To avoid weeds taking over a garden spring is the time to weed weed, weed before they set and multiply. Photo supplied.
With warmer weather, combined with rain, growth is taking off in the garden.
By Katrina Christison (Tidy Gardens)
This includes your weeds. So these little beggars don’t take over your gardens, it is best to weed, weed, weed and remove them before they set seed and multiply. As the saying goes, one year’s seeding makes seven years’ weeding.
Now is the perfect time to give your garden a feed, a handful of fertiliser/sheep pellets around each plant and if you want to give them an extra treat for the growing season ahead, you could also give them a foliar feed. If you haven’t done already, another job in the garden is to mulch after you weed.
I like to put cardboard or newspaper under my mulch as I go, this helps supress weed growth and also helps keep moisture in the soil over summer.
If you have any perennials in your garden that have outgrown their space, produced fewer flowers last year or have a dead patch in the middle, now is a great time to divide them. Dividing your plants not only provides more space for the roots to grow and absorb nutrients and water, it is the perfect way to get free plants. With any good garden design, a garden should have unity and rhythm and if you have the room, you could drift your newly divided plants though your garden.
Veggie garden
Warmer weather means our soil is warming up so now is a perfect time to start getting some of your summer crops in the ground and sowing seeds. Things to plant are beans, beetroot, broccoli (although when the white butterfly starts visiting they can annihilate brassica’s), carrot, chicory, celery, lettuces, leeks, onions, peas and potatoes. Sometimes the seedlings available at the garden centre are not the perfect ones to plant at this time of year so it pays to do a bit of research first. The reason being, with the hot summer predicted, the heat can make some heat-sensitive plants such as some lettuce, kale, arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and other leafy greens, bolt and set seed.
Before planting your seedlings, mix up a bucket of liquid fertiliser and submerge the punnets until no more air bubbles rise this will give the tiny roots of your seedlings a boost and they will be less likely to go into shock after being split from the pack. Pop a couple of sheep pellets or a sprinkle of fertiliser in each hole to give them the best start.
For no-spray protection against white butterfly, use veggie mesh bags and a bit of bendy wire. Using two bits of wire, create a V-shape over the plant, place the bag over and use two little bits of wire as pins and pin it down.
Design
With this warmer weather, it makes you want to pop to the garden centre for new plants or if you are just buying your veggie seedlings, some little gem catches your eye. The best way to stop these impulse buys for your ornamental garden is to have a plan. You don’t have to spend money on a landscape plan, you can work out lots by yourself.
On a nice day, go and sit in your garden with a note pad and analyse your outdoor space. This space should be an extension of your indoor living, somewhere to enjoy reading a book on a lazy Sunday afternoon. How do you want to feel when you are outside? Do you want different areas for different functions? Somewhere to entertain guests, cook a barbecue, or let kids or dogs run and play? Is your washing line in the best spot? Would you like to screen something from view, like another house? Is there a view that you would like to enhance? Would you like to hide your wheelie bin? Where are the all-day sunny spots? What areas get morning or afternoon sun only, are there any areas that don’t get any sun at all?
Think about the sort of garden styles you have seen that you like, formal/cottage romantic/New Zealand native/tropical/edible/Japanese/eco-friendly. What sort of plants you like? Do you like scented plants, what colours do you like?
When you have answers to some of these questions, you will be less likely to impulse buy at the garden centre and hone in on plants that will suit your style.
Next, do a bird’s eye view plan of your section. It is best to do it to scale if you are going to add any hardscaping such as pergolas, paths etc. Divide the space into different spaces such as entertaining/relaxing/growing veggies/washing line/compost, always taking into consideration the sun’s path, which way the wind comes from etc.
If you are thinking about new paths, decks or pergolas, it is important to think about materials that you already have on your property. You want to mimic them, so you have unity and with these materials, it gives an overall more balanced design if they link in some way, even if it’s in colour. If you want them to be a focal point and stand out on their own, then it’s okay to go with something different.
A really good place to start is make a mood board, either by cutting out pictures or using Pinterest, which is a really cool place to find inspiration.
