| If you cut your overgrown Bougainvilleas back
at present, they will still flower again in autumn and well into winter. You see they
flower from new wood, not old, so the more tips the more flower. Well if you're a
pedant... they are actually 'bracts', the flowers are tiny boring white specks hidden away
in all that taffeta finery. Pacific Iris can be
divided now that the soil is moist and they will certainly grow on for a few months. Mine
get burnt badly in the summer heat, but unlike most other Irises, they do not go dormant
and must be divided in time for their growth season in autumn and winter.
Now aren't you glad you fertilized your lawn last weekend?
I bet it's looking a picture already. It isn't and you didn't? Well you shouldn't waste
your time reading this column! You haven't even got a garden? You're excused then, but you
could remind the neighbours, since it's "Look- after-a-lawn-week". With all the
air filtering they do and the enormous leaf surface area they have to supply oxygen, they
should be compulsory.
We always pick lots of basil this month and every second
weekend meal seems to be bruschetta, but when a long fat green caterpillar turned up in
the basil leaves last weekend, Annie was none too pleased, until I pointed out, 'that only
proves I'm not using insecticide on the basil'. I then convinced her that what the grubs
eat is only judicious pruning, we can't possibly eat it all!
Our worms have been working overtime this summer and
generating loads of castings, that now need to go out on a crop, so I got Annie to spread
a wheelbarrow load on her roses. I'll swear they look better after just three days!
Incidentally there's going to be a huge worm castings marketing push on next month, using
a 9 foot worm called Terri. I reckon castings may just be the last great untapped
horticultural frontier.
I had quite a few odd chilli cultivars left over in small
pots that didn't get planted last month, but kept watering them and you wouldn't believe
it but they are flowering and some are fruiting in 4" pots. So if you see a few
pot-bound seedlings at your nursery, pot them on into relatively small 5" pots and
you'll still get a crop.
I've seen a fair bit of dead arm or gummosis on grapes and
apricots respectfully this week. It show up as a sudden dead limb on an otherwise healthy
vine or tree. Only effects grapes, almonds and apricots and there are no cures really.
Good drainage and Bordeaux mix spray onto cuts in winter seem s the best control. But cut
the dead branches out on a really hot day and wash the tools between trees with White King
to stop spread of the bacterial spores.
If you took delivery of bulbs in the mail this week, don't
plant them just yet, open the bags and store them for a week or two in a dark cupboard
until I tell you what to do next. |
