In the veggie patch
All the summer vegetables can go in now. Remember to stake tomatoes well, as they can grow to 2 metres high! But summer beans need heat, so sowing in November would be better.
Summer herbs such as dill, French tarragon and coriander are good to plant now, but we recommend planting basil towards the end of the month because it is temperamental in cooler weather.
Plant edible flowers to make salads interesting and to use as garnishes. Flowers to eat include nasturtiums, carnations, daylilies, rose petals and violas. They attract the bees too.
Hang sticky traps in apple and pear trees to stop an infestation of codling moth in young apples and pears. A reliable alternative to this is to spray with Yates’ Success Ultra four times over the spring season.
Guava moth is an established pest in Auckland gardens. It ruins ripening citrus fruit and feijoas, so gardens centres have a newly developed pheromone pest trap to go on the attack and save the fruit.
Fertilise fruit trees with Morganics, an organic fertiliser, to promote developing fruit and enhance the health of the trees.
The rest of the garden
Wage war on the weeds – by actively removing or spraying them early in the season, there’s plenty of room for the desirable plants to flourish.
Organic rose care: Spray aphids with an organic insecticide or, if your water pressure is good, loosen them with a heavy squirt of water. An excellent means of controlling black spot is to mix 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 cup milk to 1 litre of water and spray the foliage.
It’s fertilise time in the garden – apply Prolawn’s All Purpose Fertiliser around trees and shrubs and gather up fallen flowers of camellias and azaleas, which helps to avoid spreading petal blight.
Cut any last flower bracts from leucadendons and proteas as their season ends – this is the typical way of pruning them and the flowers last well indoors. Do not apply fertiliser around the bushes – they do not require it and it can kill them.
Apply sheep pellets and mulch around the garden, to nourish the soil, conserve moisture at the roots of plants and limit invasive weed growth.
Perfect time to patch existing or sow new lawns – choose from Central Landscapes’ wide range of lawn seed varieties and add Prolawn Lawn Starter when you sow.
Project for October
Get raised vegetable beds off to a great start.
Fill the beds with Garden or Veggie Mix and plant seedlings in the cool of the day, then apply Aquaticus Organic Booster over the plants. Water deeply, then carefully place Somerset Pea Straw and Lucerne around the seedlings to help keep moisture in. Deal to slugs and snails with pellets or collect and dispose of them when they emerge at night.