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Friday 8th February, 2019


Soooo.....Lets Plant more trees!'

Hi


To those who sent emails and others that perhaps didn't, my apologies to you if you read into my last weeks blog/email that I was making an opinion re climate change. To put the record straight this was in no way the case, but rather a personal anecdote, that its been hot working outside of late and it is every summer in our nursery... (all those years of creating shelter and laying black weed cloth) and hopefully, a helpful piece of good watering advice which was, after all, the intent!!! 
All the years I have enjoyed working in the horticultural industry (mostly in the area of amenity) I have really only dabbled in growing vegetableswhich was mostly the domain of my father when I was still in my youth. So I am no expert in this field, other than my skills in other areas of plants and what I gained when working in chain store garden centre retail. What I do know is that good amounts of compost, a small amount of general fert and an abundance of water means you can grow way more than what you can deal with.
This year I have really given growing food for the table a good crack and found that I have produced, from a relatively small space, enough to feed six families LOL ... perhaps I exaggerate a tad but honestly I can only deal with one lettuce at a time and of course 6 are ready at once.  I have realised that I need to keep planting small numbers every couple of weeks.  Then there are those zucchini that literally grow before your very eyes and one day they are too small and the next well they're nearly a marrow.
I have to boast about my beans too, I planted a couple of rows of dwarf ones and a decent amount of runners and now have beans for Africa.  Hopefully I have a second round coming on now and the egg plants and peppers are just coming into their own.

                    
20 Ounce apple    Ariane apple        Fayette peach       Glohaven peach   Conference pear

My home orchard out the back is only on its second year and there is quite an impressive amount of fruit happening there, like  plums and peaches but had one small problem in that I'm not the only one that likes fresh fruit from the tree but rather so does a furry pest that comes out at night. The other night I picked what peaches were there on principle as I had grown them for me! LOL I have since be prompted to investigate our furry friends favourite taste and aniseed bait is now on its way.

I had to bottle the peaches so as to make good use of them. Luckily I had invited Mum for dinner and not only did she help cut the peaches off the stone after I had peeled them but supervised me into the correct amount of cooking. She did ask if I had greased the bands before using them and had to say no but it will be OK! I had to own up to the fact that they were damn hard to get off so next time they will be greased with a bit of butter as per the old girls advice.
If you need a guide to bottle stone fruits and the like then follow this link.... I don't like to use so much sugar and the peaches were reasonably ripe and sweet ...so think that I used 4 cups of sugar to ten cups of water and perhaps could even have used less sugar??

While Mum (Joy, better than old girl) was sitting there waiting for dinner, she spied Rowan Bishops book (which was sitting under the coffee table) called With Relish. Joy was browsing looking at all the relish and sauce recipes and it reminded me to look through to see what I could do with surplus zucchini and cucumber and there are a couple of recipes there that I am going to try.  Its a great book and if you are keen to preserve some of your home grown produce see if you can get a copy, it is well worth it.

Zucchini relish, as I have more every day to use, and Pickled Wasabi Cucumber because when you plant 10 plants you suddenly have quite a few cucumber and there is only so many Greek style salads that one needs.

I decided that you get to an age where you really don't need desserts and a whole lot of bottled fruit in the cupboards like Mum and Dad had, though for them it was cheap puddings for the kids in the day.  I should make more chutneys and sauces to go in meat dishes or to serve on the side with different types of meats cheeses and the like. Nothing wrong with a good relish and sausages and main stream vege for dinner.

Whilst on the subject of home orchards and fruit trees, we need to clear some of this current seasons stock and so have them discounted and imagine that more will be discounted next month when the rains come again. Now is also the time to perhaps order and reserve fruit trees that we don't currently have in stock for this coming July.  The same goes for roses.

The Sales page
                
Cherry Dawson   Cherry Lapins      Cherry Sam     Plum Duffs Early Jewel  Plum Greengage
Roses Roses Roses 20% off and this includes every rose still in stock ... bushes,  climbers, and all standards including weepers and pillars. We have been spraying, watering and deadheading so they all look pretty good considering the heat. There is an amazing range of standard roses still left so if you have a hankering to get some of these in then now is definitely the time to get them at a reduced price.  

Cherries 30% off all remaining stock, both ornamental and fruiting. I'm wanting the space for re blocking of the other trees and to make way for the new seasons cherries, both ornamental and fruiting varieties, so if you are planning a cherry blossom avenue or an orchard then come with a trailer and check these out.
Peach trees 30% of all remaining stock...  there is nothing like the taste of picking and eating a peach fresh from the tree. I have just bottled a great crop of peaches that I beat the possum too. I picked them a tad early to ensure that pesky possum couldn't pinch my crop.

Plums 30% off all remaining stock time for them to go. Plums are so easy to grow and remember they look gorgeous in bloom and will fruit in abundance. Check our pollination guide for suitable partners.

Pears 30% off all single graft varieties. Check out our pollination guide on the how to section to see what works together. 
Euoynmus hedging $9.99  or buy 10 or more for $9.00 each and there are bulk buy options on the $14.99 grade as well. Euonymus is a very good buxus replacement option if you are looking for a small evergreen hedge that looks great clipped.
White flower ground covers 

An oldie but a goody, Gardenia Radicans is a fav of mine... fabulous dark green leaves and those stunning white flowers with the most gorgeous heavy scented fragrance. I reckon this plant could be used as a border plant, without the need for trimming, as it only grows around 30 to 40 cm high and wide but I have seen it mass planted as a low growing ground cover... this puppy will grow in full sun to dappled light, needs good free draining soil, will benefit from organic matter as in sheep pellets, bioboost and the like and feed with Camellia and rhododendron ferts as it is an acid soil lover.

