Gardening – Lots to do

This time of year sees me in a bit of a frenzy. The warming weather of spring and the traditional start of the growing season at Labour Weekend, plus the realisation that many of my planned winter jobs have yet to be completed, all combine to make gardening a bit frantic. I tend to get a little unfocused, jumping from task to task without completing any.

Committed gardeners will recognise the symptoms because garden work is never really done. There is always one more tree to prune, weeds to pull, a drain to lay, crop to cover, fertiliser to spread, disease to discover, pest to spray and, of course, lawns to mow.

A useful method of calming the restless spirit is to reflect on successfully completed tasks, rather than worrying about unfinished work. My reconditioned, pest-free, automated little greenhouse is a dream, with the first tomatoes expected about Labour Weekend, courgettes producing well and a few strawberries already eaten. My well-fertilised and mulched asparagus bed is also in full production now, producing more than we can keep up with. Likewise, salad greens, coriander and celery are growing lush and tasty. I’ve managed to get fertiliser and lime on all the lawns for the first time in years and all the ornamental beds have been fertilised well before the new growth starts.

Another way to calm the frenzy is to take time out to make a list, so here’s mine (hopefully, it might prompt yours):
•    Set up the codling moth traps in the apple trees.
•    Spray the citrus with neem oil for citrus whitefly.
•    Finish re-covering the mesh on the berry house in time for the first raspberries.
•    Fertilise and mulch the berry crops.
•    Prune the subtropicals such as hibiscus and cannas.
•    Spot-spray any aphid outbreaks.
•    Keep an eye out for the first “fluffybums” that signal an impending passion vine hopper invasion
•    Spray or pull the spring weeds before they set seed.
•    Mulch any bare soil once the weeds are gone to prevent new weeds germinating.
•    Check the irrigation system and hoses before summer.
•    Sow summer flowering annuals like sunflowers and cosmos.
•    Give the herbs a haircut and fertilise.
•    Plant a new crop of spuds.
•    Get kumara shoots growing for planting out in November.
•    Plant more salad greens and get the beds ready for planting summer crops like tomatoes, corn and melons.
•    Re-pot summer flowering bulbs.

Phew! I’m not sure that helped. It just reminded me how many jobs I must fit in to a diminishing number of days till the end of spring. Of course, I could just stop to smell the roses – something I will be doing at the Warkworth & Districts Rose & Flower Show, which opens on Friday, November 16, in the lovely Warkworth Town Hall. See you there.

Andrew Steens