GARDENING IN THE WAIMARINO

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 42, 10 April 1984, Page 12

GARDENING IN THE WAIMARINO

Vegetable Garden As you clear the ground of crops make an effort to keep the weeds out by growing green crops such as mustard, lupin, oats etc. These can be dug in later to improve the humus content. Lawn clippings or hedge clippings can be spread quite thickly, ashes from untreated timber or the garden bonfire are also of great benefit. If you are fortunate eriough to own a rotary hoe use it once a month to turn the ground during the winter otherwise a 3 or 4 tine cultivator does a good and quick job. Your winter standby of parsnips, carrots and swedes just need to be kept tidy but cabbages, caulis and sprouts will benefit from a side dressing of general garden manure each 3 or 4 weeks. Flower Garden Still not too late to plant spring bulbs. Pay attention to the planting depth and give bulbs a dusting with Derris Dust or similar material when planting. It has been a bumper season for dahlias tidy them up then cut them back to ground level after the first frost. They should be lifted if you are in a very frosty or wet position. Hose off all soil, dry them and store in boxes of straw, hay or dry sawdust. It pays to spray them with fungicide or dust with Derris Dust after drying. Roses will be looking a bit ragged now and black spot can be annoying. Trim off all flowering stems, spray then bUrn all fallen leaves and trimmings.

New Sections There is probably nothing more depressing than to see a section covered with weeds often waist high. The most common weeds in this area being various cooch grasses, docks, sorrel, buttercup and blackberry. My garden was predominantly cooch (really bad) and docks to a height of about '/2 metre (18"). As I was clearing about '/$ acre a temporary fence was put up and several sheep were provided by our farmer neighbour. They ate it down in a few days. The cooch grass was so bad that my rotary hoe could not cope at all so I chipped off the top 25mm (1") with a sharp spade and adze doing squares 5x5 metres at a time. A fork was then used to loosen the turf to a depth of about 150mm (6") the rotary hoe then made a good job of cutting up the cooch as well as the soil. The plot was left until the regrowth of cooch grass was from 70 to 100mm high and then it was sprayed with weedkiller resulting in an 80% kill. The rotary hoeing was repeated followed by weedkiller again in about four weeks. We now had a 100% clean garden area which was then limed heavily in winter ready for spring planting. This method of clearing a weedy area was given me by a Department of Agriculture

officer and I would never do it any other way once tried. When inheriting a run down or old established garden it is often most difficultto make the changes to suit yourself. Start by clearing drives, paths, boundary fences and overgrown vege plots with weedkiller. Be cautious about removing shrubs or trees if you have not seen them flower. When buying new trees and shrubs give space to natives and other shrubs which will attract native birds. Next gardening notes will list trees and shrubs attractive to birds and will give consecutive flowering periods.

T.L

. Francis

Raetihi Garden Club