Garden Tips October/November

 In Landscaping Tips, News

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