Central’s Tips

August 2023

The fruit and vegetable garden

• Plant alyssum at the base of fruit trees to ensure the bees will visit. Specific seed blends for aiding pollination are also available

• Use snail bait or organic snail and slug control amongst maturing cabbages and cauliflowers and around new seedlings of lettuces and herbs

• Raised beds tend to sink over the time, so add fresh Garden Mix and dig it in. If the existing soil hasn’t been conditioned in a while add compost and Dave’s Growth Booster Sheep Pellets

• Harvest time for all the winter vegetables – carrots, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, beetroot, and silver beet

• Plant new seedlings of fennel – they will take the baked vegetables to the next level. Put in globe artichokes, but pick off snails regularly – they live in the big, pleated leaves

• Hardier herbs such as thymes, oregano, coriander sage and parsley can be planted. Cos and head lettuce varieties will start the salad patch

• In frost free areas, sprouted potatoes can be planted. Dig a trench and plant them 40cm apart covering lightly with soil as they grow

The ornamental garden

• Prune hydrangeas and hibiscus, taking out dead or old branches at the base. Thin out congestion in the centre of the bush and cut back branches to a double set of leaves

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• For blue hydrangea flowers, apply ‘blueing tonic’ (Aluminium Sulphate). For pink flowers, apply lime. White flowers remain the same in any soil

• Plant hedges in soil that has been enriched with compost. To encourage good, thick growth in a new hedge, it’s best to cut the bushes back by a quarter at planting

• Look for dormant perennial plants beginning to shoot through the ground and place a marker stick beside them, so you don’t pull them out by mistake

• Repetition planting: add groups of the same plant around the garden to give it a sense of continuity. Reliable shrubs or tidy strap-leaf plants for this look include loropetalums, and coprosmas, dietes and lomandras

• Make lavender a big thing for summer: if you’re brave enough, cut back lavenders that are beginning to show bud or flower – this will increase their bushiness and overall size for a wow summer flowering

• It’s too early to fertilise roses and other showy summer plants, but adding sheep pellets around the garden releases nitrogen slowly into the garden soil

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