Planting Guide and Garden Care

A guide for planting and garden care in the cooler climate of the Southern Highlands. 

November

October

As is often the case, particularly in the Highlands, Spring this year is a contrast of changing weather, alternately warm and dry, then cool and wet again, although the worst of the frosts should be over now. There is more than enough to do in the garden to keep us very busy.

Spring flowering bulbs are finishing, but this is the time the bulbs are utilising nutrients to prepare for next year’s flowering, so don’t let them dry out and don’t cut or tie up the foliage – you can even give them a light feed if you are fertilising nearby parts of the garden. If foliage persists 8 weeks after flowers have finished, you can cut it back then – it will be untidy by then anyway and will have done its work. If you want to move daffodils, dig them up as the foliage finishes, but plant them again in the new position straight away, marking the place with a small stake. If you have the energy to dig up tulips, do it in early to mid November. I leave the bulbs in the ground and find that given enough water when growth starts next Spring, they repeat flower quite well, and even multiply.

The Tulip time Corbett Gardens Dig up Day is scheduled for 8.00 am to 11.00 am on 12 November and is an opportunity to acquire some very good bulbs very cheaply. When you take your bag/s of bulbs home, wash off the mud and soil and spread them out in a sunny place to dry for a few days. Then dust them with a fungicide powder such as Bayleton and store them in small quantities in cotton or paper bags (not plastic) in a cool dark place. Check the bulbs periodically through the Summer for mould and if needed, dust them again, discarding any that go soft.

Camellias can be pruned after flowering: Jim Powell’s advice when he spoke at the September meeting was that the traditional Japanese approach is to thin out the centre of the bush so that “a small bird could fly between the branches”. It takes a fair bit of courage to attack a big old Camellia in this way, but they are remarkably hardy plants, and you will be surprised at the regeneration. Feed, water and mulch them before the weather gets too much warmer, as for other Spring flowering shrubs such as Pieris.

Since the whole garden is in the midst of its Spring growth spurt now, everything benefits from feeding – compost and cow manure for the acid lovers such as Camellias and Azaleas, complete dry food for iris, complete rose food regularly for roses, and high Potash fertiliser for fruiting crops. If we experience another dry spell, keep the soil damp as well.

Tomatoes can be planted out now – the leggy seedlings such as Grosse Lisse can be planted quite a lot more deeply than in the punnet or seed tray – they will make roots from the buried stems. Don’t plant them in the same spot as last year though – the plants will be healthier if you plant them in a spot that took root crops or leaf crops last season. The tall varieties need a sturdy stake at planting time. If you plant out pumpkins, zucchinis, cucumbers and squash now, and a cold spell is forecast, it pays to cover the little plants at night, either with some thick lucerne or pea mulch, or empty feed bags to help to protect them. Uncover in the morning.

You can make very good liquid feed for the vegetable garden by putting the equivalent of a small bag of any sort of manure in the bottom of a large bin such as a wheelie bin or 44 gallon drum. Fill with water, cover and allow to steep for about a fortnight. Dilute the resulting liquid with water, to the colour of weak tea and use especially on any leaf crops – the high Nitrogen content produces strong growth and encourages worm activities.

Margaret Stuart 4869 3292

August

Although the calendar labels August as the last month of Winter, if there are daffodils, jonquils, Hellebores and Camellias flowering, in the words of the old song, it might as well be Spring. It has been such a cold, wet, windy Winter though, it‟s been hard to find days fine enough to spend useful time in the garden, consequently many gardens are in dire need of a Spring clean up. Running the mower over the grass works wonders, even if only to tidy the winter lawn weeds like nut grass and winter grass. A dressing of sulphate of ammonia will give the lawn a lift and help to suppress weeds as growth resumes, but couch and buffalo will still be looking bleached by the cold, and it is better to leave them another month or so before fertilising.

Roses should be pruned now, if not already done. You may find that some varieties have already started putting on new growth, a sure indicator of the need to tidy them up, otherwise the new growth will start at the ends of long gangly stems and will never be strong and sturdy. Cut out dead and shrivelled growth right back to the base, and any thin, yellow, or twiggy stems, back to the main stem, then shorten the remaining strong stems back to the size you want the bush. Just aim for 3 -5 good strong stems, with an open centre to the plant, then give them a dressing of complete rose food, about a good handful to the square metre. Cow manure is wonderful for roses too, and Lucerne mulch feeds the soil as it decomposes.

Control snails around emerging and flowering bulbs, and feed the bulbs with bulb food or complete fertiliser, as the flowers finish, to ensure good strong bulbs and therefore lots of flowers, for next year. Dead head daffodils as the flowers finish, otherwise they spoil the look of the clump or row.

It is a good idea (when we get a few dry days) to spray peaches and nectarines with fungicide just as flower buds are showing colour, and again when petals fall, to control leaf curl disease. The same treatment for plums will help to control brown rot.

This is the last month for planting bare rooted trees – as always, give them a generous sized planting hole, and you may want to try Angus Stewart‟s suggestion of planting them somewhat more deeply than in the traditional planting method. The suggested benefits of deeper planting are that the plant is more stable in the soil, it does not dry out as readily, and some species will actually form a larger and healthier root ball, by forming roots up the buried section of stem. I would not try it with species that are fussy about perfect drainage, for example Daphne, because the deeper the planting hole, the more likely you are to be digging close to, or into the subsoil, which is much wetter than the topsoil. Roses though, are usually planted with the graft several centimetres above the soil surface whereas in fact they are much less prone to breaking at the bud union, if planted with the graft right down at soil level, and they are also less inclined to sucker if planted fairly deeply.

In the vegetable garden you can really get started and put in beetroot, broad beans, cabbage, carrots, corn, lettuce, parsnips, peas, and spinach. If you have a green house you might want to try some early sowings of tomato and pumpkin seeds, but they can‟t be planted out until frosts are well and truly over. Plant pumpkin seeds in small individual pots so that you can plant them out without disturbing the little roots, and they will establish much faster.

Happy gardening.

Margaret Stuart 4869 3292

July