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GARDEN CARE FOR AUGUST From Living Earth The Potager (Edible Gardening) • Sow carrots, spinach, spring onions and beetroot • Get herb gardens ready for spring – prune and shape thyme and rosemary, lift and trim roots of mint and plant coriander and flat-leaf parsley • Sprouted potatoes can be planted now: How to plant Potatoes – Use a balanced potato food or apply plenty of good quality (Living Earth) organic compost to your soil. Dig furrows of around 15-20cm deep and plant the potatoes – tubers upward, about 70cm apart. Fill in with soil just covering the shoots, by gently raking the soil back over them. Do not press down. The idea is to continue ‘hilling up’ the potatoes as they grow, covering the foliage by about 10cm at a time. Early potatoes are generally ready in three to four months’ time; when the foliage begins to yellow. Perfect for Christmas… • Fertilise all edible plants gently (they don’t need much in August) using liquid fertilisers, such as Organic Liquid Compost by Living Earth, or the Yates’ Thrive range • Apply BLACKGOLD Mulch to all fruit trees – this delivers extra compost to the surface root area and inhibits any rapid weed growth during early spring
Other Garden Work • Prune hydrangeas back to double shoots, unless the stem ends in tightly pointed foliage – this is an early spring flower • Use your eyes – look out for new shoots of winter-dormant plants – hostas, lilies, lily of the valley and spring-flowering bulbs – gently part overlapping foliage and remove weeds around them • Lawn care – apply gypsum to lawns that are not draining well; fertilise grass with Turfmaster Gold – all Central Landscapes have this in stock • Planting can be undertaken now, provided your soil is not too wet. Dig some compost through soil that has compacted down over winter and liquid fertilise after planting • Give your garden a bit of ‘framework.’ There are plenty of our native NZ plants that look amazing when trimmed and shaped Great news for Gardeners – the Annual Millwater Gardening Competition is on again in November 2016! theMillwatermag and Central Landscapes Silverdale are delighted to bring this to Millwater residents for the 3rd year in a row! We’ll keep you posted about when to enter.