Pachysandra terminalis or Green Sheen, and sorry but I don't know of any common names, is fab for those shady dapple light gardens. This one spreads through the soil with its attractive green leaves that are held about 10 to 15 cm high like a carpet... white flowers are borne in terminal clusters.

Stachys Nivalis - related to lambs ear, is another one for the sun... very dense small attractive leaves slowly grows to form a weed proof ground cover.. classic lambs ear white flowers look smart held above the green mat habit.

Sarcococca Humilis Sweet Box. Attractive, low growing, evergreen shrub with dark green glossy foliage. In late winter tiny white flowers appear and emit a sweet honey fragrance. The flowers are often followed by black berries. Loves the shade and rich soil. Spreads by underground stems and forms a clump.
Tracheloseprmum jasminoides is a well known climber but also makes a superb groundcover. Leathery glossy green leaves and fragrant, star shaped, white flowers give it it's common name of Star Jasmine. 
                
Gardenia             Pachysandra        Stachys               Sarcocca               Trachelospermum

Keep up what water you can.

If you can mange to keep water on your lawn do so as with this intense sun and heat, the top 10 cm or more of the soil may well have now dried out so that your lawn will surely be browning off as ours have. I have found that in the past by keeping some water on, even though the lawn is brown, will hopefully keep the grass alive enough until the rain comes or the autumn cooler temps and increased rainfall.
I have always had this theory that plants seem to mostly cope with summer dry and go into a summer like dormancy but of course with all living things dependent on water, it may just all become to much... Even plants that have been planted in the winter and long before this summer may not have enough developed roots to withstand this now longish period without rain. I have such plantings and some of these are showing signs of water stress in that they are wilting. My answer to some of this is to have since grabbed some soak hoses that snake around these plantings to give them much needed emergency watering and again tide them over to the Autumn.

Get Mulch onto plantings like shredded bark and the like... I find that good layers of mulch help by preventing some loss of moisture from evaporation by the sun. The other huge benefit is that when you do water, the mulch actually absorbs the water and you don't get that run off effect from soil...even compost incorporated into plantings will help the absorption of water through the layers.
Sometime excessively dry soils are really hard to wet once they lose all moisture and peat soil types spring to mind... I would work with compost and mulch first hand but in a more desperate situation you could try a wetting agent but this is something that I never have actually done but will help moisture flow through.

                
Eye Candy            Grace                   Vintage Candy     Lichfield Angel    Wild Cherry    

Dinner for eight is on again tonight. Each have chosen their choice of meat or dessert and are to make a tapa size/type meal and serve with an appropriate wine...such a great idea.. its chicken for us and after a cruise through many a Dish magazines have settled on a ....  well, have you guessed..... Zucchini.... tacos and spiced mustard chicken... well we'll give it a go and then report back!

Enjoy this summer weather and harvest season as we can all eat stunning fresh fruits and veges... I'm guessing that I need to start planning and getting into the garden some veges and flowers for winter harvest as well as a few more quick crops that like the summer heat.

If you are beaching, hiking, riding, boating, or at home in the garden, whatever it is that you are doing 

Have an awesome weekend 
cheers 
Lloyd, Harry and the Wairere Team

Archived by year 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |

2019 Newsletters...

Heatwave or just summer (2nd February, 2019)

..... Harvest time, fruits and veges

Valentines 2019 (15th February, 2019)

Peonies (22nd February, 2019)

Autumn is official (1st March, 2019)

Get harvesting pears (8th March, 2019)

Natures planting time (15th March, 2019)

Peonies Just Arrived (22nd March, 2019)

Azaleas (29th March, 2019)

Aza Ley aa (5th April, 2019)

Broad Beans Peas and Garlic (12th April, 2019)

Easter Brief (18th April, 2019)

Roses abound (26th April, 2019)

Autumn flourish (3rd May, 2019)

Growing spectrum 1 (10th May, 2019)

Proteaceae (17th May, 2019)

Icing sugar bush (24th May, 2019)

Queens birthday (31st May, 2019)

Cathie's turn (7th June, 2019)

Blooming good (14th June, 2019)

Somerfield (21st June, 2019)

Tutti fruity 2 (28th June, 2019)

Power Outage (16th July, 2019)

AWOL (19th July, 2019)

Winter flowering (26th July, 2019)

Quick date pud (2nd August, 2019)

Team update (9th August, 2019)

Bees are humming (15th August, 2019)

History never repeats (23rd August, 2019)

Podocarpus nivalis (30th August, 2019)

Trade day (6th September, 2019)

Pretties and Fluffies (13th September, 2019)

Oranges and Lemons (20th September, 2019)

Lots to ramble about (27th September, 2019)

Fancy clematis (5th October, 2019)

Wet Friday (11th October, 2019)

Pitto Wrinkle Blue (18th October, 2019)

Rhubarb (25th October, 2019)

Baby Bunnies (1st November, 2019)

Fruitier than usual (8th November, 2019)

Chilli (15th November, 2019)

Picea or Pinus ? (22nd November, 2019)

pressies (29th November, 2019)

Pink or Blue (6th December, 2019)

The real Black Friday (12th December, 2019)

merry Xmas (20th December, 2019)




Wairere Nursery
826 Gordonton Road, R D 1, Hamilton 3281 Ph: (07) 824 3430 Email: