Cleaning up an early autumn garden

PATRICIA SOPER/The Southland Times

PERENNIALS OF A TOUGH PERSUASION: Second flowering for these Pacific Giant delphiniums, which divide easily, quite often produce seedlings, and with a little TLC reward you with two very dramatic flowerings, in late spring and early autumn.

PATRICIA SOPER/The Southland Times

LAZY DAISY: Daisies are great softeners for larger beds. Dormant and neat over the winter months, they provide weeks of background colour and picking and are one of the easiest plants to propagate.

PATRICIA SOPER/The Southland Times

TRIED AND TRUE: The scarlet runner richly deserves its enduring popularity. It crops until the frosts kick in, freezes well and even when beans are quite large they retain their tenderness.

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Gardening

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A few days into autumn and signs of a seasonal change are everywhere.

Willows fringing lakes and rivers are turning and gardens slowing.

In the vegetable garden, winter crops have a really good toehold, thanks to warm days and some rain.

The cleanup is under way for those gardeners like me who grow lots of tall perennials.

Green waste is being piled up, turned into compost or disposed of at appropriate sites. The average garden generates an amazing amount of waste, so having a disposal plan for times such as these is important.

This issue affects rural gardeners as much as urban ones; the days of tipping garden rubbish anywhere have long gone.

Our vegetable bins have been replanted with winter crops to utilise every bit of available space. White butterfly, absent for a much of summer, has returned with a vengeance.

Vigilance is required if brassicas are to be protected; frost usually puts paid to their destructive habits.

Many gardeners are reporting the resurgence of this garden pest, so preventative measures need to be taken if you don't want to end up with cauliflower and cabbage plants that resemble lace.

If you prefer organic sprays, there are several on the market. Just ask at your garden centre and they will show you what is on offer.

Beans are producing well. Scarlet runners in particular are still flowering and as long as the frost stays away we should enjoy them for a while yet. They freeze well and with minimum fuss so there is no excuse to let them go to waste. Lovely for those cold winter months.

The glasshouse is looking tidier now that the courgettes and cucumbers have been banished. Lettuces have replaced some climbers and twiners. They won't heart but will provide salad greens when those in the bins have finished.

Hedges that need a trim should be attended to before the cold weather.

We shape several pittosporums to add contrast to one or two larger garden beds. If specimens are trimmed soon they will have time to recover and harden off.

It has been a good year for hedgers and trees.

Many in our garden have made noticeable growth but roadside plantings in our village have also performed well. Very gratifying in an area where tree growth is notoriously slow.

Tubs and planters need to be cleaned out and the soil refreshed before autumn annuals are planted. Some summer annuals are still lingering but most have been pulled out and those that remain are getting sprawly, especially petunias.

This year wallflowers are my autumn annuals of choice. Hardy and spring-fragrant, they look great in tubs.

On the subject of spring planting, bulbs are appearing at garden centres. These come in small packets, five to six to a pack, or larger assorted daffodils for mass plantings, which are wonderful for fringing drives and specimen trees.

We have been potting up some older-style perennials for family and friends. Good old fillers like daisies and phlox.

Some gardeners are turning back to reliable and hardy plants that perform without fuss. They grow well from cuttings and, unlike many modern hybridised specimens, survive our colder winters without angst.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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