If winter has left your garden a little bleak, local garden centres have potted colours to brighten things up. I have noticed pansies, wallflowers, polyanthus and primula malacoides that look fresh and bright planted in groups but must acclimate to your garden temperature before planting. Sit punnets outside under eaves for a week.
Hydrangeas will be budding; hydrangea bushes in a protected area can be pruned but those exposed to harsh winters are best left until nearer spring. Give pink hydrangeas a dressing of lime now to keep them pink and blue hydrangeas a dressing of sulphate of allium or the specially prepared blue hydrangea mix that can be bought from garden centres. Soil determines the shade of hydrangeas so, with having neutral to alkaline soil (pH 6.5 and higher), the only way I could keep blue hydrangeas blue was to plant them in a pot with an acid potting mix which needs topped up during the growing season.
Large leggy rhododendrons can be reduced in height now, even though they are in bud, they will then push out new growth in spring. Cut back to a healthy bulging nodule and then mulch with good compost. It will take a few years for them to build up good top growth again but they will.
Moving shrubs like rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias can be done now.
Any plant I think has been struggling for a couple of years will get a ride in the wheelbarrow.
This is also the time to remove trees and shrubs that have long outgrown their youthful beauty and replace them with a younger version of the original or something different. You can change the whole look of a tired garden by doing this.
Rose pruning should be happening here on the coast. Do not worry if you see your roses beginning to leaf, a cold snap will burn this new growth back but they will recover and bud up again.
Invest in some good secateurs for a clean cut. Roses are best planted during dormancy; new varieties are available from garden centres this month.
Native birds will need encouragement to stay in urban gardens while in search of what they need through winter. Sugar water is an alternative supplementary food for nectar-sipping birds such as tūī, korimako/bellbirds, and tauhou/silvereye. It benefits native birds over winter when nectar is scarce and it improves their chances of a successful breeding season come spring.
You can attract native birds to your garden by setting up a feeding station as well as sugar water, a fruit feeder could be erected close to a tree or bush cover for birds to dart to and fro from as they watch for predators.
It can take a while for birds to trust and get used to feeding at a sugar water or fruit feeder, but once they start feeding, stations need to be topped up regularly in winter and early spring when natural food sources are limited.
Feeding birds predominantly with bread and seed unfortunately attracts introduced grain-eating species such as house sparrows, starlings, and blackbirds.
They are likely to compete for space and habitat with native birds, which feed on invertebrates, flower nectar, fruits, or leaves.
Fruit: Winter is the time you will find the best selection of fruit trees in garden centres. They will all be grafted and tall growing; keep the soil below the graft, plant up to where they were planted in the bag then stake well to protect against the wind.
This month I will explain the pruning of pear trees. Think about how you want your pear trees to look, and set a three-year plan to get them into that shape and size. Pear trees bloom and bear fruit on the sharp, short spurs that grow between its branches, older spurs should be removed occasionally to be replaced by more vigorous young ones. Too many spurs will result in small fruit so thinning will let the remaining fruit grow larger.
In the first year, remove damaged, crossing, or crowded limbs — suckers need to be removed as soon as you notice them. In the second year, thin out the tree some more and bring down some of the height. In the third year, thin out branches some more and cut down to the desired height. (Burn all trimmings)
It is not recommended to heavily prune pear trees but if this is required the best time to do major pruning is during winter. If only a light trim is required this can be done in late summer, the more you prune the greater the chance fire blight will develop. Fire blight is obvious on leaves and branches when they appear as if they have been burned by fire, this disease delays fruit production.
Many new varieties of pear and apple trees have been cultivated to be resistant to fire blight.
Leaves and twigs of the trees get the disease from insects that enter the flowers during spring, insects get it by gathering pollen from nearby cedar trees. Choose a resistant variety and keep trees moist, especially when in blossom and when the fruit is ripening.
If your tree has already been hit by fire blight, you will need to prune out the affected shoots several inches below the damaged area. Be sure to sterilise your clippers between cuts and burn cuttings.
Vegetables: Dig in green crops if sown earlier and spread lime if you feel the garden needs sweetening then cover bare soil with compost /mulch to protect soil against the elements and worms will do their work.
I have planted a second lot of garlic cloves. The shortest day of the year is traditionally garlic planting time but any time in June /July is fine.
Plants are grown from the small, separate cloves which need to be planted pointed end up, 5-7cm below the soil surface and about 10-15cm apart in a sunny, well-drained location. A well-prepared soil with plenty of organic matter worked through gets the best results.
Garlic will also grow well in containers or pots.
Plants grow to about 60-90cm tall during winter and spring, and flower before the top growth dies off over summer. Source bulbs from a garden centre as garlic bought from a supermarket may have been sprayed to inhibit sprouting.
