Summer Gardening
Friday, December 18 by Hamish Dodd
G’day green fingers,
Hamish here. I can’t believe Christmas is nearly upon us. Phew,
what a year 2009 has been. If you have a spare minute amongst the
silly season parties I’d love to know your biggest gardening
success and failures this year. If you haven’t started a vegetable
garden yet your Christmas break holidays are the time to get stuck in.
This time of year the weather is hot and kiwis head in droves to
beaches and lakes across the country. Even those of us with job
commitments – unable to pitch the tent or drink wine on the back
lawn – still head to the nearest beach or pool after work and in
the weekends. With all summer’s fun activities and holiday plans
it’s no surprise to learn that our gardens still need to be
protected – even more so in hot, humid weather with little rain.
If you are going away, or just have a crazy schedule, you MUST
organise a watering system, fertilise, fertilise and then feed some
more. Add Yates Waterwise Crystals to help plants make the best use
of the water. Keep beds weeded and mulch liberally. It is extremely
important to keeping treating the vegetable garden for pest and
fungus. Tomatoes are extremely susceptible to problems so use Yates
Tomato Dust. Remember while you are aware the slugs and snails will
take the opportunity to attack so apply Yates Blitzem.
If you can’t bribe a relative or neighbour to give your plants a
good water while you are away. Why not invest in an automatic timer
on an irrigation system? They can be expensive but worth it in the
long run – of course a neighbour’s teenager who wants some extra
cash could be taught to be just as effective. Do some trial runs
(with irrigation system or teenager) before you go away to nip
problems in the bud before you go away.
Grouping vegetables together according to water needs is a good
idea and feeding soil with lots of compost and mulch will help the
plants not bake and conserve water. Using Yates Waterwise Crystals
is a brilliant way to conserve water and make sure the water your
vegie pot gets is used to the best advantage.
Water roots of your plants. Yates Garden Guide has a chapter on
water-saving gardens and says if you train your plants into “less
frequent, deep soakings” it “will train the roots to grow down into
the soil” – instead of the roots resting on top of the surface. Of
course, there are some drought tolerant plants that are ideal for
summers away but that doesn’t help us in the vegetable garden. The
Yates Gardening Guide has a lovely section on drought tolerant
plants and is well worth a read for inspiration in your main garden.
Constructing a windbreak over your vegetable plot will help cut
down on water loss. Self-watering containers, like the Tuscan Self-
Watering pots, are fabulous to keep feeding vegies water. I keep
referring to the Yates Garden Guide because it has so many great
water-saving ideas, including water harvesting by catching
rainwater, building trenches and diverting the rainwater to the
garden. After a bit of construction you would never have to worry
again about your plants when away on holiday
If your holiday is only for several days, one of my favourite
tricks is to cut off the end of a milk or fizzy drink bottle, screw
the lid off and bury the bottle upside down in a pot (either indoor
our outdoor). You then fill the plastic bottle with water and the
plant will drink whenever it wants to.
My garden is going great and I am continuing to bring produce from
inside the greenhouse to the outside raised garden. However, the
heat in the greenhouse has been substantial and so I am going to be
covering the top of the greenhouse with some shade cloth. To save
the lettuces, I’ve moved them out to the raised beds and now due to
a lot of watering they are looking fantastic. I tied my tomato
plant up to the roof of the glasshouse and it is looking great -
unlike the cucumbers which were left in the hot house. They have
been transplanted out into a pot with a climbing frame that I hoped
to support them on and allow to hang over onto the ground, but I
think the damage from the heat was already done at the time of
transplanting. Everything else continues to grow well, and I hope
to have a lot of beans and carrots for Christmas day.
I look forward to seeing all your snaps in the great tomato growing
competition. Remember that the winner of the competition gets a
prize pack to the value of $575. Send in a picture of your tomato
plant, a photocopy of your Yates garden diary with harvest weights
and records. You can get one from this website.
That’s it for me this year. Thanks for taking the time to read my
blogs. I hope you found them interesting and the tips helpful.
I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Hamish
“Back to blog >”:/hamish-dodd/
Comments (6)
Add a comment
Phillippa
Yates site member
11:40, 08 January 2010
Hi Happy New Year
As a first time gardener I feel I am doing very well everything seems to be growing, in the case of my pumpkins a little too well, they are slowly taking over my garden with runners growing everywhere and attaching themselves to other veg nearby, is there anything I can do to keep them under control HELP!
aroha
Yates site member
20:42, 10 January 2010
Helllo, we recently bought our home and I am delighted with the irrigation system the previous owners installed as it is situated around what I now call my vege garden. I was browsing the net and came across the Yates website, so I am looking forward to picking up tips from new comers like myself and the more experienced as well.
aroha
Yates site member
20:43, 10 January 2010
Helllo, we recently bought our home and I am delighted with the irrigation system the previous owners installed as it is situated around what I now call my vege garden. I was browsing the net and came across the Yates website, so I am looking forward to picking up tips from new comers like myself and the more experienced as well.
aroha
Yates site member
20:56, 10 January 2010
I enjoy growing herbs I have planted a bay tree, could anyone suggest herbs I could plant underneath it, I was thinking a couple of dwarf munstead lavenders
Hamish
Yates Garden Expert
16:09, 18 January 2010
HI Phillippa
Ah yes, the pumpkin is a wayward vegetable! The key to your problem is choosing the right area to plant your cucurbits (the “family” name for vegetables like pumpkin and cucumber etc)as they tend to aggressively wander where they like unless contained. Unfortunately, short of embarking on a heavy maintenance programme such as cutting them back,it is too late for you to do much else to stop them wanadering. If anyone else has any answers please let us know. Hamish
Hamish
Yates Garden Expert
16:30, 19 January 2010
Hi Aroha
Bay trees are a beautiful tree and more importantly for a lot of people, are considered an essential for their cooking. I have grown many bay trees both in the open ground and in pots. The one thing I have noticed and found over the years is that there is not much, if anything, that seems to work well as a companion plant. This is predominantly due to the fact that they have very aggressive fibrous roots and have a very dense canopy, meaning they often shade out whatever you try to plant around them in the garden. The fibrous roots are particularly dominant when planting in as pot. I have found that within a relatively short space of time that the roots push to the surface and you get a multitude of suckers shooting up, killing all in their way. I’ve even tried growing mondo grass which was successful in the short term but now are being completely overtaken by the bay tree itself. My recommendation would be to try and not companion plant witht he bay tree if possible. Sorry for not having a positive solution to your query but that is the best advice I can give based on my experience. As a note, if anyone else out there has a better option than mine which is to plant nothing, ha ha, I would love to heasr it – your input would be greatly appreciated. Hamish
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