What to do in the garden this week
Prune apple trees now
Now is the perfect time for pruning apple trees. The leaves will all be long gone – or at least they should be – so it’s easy to see the framework of the branches. Everything’s quiet on the growth front in the orchard, no sap is moving and it’s not yet time for blossom.
Apple trees require a yearly prune if they are to produce copious amounts of fruit. Prune to keep them at a level you can easily reach. They also benefit greatly from being kept open and free from any tangled growth.
In terms of how much to cut, reducing the length of the previous season’s growth is usually enough, if done regularly. Simply make a clean cut above a bud that faces outward from the centre of the tree.
There’s no need to use pruning paste on those thin tips; however if you need to remove a larger branch, perhaps one that requires the use of a saw, then pasting the cut is necessary to prevent entry of disease-causing fungi and woolly aphids. You can make your own sweet-smelling, lovely-to-use pruning paste by combining bees’ wax with lavender oil.
Remember to always clean your cutting tools between each tree. It’s surprisingly easy to transfer problems from one tree to another through dirty tools.
Start seeds off early indoors
It’s early, but it’s well worth giving it a go – especially for chillies, capsicums and eggplants that need a long season to ripen up their fruit.
If seedlings peak too soon or become leggy before temperatures outside match their needs, you can start another round.
Test the viability of saved seeds
Have you got a collection of half used seed packets from years gone by? Even if they’ve been kept cool and dry, viability decreases with time.
Pre-sprouting or chitting some seed will let you know if it’s worth sowing the rest of the packet. Space out 5-10 seeds on a damp paper towel or toilet paper. Try an absorbent two-ply toilet paper. It’s fiddlier to use than paper towels as it disintegrates more quickly, but this is an advantage when the seeds are planted as it breaks down very quickly in the soil. Enclose in a resealable plastic bag or lidded container. Put in a warm place such as on top of the fridge or on a heated propagation mat. Check daily for any seeds starting to swell and producing a root.
If the whole batch sprouts, you can be confident about using the rest of the packet. If only one or two germinate, you’ll know to cut your losses and buy new seeds. Or if they are hard to replace, start with more seeds to get a few through to maturity. Don’t waste the chitted seeds either. Plant them, still attached to a piece of the paper, into a punnet of moist seed-raising mix. Put the punnet into a plastic bag or an incubator and wait for the first leaves to appear. Grow them on until ready to transplant outside.
Beat the winter blues outside
Long days in the office mean we leave home before it’s light, and it’s dark by the time we get home. Cold, rainy days also encourage us to hibernate inside. It’s easy to get run down or moody in winter even without a fullblown case of SAD (Seasonal
Affective Disorder).
A daily dose of sunlight resets our body clocks and is also linked to lowered blood pressure, better sleep and even less grumpiness. So even on a dreary day, make the effort to get out into the garden. There is always something to see and smell.
During a break in the wild storm this week I spotted raindrops on nasturtium leaves, orchids, camellias and lachenalias in bloom. The air was fresh with a heavenly whiff of daphne.
Sow mini turnips and radishes
Crunching into a baby turnip or a fresh radish is a treat. Start an early row under a cloche in a warm raised bed or plant in a bucket indoors in a sunny conservatory.
Try ‘Tokyo White Cross’ or ‘Snowball’, both from Kings Seeds or Japanese ‘Hakurei’ turnips from Yates. They look like round, white radishes and can be picked when they’re about 4-5cm across.
Turnips prefer the cooler growing conditions of early spring or late autumn. Plant seeds about 10cm apart in a grid
pattern or in rows. When they reach pickable size, take out alternate turnips so the remaining roots have space to grow up to 15cm across.
Mine have never reached 15cm. In fact, they rarely even reach the kitchen! They get a quick rinse under the hose and are eaten as garden snacks. If you have more self-control than I do, try them sliced or grated into salads, served with dip, or added to a stirfry. Small, tender leaves can be added to a stir-fry or steamed like spinach. I’m growing ‘Salad Crunch’ radishes from Yates, which were a top performer in NZ Gardener’s radish trial.
Stepping stones v garden planks
Find ways to garden that don’t involve walking on your precious soil. Keen gardeners, like to get their spring garden started in the dead of winter, but trudging about on a wet garden is counterproductive and destroys good soil structure. It also makes cleaning boots a trial, so put down walkways of some kind.
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.
In ornamental gardens or vege beds where the plants aren’t grown in traditional rows, stepping stones are easier to manage.
It’s best to stay off soggy soils
altogether and be patient and wait until conditions are right, but it’s almost impossible to stop competitive early-sowers, determined to be the first to display ready-to-eat potatoes, peas, and tomatoes, while the neighbours are still planting theirs!