CONSTANT GARDENER

The constant gardener

From fruit trees to roses, what to plant, harvest and sow this month

MARY LOVELL-SMITH Garden editor

June

Garden diary

• Plant garlic on the shortest day – or thereabouts. It’s easy to grow, just ensure you buy the bulbs from a garden centre or organic shop as imported garlic is often treated to stop it sprouting. Choose a sunny spot with friable, free-draining soil. Insert the clove pointy end up about 8cm deep about 15cm to 20cm apart. • Add cheer to the gloomy colder months with winter-fl owering shrubs, such as daphne (which has the bonus of that heady fragrance); the perfectly named wintersweet and witch hazel. Or, for bolder blooms try sasanqua camellias, leucadendrons, grevilleas and proteas to light up the garden. • For local colour try the glorious foliage of the native coprosma – ‘Evening Glow’, ‘Fireburst’, ‘Golden Glow’, ‘Pink Splendour’ and ‘Tequila Sunrise’. The colder they are, the more intense the colour. Or try horopito ‘Red Leopard’, whose leaves are used medicinally for a range of ailments. • Plant any bare-rooted roses or fruit trees as soon as possible after purchase. Bare-rooted plants come usually in a plastic bag with sawdust or strips of newspaper around the roots rather than soil and will dry out and can die without prompt action.

Pro tips

From the experts at Kings Plant Barn

Landscape 101

A rather bright mid-green was the fence colour of choice in the 1960s. By the turn of the century that green had darkened substantially, before morphing into a deep charcoal to black in the twenty-teens. Here it stayed – some would argue, for too long. Signs are now that its popularity is waning, in the more vanguard gardens at least. While black is smart, it can veer toward predictable or grimness. It shows foliage off beautifully but so do other colours.

Trending are lighter shades of it, that is, soft greys. Always calming, it also replicates the natural colour of ageing wood, silvering gently. A teal-grey will calm and fade into the distance; while a more tea-coloured one hints at faraway hills. White, like black, is smart; unlike black however, it is lively and timeless. Instead of a hard white, try an off -white, or one that matches the paintwork of your house. Dark brown colours work well, but only as a stain, seldom as paint.

Some prefer what landscape designers call “invisible green,” which is any shade of dull green that disappears under foliage. It is likely the colour those ’60s gardeners were going for and also highlights one of the secrets of getting a fence looking good – never skimping on the foliage in front of, above or over it.

The other major decision in treating a wooden fence is whether to stain or paint it. Paint off ers more colour choices and not as much of it is required in comparison to a stain, which soaks in. On the other hand, a stain is more forgiving regarding application, especially if the wood is rough-hewn.

If the fence is already stained, paint can be applied, though in some cases a light sanding may be needed. Staining over a painted fence, however, is not recommended.

To eat

• There is no better time than in the depths of winter to dream of tree-ripened, sun-kissed summer fruit. Pleasure your taste buds by planting deciduous fruit trees now. • Ash from untreated wood is a good fertiliser, if used sparingly. Sprinkle on compost or over soil, avoiding seedlings, which it may burn, as well as on acid lovers such as azaleas, blueberries, daphne, heather, rhododendrons and strawberries. • Plant silverbeet. This quick-growing vegetable should only take four weeks from seedling to kitchen, and is pretty much trouble-free to grow. • As long as the soil is not too wet, cabbage, kale, lettuce, mustard greens and peas may also be planted, and radish sown.

Any tips for keeping birds fed over winter?

Attract birds, both native and introduced, with different feeding stations. Kākā, bellbirds, tūī and silvereyes will feed from nectar feeder bottles. Attract kererū as well with cut fruit on the fence or by hanging the pieces from tree branches away from cats. Avoid feeding birds with bread, milk, oats or honey water. Wild bird seed and bird energy bars are best distributed in specifi c feeders.

Is there a quick way to protect my frost-prone plants this winter?

Move outside plants in pots to a sheltered space such as a greenhouse or on a covered deck. If you have frost-tender plants in the ground, cover them by mid-May with frost cloth to prevent them from getting cold damage.

Steal this look

The dazzling winter vignette is the result of thoughtful plant deployment. Setting the show alight are the fiery-stemmed Cornus alba ‘SIbirica’, the Siberian dogwood. Grown for its stunning stems, it benefits from regular coppicing, that is cutting back to roughly 15cm above ground level every two or so years, to engender multiple fine stems. Other cheerystemmed dogwoods include Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’, whose stems are yellow at the base, turning orange, then crimson at the tips; and golden Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’.

The trees immediately behind, offering a complementary backdrop, are the evergreen conifers, Thuja occidentalis. Their barrelled bulk is offset in turn by the final flutterings of the flowering cherries’ leaves behind and above. The purple-leaved smoke bush, Cotinus coggygria, at the back of the thujas picks up the pink stems and add depth to this glorious scene. Note, too, how the eye is called sideways to rest upon the shaggy white trunk and branches of the paper birch, Betula papyrifera.

CONSIDER THIS

How many tools did I lose in the garden before I cottoned on to this? Too many. Gardening is seldom a one-task occupation. You might be weeding, spot a plant that needs a quick tidy with the secateurs, or one that needs tying up. You put down your weeder, next minute, you’ve lost it. Not, though, if you’re wearing a tool pouch to which your tools can readily come and go. I don’t like mine too big, just space for a niwashi, secateurs, maybe a little pruning saw, transistor radio or phone. Cyclone garden belt, $19.98, from Bunnings Warehouse.

How to... prune roses

Before you start, cast anxieties aside and remember: roses are tough, and it is near impossible to kill them by poor pruning alone. I have cut back bushes with a chainsaw with no detriment to the plant.

With secateurs, pruning saw and loppers at the ready, remove all dead, damaged, and sickly branches, and all those crossing over through the middle of the bush.

The rest of the pruning is really about how big you want the plant, what shape and so on. Whatever your aim, always prune back to just above an outward facing – bud – this is where the new branches will sprout, and will help create an open, airy bush, which is best for plant health.

Prune on a fi ne day from July to mid-August; slightly earlier in the warmer northern districts and a bit later in colder regions. Ramblers should only be pruned in summer after fl owering.