The Star: March 14, 2019

news online at www.star.kiwi
The Star Thursday March 14 2019
GARDENING 29
Harvest the last of your summer crops
AUTUMN IS a great time to
tackle jobs in the garden that
the heavy summer heat doesn’t
permit, like getting your lawn
back into shape.
Plus it’s an ideal time to sow
winter crops if you haven’t
already.
Here are five tasks to get you
started.
1 The beauty of growing fruit
trees at home means harvesting
fruit when they are at their best.
Tree ripening enhances flavour
and results in juicy, delicious
fruit picked right at their peak.
The last of summer fruit crops
like peaches, nectarines, grapes
and passion fruit come to an
end. Use bird netting to ensure
our feathered friends don’t steal
the last of the harvest.
2 Harvest remaining summer
crops as they come to an end and
start sowing and planting winter
veges. This is especially important
in cooler areas of the South
Island. The reason we do this a
little earlier than other regions
is so plant roots have time to
establish before temperatures
drop and growth slows. Winter
crops include beetroot, broccoli,
carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, silver
beet, spinach and those great
South Island root crops; swedes
and turnips.
WE ALL know garlic wards off
vampires, but did you know it also
keeps away aphids, apple scab, leaf-curl
and mosquitoes?
Crush a few cloves, soak in a litre
of water for a couple of days and use
as a spray to keep at bay ants, spiders,
caterpillars and cabbage and tomato
worms too.
And, did you also know, it’s said to
provide many health benefits I’m not
qualified to list?
To put it simply, garlic’s right up there
with marigolds as the companion plant
every garden should have.
And this month, specifically the
shortest day of the year – 21 June, is the
time to plant it.
VIVID: It’s time to remove old sunflowers and cornflowers and prepared beds for winter
flowering displays. Autumn is the ideal time to repair or sow lawns.
3 It is important to ensure
plants enter their dormant season
in the best health. Give them
a final application of fertiliser
so they’re in good condition
to withstand cooler and wetter
winter months and are ready
Look for a well-drained spot – pots,
hanging baskets or any available space
in your raised garden will suit.
If you’re growing it for its guardian
capabilities, plant it next to your roses
to ward off aphids, beneath apple and
peach trees to prevent apple scab and
leaf-curl, and next to your tomatoes to
protect against red spider.
Dig in some compost, and nitrophoska
blue fertiliser or use a potting mix if
you’re planting in baskets or pots.
Plant single cloves twice the depth of
the actual clove, compost over the top
and don’t fill in with soil.
Then harvest on the longest day of
the year – 21 December. It’s as easy as
that.
for growth in spring. In cooler
regions apply fertiliser to fruit
trees, ornamental plants, shrubs
and roses up until the end of
March.
4 Summer flowering annuals
are coming to the end of
their growing season. It’s time
to remove old plants and prepare
beds for winter flowering
displays. Prepare soil by adding
in plenty of compost and mix in
well with existing soil to a spade
depth. Some favourite winter
Garlic – the ideal companion plant
annuals to grow are; alyssum,
calendulas, cinerarias, cornflowers,
larkspur, pansies, poppies,
primulars, stock, sweet william
and violas. Grow them in the
garden or containers to brighten
up the winter months. If planting
in containers, toss out old potting
mix. Old mix will be lacking
nutrients and over time can break
down and cause poor drainage.
5 Late March is an excellent
time for lawn renovation or
the laying of new lawn as
this coincides with the cooler
temperatures and more consistent
rainfall. Use a lawn patch for
tiding up smaller areas. Lawn
fertiliser can now be safely applied
in cooler regions where there is
reasonable rainfall. If there is a
dry spell, water regularly to ensure
the fertilisers are washed into the
lawn.
relocATion
sAle now on
Allwood Trees is relocATing
To A new siTe lATer in 2019!
We don’t want to move thousands of trees so we are having a relocation
sale during the month of March to reduce stock numbers.
UP To
80 % oFF!
lArge grAde
Trees, sMAll
growing
Trees
& sHrUBs
View our sale catalogue online now:
www.allwood.co.nz/sale
366 Halswell Junction Road, Halswell
T: 03 349 9240 | E: info@allwood.co.nz
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