Garden Guru: Root cause

Autumn is the perfect time to redesign your garden beds. Photo / Supplied

On the surface, gardening can seem as mundane as outdoor housework. Weeding, sweeping, pruning and the constant routine of keeping the lawn neat and edged - these are all jobs aimed at maintaining the status quo.

For me, this treadmill of maintenance has about as much appeal as ironing my underpants. So thank goodness for autumn when, after a summer of taking notes and planning how to tweak and improve my plot, the soil is finally damp and soft enough to get out and really play.

Planting, whether it's putting in new arrivals or shifting about existing members of the garden, is one of the most strenuous but creative of jobs. It could be that there is an eyesore you want to hide or a part of the garden that you overplanted a few years ago and now the players you picked for the team are starting to bicker and fight and need a bit more elbow room.

Many perennial plants will be healthier and will flower better if they are split up and replanted every few years. However, much of the shuffling about done now will be cosmetic tweaking, and therein lies the instant makeover appeal. Once you start to take an interest in plants you will notice partnerships that are not working out and, like a cook, you will find yourself concocting new combinations of ingredients, whether you dream them up yourself or quietly steal them from a neighbour.

Planting young, potted trees and shrubs is fairly straightforward: dig in some compost, don't plant them too deep and water them in whatever the season for good measure.

Getting old-timers to up sticks and relocate, however, is a little more tricky. Easing them out of the ground and settling them in their new home must be done gently - it's not just a matter of thrusting a spade in the ground and waggling about the top bits.

Perennials, which are generally shallow-rooted, pop out of the soil easily, and there are several shrubs with masses of fibrous roots that tend not to go deep which can be moved relatively easily. Azaleas, hebes, grasses, bamboos and palms are just a few examples happy to lead a nomadic existence. But even with these, it's best to first dig a small trench a spade's depth around the entire root-ball before you try to lever the plant loose (from below, never by yanking the top growth).

The aim with any transplanted shrub or tree is to retain as many of the fine hair-like roots as possible. Inevitably you will have to cut through some major roots with a pruning saw or small spade, but ideally you will be able to retain a good ball of soil still intact. The larger the root ball you dislodge the better, but let common sense prevail; only a full squad of All Blacks would be able to manhandle anything the size of an armchair out of its hole, and almost all my transplants, whatever their size, get moved with a root ball a spade's depth deep by twice that in diameter.

Once free, I use a tarpaulin sheet and manoeuvre my plant on to that so I can get a friend and together lift it in a cushioned hammock to its new destination. This avoids tugging plants by their leaves and branches, which only puts more strain on the roots.

Add in plenty of compost - planting on a small mound in heavy soil and firming in gently with a boot should see your patient comfortably bedded down in their new home. Equally as important is the often overlooked act of pruning. If you have just amputated two-thirds of a plant's roots, the remains will not be able to support the requirements of all that is above ground. This is especially important with evergreens, so always trim, thin and reduce the foliage, clipping away about a third.

Evergreens can also be damaged by strong winter winds, so stake them heavily, erect some temporary wind cloth if your garden is exposed, and beware of long, wet winters and equally lethal dry, breezy springs, which will reduce your chances of success.

My downfall, though, is not so much technique as indecision. Having heaved a couple of big shrubs out of the ground I often find myself with too many alternative bright ideas. But like any house-moving chain, one move affects all the others, so the maple now going to where the birch stood leaves a gap that needs plugging. By twilight, my garden can look like a bomb site with various uprooted specimens leaning drunkenly propped in corners of no fixed

abode. It's usually at this stage I slope off to the house for a gin and tonic desperately hoping by morning that in this shuffled pack I will be able to salvage at least a few winning hands.

Could do this week:

* It's time to revamp containers if you want a splash of colour through winter. Garden centres are full of winter pansies, cyclamen, calendula, Iceland poppies and the like. Plant them in a layer of fresh compost, a sprinkle of blood and bone and use evergreen shrubs to add form and structure in larger planters.
* Try to finish painting jobs such as applying varnishes and wood preservers to fences, pergolas and trellis before the weather deteriorates.
* As leeks begin to grow, rake earth around the base of plants to encourage long white bases.
* Make a last clip of hedges and evergreens so that they can make a little further growth before any frost.