What to do in the garden this week
Boost your herb garden
Perennial herbs can get leggy and tatty looking after a couple of years. Luckily it’s easy to take cuttings and propagate replacements of many of the herbs we use regularly. Mint, rosemary and thyme are some of the easiest perennial herbs to propagate for fresh new plants.
■ Mint is a prolific spreader so taking cuttings is a breeze. Simply snip off sprigs from the parent plant and place in a glass of water. After a few weeks the stems will have formed roots and can then be planted out in the garden. Mint plants can also be divided. Give the plant a thorough soaking with water, dig up and with a sharp knife or spade (depending on how large the root mass is), cut into three or four sections. Trim back any excess growth and replant immediately.
■ Rosemary takes a few more steps, but is well worth the effort. Rosemary propagates best from cuttings. Using a knife or secateurs, cut off 10cm lengths of healthy shoots. Remove the lower leaves and cut the stem off cleanly below a leaf node. If you wish, dip the ends into a rooting hormone gel or powder to improve the success rate. Poke stems into seed trays of potting mix and mist with water. Depending on conditions, the formation of roots can take anywhere up to eight weeks.
■ Thyme is very slow to grow from seed, so take cuttings instead. Also, some thymes do not always come true from seed. Taking cuttings, dividing large clumps (at least two years old) of creeping thyme or layering produces clones of the parent plants. Take softwood cuttings (5-8cm in length) from new growth in spring, strip off leaves and plant in pots of standard seed-raising mix. To propagate by layering, peg longer stems from mature plants into loose soil. Roots will often form at leaf nodes and the stem can then be cut from the parent and planted separately. To propagate creeping thymes by division, cut off stems with aerial roots and place them in pots. For upright thymes, dig up a mature clump in spring, remove some of the top growth and use a sharp knife to cut the root ball into pieces. Mint needs moist soil to grow well but thyme and rosemary both prefer freedraining soil to sink their roots into.
End of season report card
Now that winter’s almost upon us, take some time to review your vege patch over the past year. How has it performed?
■ Were your garden beds big enough to grow all that you wanted?
■ Are they located in a good position?
■ Did you try a new crop that performed particularly well (or didn’t)?
■ How did your irrigation or water supply hold up over the dry summer? ■ Were you able to make enough compost?
■ Did you have all the right tools for the job?
■ These are just some of the many questions that, if asked now, can really help with your planning and maintenance schedule in the lead up to spring and summer. Make plans now and set about making improvements and adjustments before the busyness of the new growing season arrives.
While you’re at it, sharpen all your tools, get your lawnmower and shredder serviced and have a good tidy up of your garden shed and potting area.
Prepare a patch for shallots
These sweet little onion relatives are easy to grow and relatively fuss-free. Shallots multiply – just like garlic – around the parent clove, forming up to eight bulblets.
To plant, prepare a bed that receives full sun with rich, loose soil. Plant cloves with their tips protruding slightly above the surface of the soil. Space at least 15cm apart to allow room to grow.
Give plants an occasional watering, mound up soil around them as they grow and keep their bed as weed-free as possible.
Depending on where you live, shallots planted now can be harvested by early spring. You can also wait until spring for planting – this is preferable for cold regions – and will result in a mid- to late summer harvest.
Shallots are ready to lift when the leaves have yellowed and begun to die back. To harvest, dig the bulbs out carefully (don’t yank out of the ground), and leave them to dry for up to a week, then separate bulbs and store in a cool dry place. Keep the best bulbs for replanting next year.
Sow a bowl of microgreens
As temperatures drop, so too does the growth-rate of salad greens, but that only means waiting an extra week and shifting your container to a warmer spot (or under cover).
Microgreens to grow now include mizuna, pak choi, mustard, ‘Rainbow Lights’ beets, rocket, kale and peas. My favourite microgreens this time of year are ‘Tasty Tendrils’ peas, which form loads of curling tendrils with the same delicious taste as regular peas. The best thing about them though is that if you don’t snip them off too low, you’ll be able to harvest several times. Order microgreen seed packs and starter kits from Kings Seeds.
Spring flower survival guide
Anemones and ranunculus are some of my favourite spring flowers, but they were the bulbs I found most difficult to grow. To be clear, I’m not talking about Japanese anemones, which flower in autumn. They are beautiful too but have thuggish tendencies – forming large clumps that elbow out neighbouring plants and are difficult to remove as every root fragment sprouts.
I mean spring-flowering anemones grown from corms that look like withered, dried-up animal droppings. I used to plant corms every year – but usually only about half survived to flowering and sometimes none. But my success rate improved once I started chilling and pre-sprouting the corms. The same technique works for claw-like ranunculus tubers.
When purchased, the corms and tubers are completely dormant – hard, dry and dead looking. They need ‘‘waking’’ up before they’ll germinate and flower reliably.
Break the dormancy by packing in some damp sawdust or potting mix and chill in the fridge for up to six weeks until shoots and roots start to grow.
Choose a planting site that gets at least 4–5 hours of winter sun each day, and very importantly, has a free-draining loamy soil with slightly acid pH. Heavy clay soils may need gypsum or pumice mixed in to help improve the aeration and drainage.
Plant to a depth of 50mm and about 80mm apart in clumps. A slow-release general purpose garden fertiliser (not too high in nitrogen) or a specific bulb fertiliser lightly mixed in at the soil surface will benefit their growth.