Plant trees to feed the birds

Feed birds in your garden, not with jars of sugary syrups, though they’ll be enthusiastically drunk, but with berries from bushes planted in previous seasons.

Think ahead and grow shrubs and trees that produce safe-to-eat treats such as crabapples and fuchsia berries. You’ll avoid the potentially harmful practice of feeding sugar to nectar-feeding native birds like bellbirds and tı¯. This will ensure your garden is full of warbling songsters and they are less likely to catch any diseases from fermenting mixtures or overcrowded feeders.

Plant coprosma of all sorts for the native birds, and augment those with exotics like guelder rose, magnolias, abutilons and bottlebrushes, to extend the range of foods and the tastes that they provide.

Apples – especially ones that stay on the tree into the winter, such as those from the pearmain or russet families – provide nectar feeders with reservoirs of sweetness at times when there is little else on offer.

CLEAN AND TIDY THE GARDEN SHED

Take a good look at old chemicals lurking in your garden shed. Most won’t have a use-by date on them but it’s probable that they will have degraded with time, especially if they weren’t stored well. Air, heat, moisture and direct sunlight will all contribute to breaking down the products.

Herbicides, fungicides and insecticides should be used within a couple of years of manufacture as they become less effective with time. If labels can’t be deciphered or containers are distorted or leaking, get rid of them.

Check the labels for safe disposal directions and if you can’t work out what it is, err on the side of caution and treat as hazardous waste.

Check with your local council for collection points in your area.

Fertilisers have a longer shelf-life but try to use them up within three years.

Old compost, potting mix and seed-raising mix break down too, but can be used as mulch or added to the compost bin.

While you’re at it, toss out odd gloves, leaky gumboots, bird netting with rips and any other rubbish.

Be critical with the stuff you’ve saved because it ’’might come in handy one day‘‘.

Decide if you are ever going to turn those broken pots into garden art or if you’d rather have a bit more room to stow the lawnmower away.

Wash boots, gloves, plant pots and seedling trays. Then you’ll be tidy and all ready for spring!

MOW LEAVES AND MAKE A LEAF MOULD CAGE

With leaves falling thick and fast after the sudden drop in temperature, now’s a great time to prepare leaf mould for use as an organic mulch, compost ingredient, soil improver or simply added in small amounts to barrels of homemade liquid fertiliser.

Leaves are an excellent source of carbon so it makes sense to put this valuable resource to use before it’s all gone. Rake up as many leaves as you can and pile them into rows then run over them with your lawnmower to chop into smaller pieces – this helps it break down faster – then pile into a homemade leaf cage.

Cover the leaves with carpet or corrugated iron to keep the worst of the rain off and leave it to break down.

To construct a simple cage ram in four waratahs and wind recycled wire mesh around it. Easy to make, cheap and incredibly effective.

GET GROWING

This column is adapted from the weekly e-zine, get growing, from New Zealand Gardener magazine. For gardening advice delivered to your inbox every Friday, sign up for Get Growing at: getgrowing.co.nz

STEPPING STONES VERSUS GARDEN PLANKS

Walking on garden beds when they are wet compacts the soil. In the vege garden long planks are useful to walk on between the rows if your beds are too wide to reach across to weed, plant or harvest.

Perennial plants, ornamental grasses and shrubs all look much better in generous swathes in broad borders without straight lines.

So how do you tend to the climber at the back of the border without squashing sprouting spring bulbs or trampling on dormant perennials?

Strategically placed stepping stones are the answer. They are so much easier to manage than long boards in a crowded border and can be easily moved if the planting layout changes.

Individual pavers are available at hardware stores or make your own from recycled materials such as bricks or rubber doormats..