Icy crystals target susceptible plants
rime has been burned off by the sun. My brugmansia and lemon trees get this treatment, when I remember to do it, and it keeps them safe from the cell-exploding action of a hard frost. Purposewoven anti-frost cloths can be purchased from garden centres and they work well, though have to be disposed of eventually, once their fibres have disintegrated. Newspaper – cheaper and more readily found – can go into the soil or fireplace. Structures covered in burlap are traditional protections for valuable frost-tender plants and can remain in place throughout winter, providing shelter from unexpected late frosts. the possibility that your garden and the plants growing in it might be the ones that have resistance or show signs of resilience when the attack comes – that they’ll be the basis for a recovery for the variety and the industry it’s part of. It’s perhaps a little far-fetched to think that your own little garden might play a valuable part in the saving of a species, but it might, you can never know. In any case, feijoas are fabulous fruits and taste wonderful freshly picked from your own garden. This one (pictured) grew on the feijoa variety, ‘Kaiteri’ and reached an impressive size, considering the location, one step away from Antarctica. Look for trees at garden centres now. when I gathered it up on my windfall round of the late-bearing apple trees.
I put him and the apple back onto the ground. Populations of sensitively-skinned creatures like these, and the whistling frogs that shelter under the stacks of timber beside my tunnelhouse, are easily lost when gardens are kept too tidy and their habitat is removed. 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 made draw-knife that makes short work of trimming back the blades of any floppy plant. A quick and decisive pull through the lower part of the leaf of flax, toetoe or astelia is all it takes to bring those plants back into order and favour.
Don’t drop the severed leaves onto the path; they become very slippery in the rain and you’ll have visitors sliding off into the shrubbery if they try to walk over them. Niwashi Sharks can be ordered online and remain sharp for a very long time.