Garden Advice › Garden Tips of the Month
Garden Tips September 2014
Planting Now
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Do the Prep: Cultivate your soil with Living Earth Compost - it'll bring up the worms, hold in moisture and release plenty of all-natural nutrients to your plants over spring!
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Lettuce time: Digger's had a fun time growing Lettuce 'Green Gem' - a small version of a Cos lettuce. The leaves are perfect to spread fillings on top of as canapés and are the ideal size for your sandwiches!
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Under Cover: Warmer, longer days tempt many of us to plant vegetable that are cold tender, so if you're hell-bent on having corn, tomatoes and zucchini in the garden now, cut off the tops of plastic soft drink bottles to use as 'cloches against cold (mini greenhouse effect). Or, take a chill pill and plant them in a month's time……
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Bit late for brassicas: Digger's not keen on planting broccoli and cabbage etc. from now on. In the warmer north the white butterflies are hatching and from now on it's just a fight…
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Fashion forward: Great time to plant seedlings of sweet Florence fennel, artichokes and to sow seeds of coloured varieties of carrots. Very impressive on the dining table this summer!
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On the flower front: Plant perennials - it's been a long time coming, but flowers are back with a vengeance. Choose from a spectacular array of new season's offerings such as salvias, bergamot, delphiniums, heleniums, cranesbill geraniums and hollyhocks. The bees will love you for it!
To do in the Garden
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Start staking: Young trees, shrubs and upwardly mobile vegetables and perennials need protection from spring's moody wind gusts.
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Slug and snails: Their tell-tale ravaging is now obvious with holes appearing in foliage and young seedlings disappearing overnight! Use a pet/bird friendly bait or do the satisfying thing of seeking them out and removing them!
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Cut back: Prune blueberries and passionfruit, trim pittosporum and corokia hedges to keep them growing foliage at the base. If you're in warmer areas of the country you can remove blackened foliage from frost damage.
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Plant groundcovers: If you desire a 'carpet' of flower in a sunny area of the garden, now is an excellent planting time. Plant carpet thymes, NZ Pratia angulata, 'Snow-in summer', Lamb's Ear or low-growing catmint. Prostrate shrubs for the same purpose include rosemary, convolvulus and Ceonothus.
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Major feed time: Whether you make your own from your worm farm, pick up some Living Earth Liquid Compost from us or use general fertilisers this is the time of the year when plants truly appreciate a meal!
Spring has arrived so don't forget that the Central Landscapes yards now have Living Earth's Ultra Lawn and organic certified Veggie Mix available in bulk! Grab a trailer-load or order a delivery from us today!
Lawn Care:
With the weather warming up and hopefully drying out you will want to turn your attention to your lawn. After a long winter even existing lawns need some TLC and the sooner you do this the better your lawn will look heading into summer and that all important BBQ season. if your lawn is looking tired, yellow, full of weeds or just a little thin then it's time for a spring renovation.
If you looking at sowing a new lawn or re-doing an existing one, now is a great time to use SRL (self-repairing lawn) This new and innovative rye grass will provide you with a genuine low maintenance lawn option, with its fine dark leaf and 50% less mowing you will be the envy of the street.
Check out the website or pop in and talk to your local Central yard for more
information
1. Fertilise with Turfmaster Gold or Garden Supreme to encourage strong growth.
2. Spray weeds with a broad range weed killer such to control broadleaf weeds.
3. About 3-4 weeks later scarify the lawn heavily to create a good seed bed.
4. Oversow bare or weak areas with the appropriate Prolawn seed blend and fertilise with Turfmaster
Starter.
WIN BIG IN OUR MASPORT PROMOTION:
Every purchase until the end of September allows you to enter the draw! One Masport 200ST Lawnmower to be won at every yard PLUS all entries go in the draw to win the BIG prize of a Masport stainless steel BBQ, Masport Chipper / Mulcher and Masport 250ST lawnmower!
Garden Thought of the Month:
"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." Lou Erickson