice › Garden Tips of the Month
Garden Tips June 2015
Planting in vegetable and fruit gardens:
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Bold, strong and vitamin packed winter greens: Kale, broccolini, NZ spinach, broccoli varieties to keep your immune system strong over winter.
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Broad beans and snow peas: There is still time to get these planted as they thrive on the winter rains. As they gain height, stake at the corners and tie string around the pegs to help them grow straight and true together.
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Brown and red onions and shallots: In free-draining soils - sow direct or with seedlings. Plant shallots either from seedlings or direct from existing bulbs - ask your local growers at the farmers market for any seed shallots available.
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Artichokes, asparagus and rhubarb into well prepared soil: Now is the time to plant these favourite year-round edible perennials. They are heavy feeders so need fertiliser so prepare your soil by digging in compost and feed with liquid fertiliser for a solid kick start. It's best not to harvest until the second year, to establish a killer crop! Rhubarb stems not so red? Depth of colour tends to be deeper in colder climates, but won't actually affect the taste. Once in, Asparagus crowns can keep growing for 20 years!
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Strawberries: Lift and replant last year's strawberry runners in Living Earth Garden Mix or Organic Veggie Mix.
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Spring Onions - easy and good looking for growing on your deck if you are in an urban space. The best addition to bacon and eggs or chopped in miso soup.
Tip to make your herbs last longer or be instantly available: Preserve your herbs in Olive Oil cubes:
Research shows herbs are great for increasing your antioxidant intake. Preserve autumn herbs for winter cooking using our latest and simple trick which we just LOVE: Freeze herbs in ice trays of olive oil. Chop and pour olive oil or melted butter on top and pop in the freezer. This works best with 'hard' herbs - rosemary, thyme, sage - and saves you stumbling through the herb garden in the dark in winter! The last of the 'soft' herbs - basil, coriander etc. - can be made into pesto. Freezing herbs in this way avoids browning off and freezer burn which can occur when freezing dry. The flavour infusion when the oiled herbs hit the pan is stunning!
Pests:
Indoor Plants: Watch for signs of scale on indoor
decorative fig plants. Take outdoors on a warm day and spray with pyrethrum or
diatomaceous earth (Available at Kings Plant Barn) as a natural deterrent.
Diatomaceous earth is wild harvested from ground up fossil
shells from the sea floor and is a natural and safe way to kill pests such as
slugs, snails, aphids, thrips, mites and even cockroaches. The hard sharp
diatom shards pierce the scales of the pest, descaling them and causing them to
dry out and cark it. Dehydration is nature's oldest form of insect control. And
importantly, it doesn't affect earthworms or soil micro-organisms. Make sure
you use food-grade diatomaceous earth for your gardens. It's also time to water
less over the winter months to avoid root fungal diseases.
In the Garden:
Frost protection: Avoid Jack Frost burning and ruining
prized plants - If the temperature is heading to zero and it's a still evening
apply frost cloth or layer newspaper over your frost sensitive crops and citrus
fruits. Alternatively you can spray plants now with Organic Liquid Frost Cloth
https://www.google.co.nz/?gws_rd=ssl#q=liquid+frost+cloth+nz
for protection.
Rose planting time: Although it seems an odd time to plant,
winter is the best time for roses to establish their roots deep within the
soil. Choose an area that hasn't grown roses before. Add organic compost into
the soil as this will fertilise and not burn the roots. If you have heavy clay
consider planting in raised beds filled with Living Earth Garden Mix.
The day before planting, fill the hole with water and soak the root-ball of the
rose in a bucket to clean and hydrate cutting. Plant and fertilise with Liquid
Compost to encourage all time root growth! It is also a great time to get
dormant perennials in for colour in summer.
Pruning: Prune raspberry canes and grape vines once they've
dropped their leaves. Leave side branches on vines but reduce their length to
the last two buds.
Mulch: Mulch your garden with BLACKGOLD Mulch. Winter
is an important but often overlooked time to replenish and protect the soil.
With 25% compost BLACKGOLD Mulch will also slow feed nutrients into the soil
below.
Lawn Care: With winter here, the growth of your lawn will
begin to slow, but it important that you still pay attention to it. Fertilise
with Prolawn Garden Supreme to keep your lawn as strong and healthy as possible
during this period. This will enable your lawn to compete against winter weeds
and the cold and wet weather.
Keep your mower blades sharp so as to avoid tearing and damage to the leaf, and
keep up your regular mowing.
BRAND NEW PRODUCT IN STORE: Prolawn Broadsword selective broadleaf weed killer is now available! Check it out on our website: http://www.centrallandscapes.co.nz/products/show/prolawn-broadsword-selective-bro.html
Garden Thought of the Month:
"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees." George Eliot
