Garden Advice › Garden Tips of the Month
Garden Tips September 2015
What to do in the garden in September: Gardeners in the upper North Island need to tread carefully (literally) when it comes to the damp soil from heavy rain
Water-logged soil is a real turnoff for new seedling
plants, cuttings and divisions. Even new trees and shrubs will suffer if
they've been sitting snugly in the garden centre, in their free-draining pots!
In water-logged soils avoid doing anything until the rain
lessens and the temperatures stay constantly in the upper teens. If you need
to, put down a row of boards or organic mulch to tread on, that can be
repatriated later and work on the surrounding garden, without treading on it.
Gently forking over soils that are more free-draining, adding compost as you go
to reinvigorate the soil and replace nutrients that have washed through.
After planting, or even after you've simply turned the soil, layer with
BLACKGOLD Mulch, which will, strange as it seems, help the
soil. It acts like this: when the rain hits the bigger mulch pieces the water
will run down the sides into the soil, allowing more even dispersal, rather
than the water congregating in dips or at the low point of the garden bed.
You can scrape back the mulch for planting, then replace it and you have an
excellent weed suppression cover. Extra compost in the mulch will gradually add
more nutrients to the soil below. This product is exclusively available at
CLS.
The vegetable and fruit gardens:
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Planting now - Most herbs (but not basil) will really get growing and produce lots of delicious leaves if you get them in now. Coriander and parsley cope with reasonable rain, as do dill and chervil. Winter dormant herbs such as chives and French tarragon are either poking through the soil from last year or being offered now in garden centres. Why don't we plant the hydroponically grown herbs from supermarkets outdoors at this time? They were grown in too tender an environment to survive changeable spring weather
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'Cut and come again' lettuce once you start planting these, you've always got an on-hand salad or healthy sandwich. Sow rocket, land cress, corn salad and the 'uber' nourishing purslane.
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Citrus - Digger had great success reviving an unhappy lime tree last year with an excellent natural spray - 'Acquaticus Glow'. Its ingredients are perfect - the oil protects the trees from scale and the fish extracts nourish the foliage after a long hard winter
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Living Earth Organic Liquid Compost- Continue to regularly apply (every two weeks) to all crops - they'll respond in kind!
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Plant seed potatoes when they grow shoots of more than 2cm. Make a trench and lightly cover with soil, ready to 'mound up' as foliage grows. 'Rocket' and 'Swift' both mature for Christmas dinnertime….yum
In the general garden:
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Snail alert - Digger's right into gardening the natural way, but giving up some of a well-earned beer to slugs and snails is a big ask… However it works! Drop a few tablespoons into a small glass jar and position amongst young seedlings at a tilt so the rim is at ground level for them to access the beer. Digger chooses to believe they die happy….
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Butterfly love - If you've noticed a monarch or two flying around the garden, then it's likely they have come back to the source of last year's food and the place where they laid eggs. (Memory like an elephant...) if, like Digger, you managed to pull out last year's swan plants, hightail it to the garden centre to plant more and placate these beauties!
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Spring emerges - scented hyacinths, emerging tulip bulbs and lots of spring blossom - the weather must surely turn soon!
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 broadsword selective weed killer 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 and fertilise
with Turfmaster Starter.
P.S. Have you checked out our Facebook page? https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Landscape-Garden-Supplies/720702917960424?ref=hl
P.P.S. Don't forget our Masport Outdoor Grand Prize Competition!
Garden Thought of the Month:
"Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Teach him to garden and his whole neighbourhood gets tomatoes. And squash. And cucumbers. And…" DeepSouthDish.com
