Selwyn_Times: October 05, 2022

Selwyn Times Wednesday October 5 2022
38
GARDENING
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Get seedlings started now under cover
IN WARMER districts, where no
more frosts are expected, runner
and butter beans can be sown. In
most gardens, it is better to delay
growing these tender vegetables
outdoors and to get seed started
under cover. This is also true of
sweet corn and outdoor tomatoes.
From the time they germinate,
runner beans, such as Scarlet
Runner, take 90 days to mature,
while dwarf or butter beans will
produce crops in 60 days. The
latter are generally recommended
for smaller gardens, but a few
runner beans can be grown
anywhere they can climb.
If sowing them in their
permanent position, put runner
bean seeds about 5cm apart
around a bean teepee or against
the netting or trellis they are to
climb.
Pinching out the tips to make
bushier plants is a waste of
effort, as it reduces the crop. Like
climbing types, butter bean seeds
should be set 5cm apart, with
60cm between rows.
Plant out cabbages, cauliflower,
lettuces, parsley and silverbeet,
and check that autumn-sown
broad beans have adequate
support.
Sow spinach and orach where
they are to mature. Orach, or
red mountain spinach, is a lowgrowing,
purple-leaved vegetable
cooked like spinach.
Sow white turnips, spring
onions and quick-maturing mini
beetroot, such as Bonny Baby.
Small beetroot plants can be
transplanted to fill gaps.
Main-crop beetroot can be
sown next month.
Turnips and beetroot should
not be grown in soil where traces
of animal manure remain, as this
causes the roots to fork. Maincrop
potatoes Rua, Moonlight,
Red Rascal (the improved form
of Desiree), Red King, Heather,
Iwa and Agria, for example, can
be planted now in areas that
experience hot summers. In
cooler districts, wait until next
month.
Flowers
Many spring-flowering shrubs
are pruned as soon as they have
finished blooming. This is so the
plants can make new growth over
summer and autumn, as it is on
this new wood that they flower
next season.
Clematis (right), which has its
peak flowering next month, is
often left to grow unchecked but
most types can be pruned hard
after flowering. Cut C. montana
to 1m above ground, leaving only
a main stem with two to four
buds to develop.
Rhododendrons and azaleas
can still be planted. They are
shallow-rooted, with fibrous roots
close to the surface, making them
easy to transplant. Set the shrubs
with the highest roots just 2cm to
3cm below the soil surface.
Adequate moisture is vital to
this group, so mulch around the
roots with rotted autumn leaves,
pine needles or old sawdust from
wood that is not tanalised. Being
woodland plants, rhododendrons
and azaleas need an acid soil, so
never apply lime.
Azaleas come in two types –
evergreen and deciduous – and
the latter have colourful autumn
foliage in orange or red. Winter
roses (Helleborus) can be divided
this month. They do better
in semishade rather than full
shade, and can be boosted with
leaf mould or well-rotted cow
manure.
Lawns can be planted or
renewed now. Rake any bare
patches to give a slightly rough
surface, then scatter with a lawn
grass mix – usually chewings
fescue and browntop seed in a
2:1 ratio – then cover with fine
soil and press down lightly. Water
HELPING HAND:
In early spring
it’s best to get
seeds, such as
beans, started
under cover.
Below: Prune
spring-flowering
shrubs as
soon as they
have finished
blooming.
PHOTOS: ODT
if the soil is dry, then cover with
netting to stop birds eating the
seed.
Fruit
Grafting of apples, pears and
other fruit trees is usually done
this month. This is an important
way of saving heritage fruit trees,
and courses on how to graft trees
are run each season by specialinterest
groups.
Raspberries put in over winter
should be cut back to 30cm
above the ground to encourage
new stems (canes) to grow over
summer for a better crop next
year.
This treatment is also
recommended for blackberries,
tayberries, boysenberries,
loganberries and marionberries.
New blackcurrant bushes
should be pruned to about 25cm
above the ground, but red and
white currants need only to have
last season’s growth trimmed
by about half. This growth is
identified by its lighter bark.
Gooseberries are pruned in the
same way as red currants.
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