Spring is a busy time for gardeners because it’s the season for pruning, planting and preparing. Here are some top tips for making the most of this season of growth and renewal.
Perfect Primulas
Primulas will benefit from regular spring feeding with Yates Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food, which will encourage healthy foliage growth and is fortified with extra potassium to promote lots of flowers.
Caring for roses
We all enjoy the fresh new buds on roses, with the promise of gorgeous scented blooms to follow. Unfortunately aphids and caterpillars love rose buds and new shoots too. Control bud worm caterpillars on roses using Yates Rose Gun Advanced which will also control sap sucking insects such as aphids. Ensure good coverage, both over and under the leaves.
Water roses regularly and deeply as soft new growth occurs in conjunction with the arrival of seasonal drying winds. Replenish mulch under roses using a 50mm layer of lucerne or pea straw to help suppress weeds and retain soil moisture.
In humid areas begin control sprays for black spot as new leaves reach full size. Yates Rose Gun Advanced contains a systemic fungicide to control common rose diseases such as black spot and powdery mildew, in addition to dual action insecticides for insect pest control. Try to water roses at the base, instead of over the foliage, and water in the morning, rather than the evening, which allows the foliage to dry out during the day, helping to reduce fungal problems.
Plenty of spring sunshine, enriched well-drained soil, regular water and fertiliser combined with successive plantings are the best recipe for a steady supply of healthy home-grown produce.
Healthy produce
Dual purpose herbs provide long lasting harvests for the kitchen and also flower over a long period, attracting bees and beneficial insects which help to pollinate summer vegetables. They also look great among garden beds and borders, so don’t confine these just to the vege patch. These herbs are easily grown from seeds sown in spring, and grow happily in either full sun or part shade and suit pots too.
Sweet Basil: grows best during spring and autumn (basil can bolt to seed in the hotter months). It has lush leafy growth with a spicy flavour. It’s followed by white flowers.
Basil ‘Gourmet Mix’: a blend of long-flowering Thai basil with mauve/purple flowers, lemon basil, delicate flavoured cinnamon basil and attractive purple basil. Looks great in the garden and on the plate!
Chives: fine cylindrical foliage with purple domed blooms, germinates in 14-21 days and are ready to harvest in around 8 weeks.
Garlic chives: have long flattened leaves with a mild garlic flavor. Heads of white flowers are popular forage for both honey and native bees.
Borage: pretty blue flowers attract bees and beneficial insects. Flowers can be used to garnish summer drinks or decorate desserts and cakes.
Rocket: as the name suggests it’s a quick grower, so regular harvesting keeps leaves tender and delays flowering. When the weather warms up it can bolt to flower and seed, so enjoy the spring harvest.
Summer salad veges: lettuce, silver beet, radish, spring onions, beans and Asian greens can be sown in most zones. Direct sow beetroot, carrots and parsnip into garden beds or pots as they resent transplanting. Tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, eggplant, cucumber and zucchini like warm conditions, so sow outdoors in warm areas, and seedlings raised indoors can go into the garden or pots as the soil warms. To get summer veges off to a great start, incorporate a few handfuls of Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food into the soil or potting mix before sowing or planting out seedlings. Protect young seedlings with Yates Blitzem Snail and Slug pellets.
Delay sowing or planting seedlings outdoors in cool zones until the nights are warmer. You can get a head start by raising seedlings indoors on a warm windowsill. In cool zones, water tomatoes and other summer salad vegies with warm water and protect young seedlings at night with temporary cloches made from cut off plastic drink bottles. Stay vigilant for late frosts and protect sensitive plants with some frost or shade cloth.
Tip: water in new seedlings with Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed which helps reduce transplant shock.
Potatoes: There’s still time to get a potato crop in during September for summer harvests. Keep mounding (or ‘hilling’) the stems with soil or compost as they grow upwards for a more bountiful crop. Leave the top 5-10cm of green foliage uncovered. Sprinkle on a handful of Yates Blood and Bone each time you mound the stems — it’s a gentle source of slow release nutrients to encourage sturdy growth and good yields.
Broad beans: sometimes it seems like broad beans have been flowering for ages, but no pods are setting. As the weather warms up and the bees are active, the pods will begin to form. So just keep watering and liquid feeding with Thrive All Purpose Soluble Fertiliser.
Young shoots can be harvested to add to salads and stir fries, and young pods may be harvested to eat whole, but if you like your beans big, broad and full-flavoured, be patient.
Tomatoes: Yates Tomato Roma has deep red, pear-shaped fruit that is great for sun drying and cooking. Roma can be grown in containers as well as garden beds and doesn’t require staking.
Yates Mortgage Lifter is a heirloom variety is a prolific bearer and has great tasting, large pinkish fruit, which can weigh up to 1.5kg. This tomato definitely needs staking!
Yates Tomato Small Fry is an award-winning variety, producing masses of sweet bite-sized fruit. Ideal for summer salads, kebabs and a favourite in lunchboxes. Although the fruit is small, the vine is vigorous so needs either staking or a trellis for support.
Yates Tomato Tiny Tim, a cherry-sized tomato, bearing heavy crops of sweet fruit. The plant is a compact dwarf, so Tiny Tim is ideal for growing in pots, troughs or raised beds.
Controlling pests
Yates Nature’s Way Insect & Mite Spray is perfect for gardeners wanting to organically control insect pests. It’s certified organic by BioGro and controls sucking insect pests like aphids, mites and whitefly. It’s based on insecticidal soap that targets soft-bodied insect pests. Spray over the vegies every 10-12 days to protect them from insect infestation, ensuring both sides of foliage are covered.
Controlling weeds
It’s also time to control broadleaf weeds like clover, flatweeds, dandelions and thistles before they have a chance to flower and set seed. To control broadleaf weeds in all common lawn types, apply an easy application of granular Yates Weed’n’Feed. Yates Weed’n’Feed also contains essential nitrogen and iron to promote lush green lawn growth. One 12.5kg bag will treat 187 square metres of lawn.
For more information, please visit: www.yates.co.nz
• Garden Guide courtesy of Yates
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