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- It’s now pretty safe to prune your fruit trees, well at least the stone
fruit trees and the grapevines, even if they have a few leaves still hanging
around. Cut your prunings into short sections and you’ll get most of them
into your organic wheelie bin over the next month.
- If you have a lilac tree dahlia it’s probably just finished flowering
and can be cut back to knee high. Don’t bother feeding it until about
October and in the mean time it just rests.
- I grow a range of herbs in 25cm (10") pots and the big advantage is
that in hot weather you move them somewhere cool and right now I move them
into full sun, if I can find such a spot. The parsley loves these wet
overcast days we’ve been having and I find the oregano and thyme, will
actually make growth when moved to full sun under north facing eves, whereas
in the ground they are pretty dormant now.
- Feed the parsley now with water-soluble nitrogen, like Aquasol, Thrive,
etc. but let the Mediterranean herbs harden up or else come spring when you
need to pick them they will be tasteless. The exception is all forms of
rosemary. The blue winter flower is delightful and a foliar spray of one of
those flower and fruit set sprays that’s high in potassium works a treat
and they flower their heads off and still have tasty leaves.
- If you grow deciduous fruit trees or deciduous flowering trees like Crepe
Myrtle or shrub roses in pots then move them from full sun around to the
coldest and probably most shaded aspect of your garden right now. That way
they get their maximum winter chill. That’s essential or else they will
flower erratically in spring and fruit poorly. That is the single reason why
so many folk report poor results from their container grown fruit trees.
- With all the Lupin talk over the past couple of weeks from readers keen to
access the seed, I planted some in Annie’s cottage garden last week and
after soaking them overnight, they germinated in just five days, only to be
eaten off by slugs. They next lot will fair better!
- Cyclamen are just walking out the door in nurseries this winter. Must be
all my talking about them. Anyhow a tip that Paul Collett (our biggest local
Cyclamen grower at Falg Nurseries in Uradla) gave me: A little known fact
about cyclamen is that you must remove dead or aging leaves by tugging them
off not cutting them. If cut they rot right into the corm and that’s
terminal! Oh and of course you’d never water them overhead would you?
- If you grow Pelargoniums in pots pull them under the eves of your house in
winter. They hate the cold wet nights, but will flower right through winter
if placed to get winter sun and no rain. Just like African Marigolds and
Petunias. True!
- Did you grow Tree Dahlias this year? Why not? They thrive in this area and
what else flowers for two months in late autumn at 3-5 metres up there? If
you did now is the time to cut them down to knee high so they can rest for
winter. Even if there are a few flowers left cut them down to a node or else
they rot into the hollow stem. They’ll shoot back in late spring and that’s
when they get fed, not before.
- Hills gardeners soon learn to plant things that plains folk can’t grow.
If you are new to the hills go and plant a few Clematis vines, any variety
whatsoever, they all thrive up here and look stunning. Select a spot with
deep soil that gets plenty of sun and when planted mulch your clematis root
run with stone or slate to keep it cool.
- Clematis like to climb, but 2-3 metres high is enough and they are easily
contained by a snip here and there when every they step out of the defined
area. Feed them in February and August with a balanced water-soluble
fertilizer and foliar sprays of high potassium fertilizer in September and
November. I’d love to see our hills full of Clematis in bloom.
- If you are currently canvassing the planting of a flowering cherry or an
apple or pear, look for the coldest part of your garden. In hilly aspects
that is usually the lowest area shaded in winter. That’s the position that
will produce your best autumn foliage colours and the best fruit set on the
pomes, but if planting citrus or stone fruit look for winter sun, since even
peaches get all the winter chill in the hills that they need.
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