Garden Tips October/November

If you have a raised planter box for your edible garden you will notice this is ahead of the vegetables in the ground.  This is all due to raised soil temperatures, another advantage with a raised garden.  Here’s to a bountiful garden this season.

General Garden Tips

• Cover new potatoes from any late frosts – e.g. using pea straw or frost cloth
• Use slug pellets for vegetable garden and around hostas
• Spray black spot and fungal diseases in fruit trees and roses
• If you don’t like chemical spray use plant the following fruit trees that don’t require sprays: Blackboy Peach, Cherry, Apricot and Old World Apple trees like Peasgood nonsuch.  (These require very little attention.)

Edible Garden

• Plant new strawberries – cover with wire mesh /bird netting to prevent birds having a feed – Fertilise
• Seed grown vegetables can be sown in October (When soil temperature warms up)- this is by far the most economical option for growing vegetables e.g. beans, lettuce, spinach, leeks, corn and carrots.
• Lettuce plants – sow/plant every 4 – 6 weeks using a selection of lettuce varieties to add colour to the salad bowl
• Plant new seasons tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes outside after Labour weekend  – Protect from any late frosts
• Harvest asparagus, feed regularly (every 3 weeks with plant food e.g. Nitrophoska), protect spears from frosts, check daily.  Asparagus can be eaten cooked or raw – makes a nice crunch in a fresh salad
• Sow fresh herbs now for the summer bar-b-ques and salads – just wait for the frosts to finish before planting outside
• Companion planting – Plant garlic and marigolds in between crops– also brightens up the vegetable garden
• Water regularly in dry weather

Trees/shrubs

• Needing design ideas for a revamp?  Contact our Landscape Architect, we can help make your outdoor space suit your needs
• Best time for planting trees and shrubs this should be done before summer hot temperatures.
• Flowering foliage out now looking good for purchase now are Deciduous magnolias, Daphne, flowering cherry trees, Camellia and Rhododendrons
• Viburnum burkwoodii has a lovely scent, is hardy and well worth planting
• Late November latest time for planting out shrubs and new trees unless on a good watering system.
• Prune buxus hedges, topiary etc at the end of November when growth is mature –  Tip: Do this on a dull day to avoid sunburn

Flowers

• Planting summer annuals – Soak the pack in water before planting. Water immediately after planting, water every 3 – 4 days until well established
• Perennial planting – e.g. lavenders can be planted now…. Try Blue Mountain variety as this is hardy to frosts and flowers longer.
• Stake Delphiniums, Christmas lilies etc

Lawns

• Fertilise lawns (remember to water this in well if there isn’t much spring rain) and spray for flat weeds (Onehunga weed) – Improved Turfix  If only a few plants cut out with sharp knife
• Any bare patches due to grass grubs should be top dressed and re-seeded
• Look at our lawn tips for growing a successful new lawn, just type ‘new lawn’ into the search bar

Roses

• Topdress with Blood and Bone and Rose Fertiliser
• Keep an eye out for aphids– Soapy water over leaves will suppress aphids or squirt with high pressure hose or apply Super Shield
• As temperatures warm up dead head roses and keep roots damp