OUT IN THE GARDEN - 19-09-2024

Keep an eye on watering as the weather warms. Avoid casualties with new plantings - remember that when plants first go into the soil their roots haven’t embedded themselves in the surrounding soil to pull in water, and they need regular deep watering.

Use Real Blood & Bone when preparing the soil for spring planting – it’s twice as strong as normal blood & bone as the blood hasn’t been removed to use in other products.

 And when you’re planting vegetables cloches can be very useful to protect from raiding birds (netting cloche) and from frost (plastic covered netting cloche). The cloches are 1m long and come in two widths.

  

Roses are leafing up fast so now is the time to get started on a good spray programme and we have several options incl Mavrik, Spectrum, Fungus Fighter, Super Shield, Groventive – it pays to change sprays from time to time to prevent a resistance building up.  We can talk you through it.

And if you haven’t fed them now is the time to do so, using a high-potash rose food to promote flowering. Tui Supersheep (sheep pellets + Nitrophoska) plus Oceanfert for health is highly recommended.

 

Orchid feeding - I feed once a week during the growing season of October to May and once a month in the winter, and I’ve been using Yates Thrive Orchid Liquid Food with its high potash content for some time to encourage flowering. For other houseplants use Yates Thrive Houseplant Liquid Food.

Citrus will be putting on new growth soon so keep an eye out for aphids and use Mavrik which is totally safe for all edibles.  If you have sooty mould or verrucosis (a distinct ‘veining’ on the skin of the fruit) then a spray with Freeflow Copper will work wonders.

For larger trees that are prone to thrips etc we have Tree Health Bands to wrap around the trunk and soak with insecticide (Groventive is our recommendation) which will be absorbed into the bark and travel up to the affected foliage.

Clay soil has great potential as a fertile loam, it just needs to be broken up and prevented from sticking together again; Claybreaker (Granulated Gypsum) works magic in breaking up heavy clay soils and if you add compost with the Claybreaker you’re well on the way to excellent soil.

 

For feeding we have Novatec, another top-of-the-range controlled-release plant food from Tui using a nitrogen-stabilising technology to give maximum results with a very efficient use of the fertiliser. Great in containers, baskets etc.   

Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic is a great product to use pre-planting for seedlings etc – just soak them in a solution for 20 minutes while they’re still in the punnets. Roses also respond very well to the seaweed tonic at this time of year and it helps them maximise the fertiliser in the soil.

 

Rhubarb is growing well at home now and ready to pick.  ‘Rooster Booster’ is a really good fertiliser for rhubarb which loves animal manures - we use it at home and it’s just been endorsed by a customer who uses it on his rhubarb.  Garlic and Sweet Peas also thrive on animal manure.

 

Protecting Buxus. If you’re got a problem with Buxus Blight then use Kiwicare Buxus Blight Buster, a systemic fungicide, which also controls blight, dieback, canker, downy mildew, phytophera root disease, and Pythium root rots in lawns, hedges, shrubs, and ornamentals.

And if you’re not sure about the presence of Buxus Blight bring in a piece of the affected shrub (in a plastic bag!) or a picture.

 

Daffodils for next season.   In a week or so I’ll feed the daffodils at home with Nitrophoska Blue so that they maximise storage of food for the dormant season to produce strong flowering next year.

And now is a good time to feed Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Camellias with Acid Food to replenish the energy used up for flowering in Winter/Spring.