Making do with what we've been given

Gawd, what a week! It is certainly nice to be getting a bit of rain, but one key thing that has been happening this week is, in a lot of gardens, the soil is looking a bit miserable and dry.

We have upped the amount of ‘chop and drop’ that we do, something quite good to do in Autumn anyway- starting from the beginning-

A herbaceous plant is a plant which has shoots that are always fleshy, a bit squishy, generally green. The opposite to ‘woody.’

Some examples-

• Shasta daisies

• Most salvias

• Echinacea

• Lupins

• Annual flowers

• Most of the bits of vegetable plants that you don’t eat

But really, don’t get too worried about what a herbaceous plant is- we are just after the green bits.

When we cut back a plant, which is a key task for Autumn, we cut the cut-backs in chunks about 10-20cm long and leave them lying on the ground to break down. They create mulch, keeping the ground more moist, and break down, becoming more nutritious soil.

One cool thing about this (or awful thing, depending on what you are cutting back) is that if you are removing seeding flower heads, leaving the dead heads on the garden will generally result in more plants popping up next year. I love doing this with all sorts of things- aquilegia (granny bonnets), lupins, silverbeet, lettuce and all of my annual flowers.

We also tend to dump leaves and lawn clippings around desireable plants at this time of year, while the growth is still hiding most of the ground, as it isn’t necessarily the most attractive thing to do to your garden!

I took a bunch of photos of this method, but because everything is so grown, it looked confusing- here is a photo from the start of the season. It’s not the most attractive mulch.

A perfect ‘making do’ situation

VGG got a chipper! I was very excited to buy the largest non-trailer chipper. Then I realised that moving it around much is a massive pain- how are we going to get it to jobs? Why did I not think this through?

Until Mish pointed out that it would probably fit in the ‘runaround’ car, so we don’t have to use the trailer or empty out a ute every time we need it.

Perfect fit!

Tidying agapanthus

Oh dear lord. I think that tidying agapanthus (properly, thoroughly) is one of the most technically difficult gardening tasks. Agapanthus grows up, and the leaves are long- so it is especially difficult to keep agapanthus tidy and looking good year round.

I would also like to note that the vast majority of us (rightfully!) do not think agapanthus ever looks good. There is a dwarf, sterile version, but large agapanthus is a noxious weed. It is invasive. It holds up banks, sure- for the first 5 or so years, and then the weight of the clumps can be responsible for bringing said banks down! Agapanthus is terrible stuff.

At the same time, one of the parts of being a professional gardener is that I have to accept its existence in gardens where (for whatever reason) it can’t be removed. Removing agapanthus is costly due to its weight (tip fees), and labour (time consuming), and for that reason clients often leave it!

Anyway- I have had to zoom in on this for anonymity but check out the awful job someone had done on this agapanthus- we are talking about about 10 metres of ugly cutbacks-

Because of cost/time constraints, I couldn’t do what I really should have, in order to keep it I would have had to dig out all of the mature agapanthus in the front row, divide it and replant (I would have replaced with rengarenga anyway! Will never replant agapanthus). I cut out the manky/chopped leaves, removed the bottom shoots (because they were unsalvageably damaged), and then cut out every second or third shoot so they would grow back further back.

Even then you can see that some of the leaves are going to collapse, but this is a rock/hard place situation! See how high that agapanthus has grown off of the ground- yikes. Just this section filled a wheelie bin with heavy waste. We use a trenching spade- use a spade with a narrow tip and a bit of weight to it- removing agapanthus is simple, just time consuming.

Can I recommend committing to removing agapanthus, however slowly- and always deadheading it, so that the seeds never travel. There are some great native options instead- flax comes in all sorts of sizes, and rengarenga is a gorgeous native lily which does the same as agapanthus without growing on top of itself and being a massive pain in the ass.

Tasks this week

I know it is tempting to cut back trees at this time of year, but borer beetle is flying around and will lay eggs if it spots a big cut in your wood, so hold off until after Easter.

If you have indoor plants, now is a good time to repot or do any substantial trimming, because they hate to be messed with in Winter- so between now and Easter is all you have until November rolls around.

We have had some rain, but it hasn’t been a lot, and you will be surprised what it hasn’t even touched, so water those gardens. I leave the hose on plants for at least ten seconds, and when I say ‘on’ plants, what I mean is that I tend to avoid the leaves and water a little circle around them, to avoid any fungal issues.

That’s it! Have a great weekend folks and enjoy the last of these lovely warm days.