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Gardens
Tips of the Month
Garden
tips for the month of January -
February
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Pruning of existing roses is done in the coldest of January
February, carefully and according to instructions, taking
care to build the rose in a crown shape.
Vegetables:
Now is the time to compost and grow winter vegetables. Seeding
radishes, peas, spinach, broccoli, and parsley, and mulching
afterwards.
Pests and disease:
The pests and disease are now slowing down with the help of
the cold and the rain of the winter. It is possible to protect
the sensitive plants in the garden, with a burlap triangular
like skirt around the trunk of the small tree.
Inside the house the houseplants are in need of some loving
care with the heat on, and the AC, one should try to shower
the plants with water once a month in the tub, and add new
potting soil when needed.
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Garden
tips for the month of June -July
The garden is growing rapidly
and the plants need to be watered more with the heat of the
summer, and in that way also fed. Keep up the fertilizing ,once
a month , for roses, shrubs and grass.
Take down all the yellow leaves of the bulb flowers from the
winter, and store the bulbs for next year in a dark place in
the house inside of wrapped newspaper. Or if there is no fear
of rodents in the garden who would chew up the bulbs, and if
water doesn’t reach them(through sprinkler or dripper) , you
could just leave them in the garden to come up next winter .
Continue using sequestreen type of iron for iron deficient
plants like Citrus, Hibiscus or Camellias.
Summer Annual Planting:
This is the time for annuals of all sizes. There is the Cleome,
and Cosmos, and Amarantha, which gets to be as tall as one
meter , and the long and low growers like Portolaca, and Verbena.
Feed all of these plants as they are short lived, and with
that your vegetable patch too.
Summer Vegetables:
Time to set out all the warm seasoned vegetables, and there
are a lot.
Tomatoes, eggplants, and all the Mediterranean herbs. Summer
vegetables that need lots of space: go for melons, pumpkins
, squash, beans .
Watch out for aphids and powdery mildew. You can use a dishwashing
liquid (or weak detergent of some sort )with water (1tsp to
4 cups) , and spray directly, a few times a week. Pests and
rodents can be kept out of the area too, with the use of pepper
or paprika sprinkled around the area or plants that you do
not want to get trampled on.
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tips
of the month -April -May
Gardening
tips for the months of January and February
tips of the month -April -May:
This is the time when the trees and the shrubs are slowing
down and deciduous trees have lost their leaves, and fall
–winter has settled in the area.
The fruit trees can be fed with a helping of compost –mature
trees 5 kg/ per tree, or slow release pellets for mature trees.
This is the time to fix the “dry elements” in the garden,
the fence, the gate, the lighting and the irrigation system.
Important to mulch now with bark , or tuff, or peanut, pecan
shells, just add a layer of 10 cm. to the ground and it is
fantastic in not allowing weeds to get in the garden, and
lowering the amount of water you will need , by saving on
irrigation, having the soil unexposed lowers the heat and
helps the plants.
Planting:
Time to pull out the summer annuals and turn the earth with
compost, and plant winter annuals. Tall winter annuals include
delphinium, flax, and digitalis, and tall snap dragon, medium
ones are aster, and calendula, lower annuals would be sweet
alyssum ,and lobelia. Many gardens manage to squeeze in the
bulbs and corms too, including lupines, dahlias, gladiolas,
and ranuncules, and poppies, and of course cyclamen, for strong
accent in emphasized areas.
Roses:
This is the time to admire and pick the last of the roses.
Prepare for the pruning in the coldest weeks of January and
February. New rose gardens should be planned now with a open
large space, full of sun, and not too close to sprinklers,
and chosen in registered rose nurseries-including good instruction
on how to plant the roses. Roses are a science and there are
three different kind of roses:
Tea Hybrid: a tall prickly bush with the most amazing, but
few fragrant roses for the vase.
Floribunda: a medium size rose bush with many roses ‘ but
open type usually not for the vase.
Miniature
Roses:
Not fit for the vase, mainly used once in public gardens.
Very strong and rigorous, and many small flowers most of the
year.
Pruning of existing roses is done in the coldest of January
February, carefully and according to instructions, taking
care to build the rose in a crown shape.
Vegetables:
Now is the time to compost and grow winter vegetables. Seeding
radishes, peas, spinach, broccoli, and parsley, and mulching
afterwards.
Pests and disease:
The pests and disease are now slowing down with the help
of the cold and the rain of the winter. It is possible to
protect the sensitive plants in the garden, with a burlap
triangular like skirt around the trunk of the small tree.
Inside the house the houseplants are in need of some loving
care with the heat on, and the AC, one should try to shower
the plants with water once a month in the tub, and add new
potting soil when needed.
print virsion |
Summer Time
| The garden
is growing rapidly and the plants need to be watered more
with the heat of the summer, and in that way also fed. Keep
up the fertilizing ,once a month , for roses, shrubs and
grass.
Take down all the yellow leaves of the bulb flowers from
the winter, and store the bulbs for next year in a dark
place in the house inside of wrapped newspaper. Or if there
is no fear of rodents in the garden who would chew up the
bulbs, and if water doesn’t reach them(through sprinkler
or dripper) , you could just leave them in the garden to
come up next winter .
Continue using sequestreen type of iron for iron deficient
plants like Citrus, Hibiscus or Camellias.
Summer Annual Planting:
This is the time for annuals of all sizes. There
is the Cleome, and Cosmos, and Amarantha, which gets to
be as tall as one meter , and the long and low growers like
Portolaca, and Verbena.
Feed all of these plants as they are short lived, and with
that your vegetable patch too.
Summer Vegetables:
Time to set out all the warm seasoned vegetables,
and there are a lot.
Tomatoes, eggplants, and all the Mediterranean herbs. Summer
vegetables that need lots of space: go for melons, pumpkins
, squash, beans .
Watch out for aphids and powdery mildew.
You can use a dishwashing liquid (or weak detergent of some
sort )with water (1tsp to 4 cups) , and spray directly,
a few times a week. Pests and rodents can be kept out of
the area too, with the use of pepper or paprika sprinkled
around the area or plants that you do not want to get trampled
on.
Maintenance:
This is the time that the trees and shrubs are
waking up and need to get their monthly feeding of fertilizer.
Either in a slow release capsule, near the tree and shrub
or by watering with a fertilizer into the irrigation system.
Feed iron deficient plants like camellia and citrus with
iron fertilizer.
Planting:
Now is the time to pull out the winter annuals
and plant new summer annuals or bulbs for the late spring.
Annuals such as marigolds, cosmos, zinnia are very nice
in large bunches usually 20 cm. apart maximum. This is the
time to plant petunias also, and the miniature ones are
very strong and cascading!
Vegetables to look into and grow:
It is still cold enough to grow lettuce, spinach,
and son start to plant the warm season crop of beans, corn,
cucumbers, eggplant, melons, and tomatoes, and peppers.
Pests and disease:
Time to look out for powdery mildew on the
roses and many other small leaved (full of the new sugar)
leaves that are coming out in the spring .Try a home remedy
: 1 tablespoon of baking soda and 1 tablespoon of canola
oil to 3 liters of water, and spray onto the roses possibly
other plants that are infected.
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