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- There is a gardeners’ dilemma in this area right now about whether to
prune the roses or not. I fed Annie’s with a high potassium fruit and
flower set in April and some of the late flowering cultivars like ‘Shocking
Blue’ are still in full flower and 20 buds to come with healthy foliage
and showing no signs of leaf fall. I’m certainly not going to be allowed
to prune that one! In short don’t rush into pruning just because it’s
the end of June. Pruning your roses could be left as late as August and they
will still thrive.
- I moved a large ‘Amazon’ tree begonia into a warmer aspect under the
verandah, to over winter a few weeks ago and fed it a mild dose of potassium
and believe it or not it’s back in flower. So it’s worth looking closer
at where your potted plants spend winter. A select microclimate makes so
much difference especially to Pelargoniums and succulents.
- Most herbaceous plants benefit from a heavy pollarding right now, back to
about ankle high. That means Salvias, Veronicas, day lilies you know the
sort of flowering plants that look really daggy in winter if left.
- I have a patch of self-seeded Nasturtiums that are growing strongly with
this cold wether and I noticed a few cunningly disguised green caterpillars
making a meal of them this morning, so a few flicks with a stick and they
were easy prey at my feet.
- If your sweet peas look a bit sad and still at 10cm tall, don’t worry
they do that in cold weather. They will recover. There is no magical potion
to feed them, just be patient. You can however pull your basil sticks up
though. They have pretty well had it for this season. Plant fresh seed in
September or just rake the plot out where you grew them last year and expect
plenty to self-seed.
- Most herbaceous plants benefit from a heavy pollarding right now, so cut
them back to about ankle high. That means Salvias, Veronicas, day lilies you
know the sort of flowering plants that look really daggy in winter if left.
- If you grew chillies last summer, you probably have some still on the
almost barren bushes. Well it’s a good move to harvest them and dry them
indoors in your garage or in the sun (if we every see it again), because
left on the bushes they will start to rot off over the next few weeks.
- The bushes can be left, because they will bounce back quickly in spring
and need not be treated at annuals.
- While stocking up the compost heap this morning I noticed a flock of at
least 10 black and yellow Hew Holland Honeyeaters fighting for possession on
the PVC flue that is poked into my compost as a breather. The warm air that
rises brings tiny vinegar flies up from below and the birds were having a
feast. That certainly beats feeding trays I reckon.
- If you have mushrooms or toadstools that have appeared in your lawn over
the past few weeks, it’s a fair indicator that your lawn is low in plant
nutrients, because the fertilizer that needs to be added to keep a lawn
looking at it’s best (mainly nitrogen), would kill or prevent these fungi
from growing. Make a calendar note to feed your lawn in August, then again
in October with a water-soluble lawn fertilizer.
- If you garden on a patch in the hills with shallow soil or none at all,
you’d be surprised if you dig around your deciduous trees and vines, to
find that over time small areas of very rich soil develop. It’s due to the
leaf litter breaking down and the humic acid altering soil structure. These
are deal spots to plant Mahonia or Hellebores as an understorey so that will
not compete for nutrients from the deciduous benefactor and they make peak
growth in the opposite season.
- There are a lot of Japonica Camellia cultivars being planted into hills
gardens at present where they thrive. Well they will if you head this
advice! Sure you probably have their favourite acidic soil but do not be
tempted to introduce a bag of premium potting mix into the planting hole.
Most hills gardens have lots of heavy soil underneath the shallow topsoil
and all the light friable potting mix does is fill up like a cup full of
water and floods your new Camellia resulting in an early death.
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