Filling the garden gaps from winter weeds

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 311, 31 October 1989, Page 10

Filling the garden gaps from winter weeds

by

Bea

Barnes

What a joy it is to see the sunshine again after the weeks of wind and rain. I'm sure our gardens must appreciate it as much as we do.

An hour or two grappling with the weeds which have sprung up in every conceivable place reveals so many empty spaces just crying out to be filled with summer flowering annuals to give that bright display of colour all through the summer months. A delightful thought if you have the unlimited resources to spend on the numbers of plants you will need to

fill all those gaps, but 1 few of us have these days. With a little careful planning however, a ' little can be made to go quite a long way. A small grouping of plants of two contrasting colours can look just as effective as a larger planting in one colour. For example against a background of light green or grey foliage a little grouping of Queen Sophia marigolds with

three or four of the rich blue Crystal Palace Lobelia make a delightful splash of colour and two punnets of plants can be spread to fill three or four spaces. Ageratum, the blue or pink Floss flower, - three or four of each colour intermingled will make a pretty little group and again a dozen plants of each will fill in several spaces. A group of bright petunia with a few bedding begonias in front of them make a good combination. With a little thought to the blending of colour and types of plants you can have a lot of colour in the garden at much less cost. Seed planting Give a thought to planting a few packets of seeds of the easily grown varieties. Candytuft is very easy to grow and a packet of seed sprinkled onto smooth ground, lightly covered with soil and kept watered will provide a patch of pink, lavender, and vhite flowers which at the end of the flowering period will drop a seed to flower again next year. Virginain stock is very easy to grow from seed and the pretty star

like flowers make a dainty show. Where a more dominant planting is required a group of larkspur with flowers rather like a delphinium make a nice showing and the pink or white lavatera will fill quite a large space and give a good display of flowers all summer long.

Herbs

Not be be overlooked are some of the culinary herbs which can be used to fill the borders along with the flowering plants. Last year we planted groups of parsley among the annuals, the rich green of the parsley looked wonderTurnpage 11

Fifling garden gaps

FrompagelO ful beside the nemesia and we had a good supply all summer long: Marjoram and thyme of course are widely used as border plants and summer savoury is also quite attractive. If you haven't a formal vege garden give a little thought to introducing some in the flower garden. A little patch of beetroot will provide good contrasting leaf colour and a planting of the little finger carrots in a sunny border will provide dainty fernlike foliage as well as carrots. The crinkled dark green foliage of silver beet makes a lovely backdrop to a border of summer flowers and summer lettuce will grow just as happily among the flowers in the shadier spots giving an added dimension to the flower garden. I remember as a child a lot of the country cottage gardens in England had salad and vege plants growing very

happily among the flowers all blending together to make a colourful as well as useful garden. Blossums Despite the rough windy weather the flowering trees have been so lovely this year. They seem to have enjoyed the rain if nothing else. I am always sad to see the blossoms fall. Prunus, the flowering cherries and such don't need a lot of pruning, but any tidying up of dead wood or too wayward branches can be dealt with after flowering has finished. I notice on two of my flowering crab apples there are new growths appearing well down the trunk of the tree. As both trees have quite a nice head these unwanted growths are best removed. My flowering almond prunus presica wrightii put up good strong growth from nearer the base of the tree, then there seemed to be no

growth at all on thel main leader until right " at the top there is a little tuft of growth which didn't flower at all. I didn't quite know how to deal with this so I asked Mr Harrison of Harrison's Trees how to prune it. He told me to cut it back to the nearest strong growth and it would put up more growth from the base of the tree. This should be from above the rootstock not below it, anything growing from below the union should be tracked back to source and removed with a sharp knife. That's what the man said so that is what I shall do, keeping my fingers crossed that I do it correctly.