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GARDEN CARE FOR JULY From Living Earth This month includes Bastille Day, so we have sprinkled a little bit of France through our gardens… The Potager (Edible Gardening) Lettuce for the cold: Salads are possible when you have as mild a winter as this. But stick to the hardier ones – especially with the fancy names: Merveille des Quatre Saisons (French of course), Drunken Woman (who knows?), Arugula – that’s just rocket by another name. Rocket, particularly wild type, grows well in most winter vegetable gardens over this time. Potato prep: Dig over an area that will get reasonable sun, and is likely to be free of frost from September. Add Living Earth organic Compost and you’ve got the bed ready for sprouted tubers. Varieties appear from late July in the garden centres. Fruit tree pruning (deciduous tree): General rules say that creating a vase shape is best, cleaning out dead wood and any centre or crossing branches. For individual fruit varieties, your local garden centre is really knowledgeable on what to do. If you fancy a design element in your garden (very French) take a look at these shapes. Frosty parts: On cold still nights, cover your tamarillo, young bananas, avocado and cherimoya trees, naranjillas, apwpaws and all those other tropical fruits you were tempted by last summer (even newspaper makes an excellent frost cover). Blueberry bushes: End of this month is a great time to prune and shape, then apply some compost around the base.
The rest of the garden Bastille Day evokes old fashioned roses from France: Many of them are strong, easy care types – the classic big rambler, Alberic Barbier, grows well with minimum care; Crepuscule is so named because the delicious apricot blooms open at dusk – perfect for growing on brick walls; Souvenir de Mme Leonie Viennot is an early flowering rambler of coral pink hue; Souvenir de St Anne’s is a small bush with the most highly scented blooms. Lawns: Mow only when the lawn is dryish, with the blade set high – this avoids damage to the grass; spray Yates Surrender over the mossy parts. Lily Bulbs, order at nzbulbs.co.nz: Lilies are really great value for money and dwarf varieties can be easily grown in pots – plant them now for some fabulous Christmas centrepieces on your table. Rose pruning: Planted some new bushes, with no idea how to prune them? Then head to the Rose Society’s Rose Pruning Demonstration day – Saturday 23rd July at 1.30pm at Parnell Rose Gardens, Gladstone Road, Auckland. And make sure you get your secateurs and other shears, loppers etc. sharpened by a professional. Your local garden centre can do this for you.
