Garden Advice › Summer
January in the Garden
A few tips for your garden work in the long summer days of January:
- Recycle your grey water in the garden: Keep a basin in the shower or kitchen sink, or take the bucket of water you used to wash to the floor or the car - and water dry areas in the garden. It's a good discipline to get into for watering pots under overhanging roofs, which never see rainwater.
- Caterpillars are out there munching: Is the foliage on your young kowhai disappearing? Are the cabbage tree leaves getting more holes in them every day? Lightly dust them with Nature's Way Derris Dust, or spray them with Yates' Success Naturalyte. (That's if you can't remove them digitally - they're hard to see on kowhais and they tend to hide down in the base of the cabbage tree leaves).
- Thrips are the unseen enemy: If you hose the undersides of the leaves of
viburnums and
rhododendrons you damage thrips that are clustering now - you'll notice their unsightly work come autumn, when the leaves turn silver! If plants are badly affected, spray with Confidor, preferably early or late when bees in bed! - Put in a path: Ever noticed that work on NZ roads steps up after Christmas time? Seems like there's a work crew around every corner. That's because the most settled weather is generally on its way and the road guys can be sure of getting plenty of work done. It's obviously a great time to build a pathway in the garden! A great looking, well made path can add several benefits -it offers accessibility to various parts of the garden; delineates garden spaces and assists an area to look crisp and tidy, adding attractive landscape effects