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Gardening with Gael - Water and mulch secret to a flourishing garden

 

thumbnail IMG 2170-428Every year during the spring I write an article which might as well just say mulch, mulch, mulch 500 times. The importance of mulching cannot be underestimated.

I have checked the long range weather forecast and general opinion is for a long dry summer, maybe even a little hotter than last. Here was me hoping for a kind of monsoon season and then I saw the paper today which has an article on the possibility of a La Nina summer. The high temperatures are there but some rain may be expected in the eastern areas due to the prevalence of Northeasterly winds. Let’s hope so.

A report on aquifers indicates that although most have recovered from the drought, Mangawhai is still below average. This is a strain on any bores commercial and residential. I think water conservation needs to start now.

There is still time to plant vegetables as long as they are near a water supply and are not exposed to a full day of intense heat. As for shrubs, plant only those you know you will be able to look after. I spent last summer carting two litre milk bottles full of water to my newly planted coprosma lucidas. It was a nightmare but ultimately very successful. I only lost one plant which also shows what hardy little plants they are. This year they are twice the size and clearly fully established. It won’t hurt to mulch them. Last year I threw a bit of gravel off the driveway around them and shored them up with some rocks as well. That helped I’m sure.

Yesterday my granddaughters and I went to the movie ‘A Secret Garden’. The secret garden was a wonderous place helped I am sure with a little technology. Paths wound between herbaceous borders crammed with every flowering plant imaginable, not unlike a wild meadow. It did remind me though of how well the herbaceous border works. My friend Marg has a perfect example. The plants are far enough apart to grow but close enough together to link, slightly overlap, and, most importantly, cover all available ground. She mulches early when the plants have had their winter trim and before they exhibit their lush spring growth. That time is now. She uses a lot of alstromerias. Hardy, floriferous and easy care, they make a great ‘filler’. If the base of the plant and the soil can be kept shaded the garden is less likely to become parched. I think everyone lost plants last year. I certainly did. Pungas and nikaus that were 30 years old perished as did several whaus and kawakawas.

Contrary to my expectations, all my camellias flourished and survived the summer without watering. Some of that success was due to the solid layer of mulch they have enjoyed for years. A nearby pohutukawa mulches everything all year round. I recommend replanting what has survived. Native plants that have coped with the change in temperature. Here in the north our hebes struggle but there are a few hardy types. Jess from Mangawhai Natives has a huge sprawling prostrate ngaio, Myoporum decumbens, which has covered a difficult dry bank in under a year. The long glossy leaves are extremely attractive and it’s a great alternative to muehlenbeckia.

Check around, see what survived and mulch. Use everything – grass clippings, leaves, wood chip, gravel, rocks, old wool carpet. Recycle those weeds. Mulch, mulch, mulch.
TIP OF THE WEEK

Pile weeds into a black bag. Tie off. Leave in the sun to warm. After about six weeks tip out the lovely black soil it has turned into.

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