What to do in the garden this week
For some reason, pruning strikes fear into the heart of many gardeners. After all, once a fatal cut has been made, a lopped off branch can not be stuck back on. Furthermore, most pruning should be done during winter, when miserable weather can provide an excuse to put off a task that we are reluctant to tackle.
Pruning in the rain is no fun for the gardener, and bad for the plants too, as wet conditions help spread disease. While you are waiting for a break in the weather, make the job more manageable by researching what is needed for your trees and shrubs ahead of time.
Many plants just need a tidy up to keep them compact and out of the way of paths. You might even discover that you don’t need to do anything immediately – stone fruit (peaches, apricots, nectarines, and plums) for example should not be pruned in winter, so you can put the job off for at least six months.
Clean and sharpen your tools, check that your ladder is sturdy, and the pruning paste is still sticky. If the budget allows, treat yourself to some new tools. Using the right tools for the job saves time and is safer for you and causes less damage to the plants. As I’ve got older and less secure up ladders, I’ve become a fan of long-handled loppers. They are excellent for reaching inside prickly bushes or across garden beds as well as reaching high branches. Extendable poles with a selection of detachable tools such as pruning saws and fruit pickers are particularly useful.
Decide if and when you are going to spray your fruit trees and roses with copper and winter oil. Some experts recommend spraying before pruning so that overwintering pests and diseases don’t linger on in the debris that falls to the ground under the pruned trees. Others say it’s silly to waste spray on branches that are removed from the garden. And there are those who don’t use copper sprays at all because they kill the beneficial fungi as well as the bad ones. What you decide to do at your place will depend on which plants you grow, how much material you are cutting off and if you had serious disease problems last summer.
Then wait for a fine day when you can procrastinate no longer. First remove dead, diseased and damaged branches and anything that is in the way of paths or obstructing other plants. Remove spindly growth and open out the centre of congested bushes to allow more air movement. Remember to clean your tools before moving on to another plant to avoid spreading disease.
It might seem preposterously early, but you really do need to be ahead of the game with the chilli and capsicum clan. If at all possible, start raising seeds on heat pads from the middle of July.
Yes, they will need mollycoddling until it’s warm enough to move them outdoors – during September in most areas. But, all going well, they’ll flower before Christmas and begin fruiting in early summer rather than autumn.
This head start is particularly important with the large sweet peppers as they are much slower to flower and the fruit take an age to fill out – even in summer. Fruit that sets later in the season – especially after Easter – tends to remain small and is often malformed and reluctant to ripen.
The various local seed suppliers have a great many sweet peppers and chilli cultivars to choose from, but as spring approaches, stock can become scarce, so it pays to beat the rush and start ordering now. Thoughts of tomatoes shouldn’t be too far from your mind either!
Bring on the bulbs
July is the coldest month, but staunch spring bulbs (plus garlic and shallots) are pushing shoots up through the soil. Reward them for their efforts by feeding them with a bulb food such as Daltons Premium Bulb
Fertiliser. You may be lucky enough to have flowers already – if so, send your photos to inbox@getgrowing.co.nz.
Be sure to keep an eye out for newly surfaced bulb shoots when you’re weeding.
Carefully hand-weed areas where bulbs are planted instead of using a hoe.
If you’ve naturalised bulbs in your lawn, don’t mow! You’ll need to wait until at least four to six weeks after flowering, when the leaves have turned yellow. This is because the mature foliage sends nutrients back down into the bulb.
Remember that fresh green bulb shoots, particularly tulips, are like crack for slugs and snails, so patrol for them regularly. Use a snail bait such as Quash.
Prepare for asparagus season
Put in the groundwork – it pays off with this long-term crop – but don’t rush to plant asparagus crowns until spring.
Choose the site of your asparagus bed carefully – it will be productive for 20 years and you won’t want to move it as mature asparagus plants have a tangle of octopus-like roots that grow 1-2m deep underground.
Find a place in full sun that’s a bit out of the way as the bed will look untidy for many months each year.
Here’s the time-honoured approach to raising fat green spears: in June or July, dig a deep bed. If your soil is light, you are already on the path to success. If not, add sand. Dig deep, 60cm or so, and shovel in stable manure and wood ash, then season with a little soot. When your asparagus gets its roots into this oldfashioned mixture, it’ll rocket away.