This weekend’s garden tasks
Edibles
Parsley may still be sown (ignore if need be the old wives’ tale ‘‘Sow parsley, have a baby’’). Germination is aided by soaking the seeds overnight, making sure the seed is fresh and keeping the soil moist. This time of year, it pays to water the sowing bed before sowing and, as these seeds seldom have anything approaching a 100 per cent germination rate, sow more than you imagine you would need. Once seedlings are established, give them a good dose of a nitrogen-rich fertiliser.
Don’t rush to harvest carrots. They may safely be left in the ground until August.
Keep on fertilising and harvesting beans – the more you pick, the more they grow. As with courgettes, smaller is definitely better with beans.
Sow cold-weather lettuces, such as ‘‘Rouge d’Hiver’’ in rich, welldrained soil. Try growing them in large pots in a sunny spot near your back or kitchen door for easy access. Plant silver beet for an easy, no-fuss nutritious yearround crop.
Ornamentals
Plant perennials while the soil is still warm and they can get established by winter. By the same reasoning, it is also a good time to divide up perennials that have started to perform poorly due to overcrowding. Usually, the roots and shoots at the outer edges of the plant are best to use rather than the older, more tired ones in the centre.
Continue deadheading plants such as dahlias, delphiniums, marguerite daisies, penstemons and roses to prolong the flowering season.
Perennials that have done their flowering dash and have only seed heads remaining, such as aquilegia and phlox, may be cut back to 10cm above the ground.
You may, however, like to leave some more ornamental seed heads, such as those of eryngium (sea holly), phlomis, peony poppies, sedum and teasel. Any leaves or other parts of these plants with fungi, such as powdery mildew, are best removed.
Tidy up beared irises – gently pull off dead leaves.
Plant bulbs.
The recent rain and warm weather have combined to make for excellent growth in many plants – especially weeds, which are germinating like crazy. If you catch them early enough a quick going over with a hoe or the handheld niwashi is enough to fell them, either leave them on the surface to dry and die, or if you find this detracts from the satisfying appearance of a recently tilled garden, remove them.