Make uplifting outdoor spaces
AUTUMN: PLANT FLOWERING SHRUBS THAT ADD STRUCTURE AND ARE LOVED BY SUNBIRDS
This is an activity that benefits more than ourselves. It creates food and habitat.
What better way to celebrate this Freedom Day long weekend than to invest time in creating uplifting outdoor spaces that benefit the environment?
In other words, gardening is an activity that benefits more than just ourselves. It creates beauty for others to enjoy, food for people to eat and a habitat for insects, birds and other small animals.
Create a bed of fragrant flowers that attract butterflies and bees by planting Stocks (Matthiola incana), which have sweetly fragrant flowers or carnations (spicy-sweet fragrance) bordered with honey-scented alyssum. All grow in full sun and need free draining soil. Amend heavier soil with compost and other organics. Water regularly and fertilise at least once a month.
Look out for Stocks “Cinderella”, a dwarf variety with double blooms in a large range of colours, that can be cut for the vase. It is suited for pots as well as in garden borders.
Carnation “SuperTrouper” has large, double flowers and Alyssum “Stream” has spreading growth making it suitable for hanging baskets, containers and as a garden groundcover. It has a long flowering season, being cold and heat tolerant.
Plant flowering shrubs that add structure to the garden, and need very little attention yet provide nectar, pollen, shelter and shade for a wide variety of garden wild life. Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) flowers beautifully in autumn, with an abundance of orange or yellow flowers that sunbirds love. Water winter annuals at least once a week and give them a weekly feed with Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger, or once a month application of granular Vigorosa to keep them flowering. Don’t let camellias and azaleas dry out or their spring flowers will be affected. Plant pockets of winter annuals throughout the garden or in containers. Sun lovers include, calendula, pansies, snapdragons and violas. For shade or semi-shade there is nothing more beautiful and a mass of fairy primula, available in soft lilac or white. Divide large clumps of perennials, agapanthus, day lilies, irises, and Shasta daisies. It is an easy and affordable way of making a few plants go a long way, and you can share the excess with friends.
Oriental vegetables like Tatsoi, Mizuna and Giant Red Mustard are ideal winter vegetables that have a delicate mustard flavour and are delicious in salads, can be added to a stir fry (at the end) or into soups and stews.
There is still time to sow from seed or buy a Simply Salad readyto-eat planted up mix of Asian greens or a Kale Storm mix.
Like other Brassicas, they should be planted in rich, composted soil and watered and fed regularly. The leaves can be picked individually from the outside in. New leaves will continue to sprout.
Pot up some of your favourite perennial herbs for over wintering in a sunny sheltered area. Simply Herbs thyme and flat leaf parsley as well as oregano and rosemary are ideal herbs for winter comfort food and soothing health drinks. Feed herbs once a month with Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger for healthy leaves and non-stop productivity.
Did you know that our biggest ally when it comes to pest control is the praying mantis (mantid)? They prey on other insects, mainly invertebrates like aphids and conifer aphids. To build up a thriving population use pesticides that only contain canola oil (for smothering) and garlic (for repelling) such as Margaret Roberts Organic Insecticide as this will not affect them. Before spraying for conifer aphid, pull the branches away from the main stem and check for the praying mantis. They might be doing your work for you.