Feed, prune and prepare
Robert Guyton suggests tips and tasks for the week ahead in the garden.
WOOD FOR TREES
My studies into soil, and the magical communities of bacteria and fungi that hold it all together, have taught me the value of rotting wood.
Growing fruit trees love to be bathed in the medium that results from the breakdown of wood and the lignin that composes it. Their roots like travelling through it and the mycorrhizal fungi that support the health of apples, pears, plums and peaches spring from the pulpy remains of old branches.
I’m creating perfect growing conditions for my fruit trees by scattering prunings from the trees in my woodlot on top of the ground within the drip-line of the trees I aim to harvest fruit from.
It looked a little odd initially, but once I realised that the natural forest floor looks just like that, and that those forests seem to be in remarkably good health, I felt assured the idea was a good one.
PRUNE LEGGY SHRUBS
My lankiest shrubs this year are buddleia, which have grown quickly and sprawled across the tops of less vigorous plants, shading them somewhat.
I like the buddleia for their butterflyattracting qualities and don’t want to dissuade them from growing enthusiastically, but some discipline at this early stage will set them up for a long and productive life, so this week it’s out with the secateurs and off with their heads.
I’m cutting them back hard, as they can take it, and pushing the cut-offs into the soil of my cuttings bed in order to grow more of them.
I prune just above the bud, ensuring that the new growth erupts from as close to the cut as possible and avoiding the dieback that can occur when too long a stub is left above the points of growth.
My hydrangeas receive this severe treatment too and thrive because of it.
They’ll become leggy and overly thick if left to their own devices, so I reduce their bulk by half when pruning and, as I do with the buddleia, poke the best of the prunings into the ground so that they’ll root and grow into new shrubs.
LAST SEEDS
If they haven’t already matured or gone mouldy in wet weather, collect the last or your dry seeds.
Collect seed on a day that started dry and continued that way up to the point of picking. It’s difficult to dry wet seeds; they just don’t dessicate as well as when left outdoors in the breeze.
If you have seeds already collected, continue drying indoors and check them carefully for hitchhikers. Insects such as weevils will reduce your seeds to dust if you let them. You can put your seeds in the freezer for three days in order to kill any insects, then store in glass jars in a dark cupboard.
Information courtesy of Get Growing and NZ Gardener magazine. Sign up at getgrowing.co.nz for more hints, tips, recipes and fruit and vege growing advice.