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Green Design Newsletter

Welcome to our newsletter. We have put this together for our current and past clients to keep you up to date with Green Design and provide you with useful tips for your gardening and landscaping efforts. We hope you enjoy it.

The current economic environment means that many of us are tightening our respective belts and turning to more creative pursuits, what better time to review and refresh your garden! The current trends seen at Ellerslie this year very much promote using our gardens not only as an extension of our home but also as a productive and attractive place to spend time.

Winter doesn’t have to be a dormant time of year in the gardening calendar. There is always something coming to life while something else is taking a break. A point to remember when bemoaning the onset of winter is that it is the extremes of climate in Canterbury that bring out the autumn colour. What a boring place it would be without the rich and vivid hues of autumn.

There are also a large number of plants that flower or perform in the winter.

See below for a list of these:

Prepare soil for planting before it gets too cold; remember autumn and early winter is an excellent time to get trees, shrubs and roses established so that when summer comes their roots are well down into the ground and able to make use of all available water.

Plant bulbs, tulips especially can be planted late autumn. Feed all bulbs with bulb fertiliser.

Feed winter/spring flowering shrubs such as rhododendron, camellia and azalea with acid fertiliser.

Plant polyanthus, primula, pansy, viola and cyclamen for winter colour, feed these with liquid fertiliser such as Phostorogen to give them a good boost. Poly’s and primulas respond well to dried blood. Get these planted as early in autumn as you can so that they establish themselves before the ground gets too cold.

Now is a good time to plant lily bulbs, strawberries, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, silverbeet and spinach.(April - August)

Divide rhubarb corms and mulch heavily, they are gross feeders.

Control moss in lawns with sulphate of iron.

Harvest citrus and remember to cut fruit with secateurs leaving a bit of stem so that the fruit, once harvested, does not rot at the top.

Spread animal friendly slug and snail bait (Quash).

Gather leaves and compost them, excluding walnut leaves.

At the beginning of winter cut the leaves down of Iris Unguicularis, Hellebores and Hepaticas to allow the flowers to take centre stage.

Mulch with organic matter, this will not only keep the weeds down, it will also keep the soil a little warmer and feed the plants.

If you have space in the vege garden plant a cover crop such as lupins or mustard seed, this puts nitrogen back into the soil when you dig it in in the spring.

Prune roses, apply a winter spray to help clean up last years bugs and prepare your plants for the growing season to come.

At the end of winter cut back your perennials, if you leave them over the winter they will provide the new shoots  with protection from the frost and cold temperatures.

Then sit back in the warm, and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.

For advice on any of the information in this newsletter, or any other landscaping and gardening issues, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  We can also help you to source any of the plants listed in here or anywhere, at very competitive rates.

Happy Gardening.

Greendesign@xtra.co.nz