Tuesday 25th August, 2015
Hi
A gardeners work is never done...
I just love being in the garden when its spring and the weather is like it has been the last couple of days. Beautiful clear warm days, with the sun shining and the ground is lovely and moist.
I have been in the nursery display garden that needed to be brought up to scratch and I have trimmed hedges that should have been done sometime over the winter. Hedges are really easy to maintain provided that you keep up with them by trimming them, twice a year, after each growth flush. I didn't want ours to putting out spring growth on last autumns growth.
I have pruned the pear in the potager garden into a fancy box triangle shape that Anthony showed me from some classic garden book and started on the roses. Today I will complete the roses and then feed them. Apparently its meant to rain over the weekend and that will wash the feed in pronto like. In fact if its that wet I will see if Harry will get out there and feed the lawn as well.
Then I will need to get onto the apple trees and quickly get them pruned. Yip, all those jobs that I have been saying for the past couple of weeks in my email, I'm just onto them now and all just in a nick of time.
If you are in gardening mode then don't forget to
slug and snail bait as well. Harry has this theory re the slugs and snails being that you need to get out there and just bait your entire garden now and keep doing it for a couple of weeks and this will reduce your overall slug and snail populations.
Don't forget to bait all those areas where they rest during the day. Why bait now? Well... as all your
Liriopes,
Mondo and
Hostas push through new sets of leaves for the year the slugs will be in and eat or rasp holes in them as they unfurl and one bite hole will affect all the leaves. Once the leaves have hardened off they are not so keen on them, well maybe just the hosta leaves.
I have even managed to weed the vege garden as there is still daylight when I get home from work. Confession time, you know, in all the years that I have been a nurseryman I haven't really grown veges a lot. LOL... I even had to Google the other night how deep to plant shallots. We have spring cleaned out the tunnel house as I plan to grow some seed as well because I like all those different accompaniments like fennel and chillies not to mention peppers and aubergines as I think they look attractive in the garden as well as being great to eat.
Delphiniums.... OMG we had to get some more of these queen of the perennials as they emptied out very quickly so if you want to get some, be in quick so that you don't miss out. Don't forget the
slug and snail bait as slugs adore delphy leaves more than anything in the garden.
Hellebore Snow love... a brand new form and looks like it has Corsicus in its parentage. Lovely white flowers on top of attractive green foliage.
Primulas... These are such great value and flower for ages esp if you keep removing the spent flowers,
excellent late winter colour. Move to a cool area for the summer and you will keep them going for ages
Bougainvilleas. Perfect for that tropical look in your garden.
Cercis... known also as The Judas Tree. This is just starting to bloom now with it's pea shaped flowers which will cloak the branches and trunk of this tree giving a stunning display of colour.
Buddha hands Now... try saying this latin name (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis) These are just so intriguing, they never cease to fascinate me with their so hand like shape. Apparently they were used in temples and rooms to give off a delightful fragrance. Imagine a bowlful of fruit in your house.
Myosotidiums or Chatham Island Forget me not. Awesome huge leaves and those really blue or true blue flowers. Naturally grow on the cliff faces of the Chatham Islands. In the Waikato grow them in a well lit position as they are not shade plants but protect from the afternoon sun as the big leaves aren't keen on our humidity.
Strawberries 2 varieties just in. If you missed our winter bare root plants then get these ones that have been started for you, there is nothing like a feed of sweet home grown strawbs for Christmas.
Blueberry Blast, the latest offering in Blueberries, self fertile and large sized fruit. Plant an edible garden hedge of these and pick delicious healthy blueberries.
Pieris looking mighty fine......
Juniperus - we have a few new options available in our small conifer range. These look wonderful in containers or rockeries.
Baronia for fragrance, we have both the highly fragrant brown and yellow flowering varieties
There is a lot of blossom opening in the nursery now especially the
Prunus, both ornamental and fruiting, starting to put on a lovely show. If you have been good in your gardens and gotten everything up to date (yeah right) then come on out and take a look around the nursery and gardens. You can have a look to see how a pear looks pruned into a box shape.
Last time we were forecast a wet weekend it ended up being just stunning, fingers crossed that this going to happen again. Us nursery people would be happy if it rained in the night only LOL but that is never going to happen. We are so lucky here in the Waikato to have such a great climate so that we all can have stunning gardens.
Last chance to get all those chore done before spring really kicks in so have a great weekend in the garden
Cheers
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team
Make it a Wairere weekend w
here even
GNOMES know that gardening's not a drag
