A few garden tips

Julie Neighbourly Lead from Havelock North

I’ve been walking a lot lately and I’ve noticed a couple of things.

Like my garden, others gardens are producing fruit, just not ripe, and not seasonal. My fruit that should have been ready for Christmas, nope. And my fruit that shouldn’t be coming in yet, yup.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot we can do about that.

My gardens are still wet footed, from the rain, so, except for my potted plants I’m not watering. Others, I’ve noticed are. If you need to water, consider mulching, or growing ground cover. Your gardens will maintain a healthy level of moisture longer, and require watering less.

You are more likely to over water your plants out of habit, than need, with weather like we’ve been having.
Browning on top doesn’t mean your gardens are dead. It means they are putting all their efforts into protecting the roots.

If you feel you must water, consider drip lines. They use up to 2/3 less water, more effectively, than hose or sprinkler watering. Simply because the water soaks straight to the ground and into the roots. Sprinkler and hose water evaporates at an eye watering rate (pun intended), before it soaks below the surface. Up to 1/3 before it even hits the ground.

Also, lawns. While mowing them as short as possible keeps them tidy, it sadly, also kills the roots. Like scalps, the ground needs cover to protect it from the sun. But also the rain and weeds.

Lawns that are military buzz cut short dry out, severely, in the sun, which kills the roots, hardens the ground and leaves them prone to weeds, like couch grass. Longer thicker grass is softer, and easier able to block couch. It also protects against prickles. But it also keeps the ground soft enough to absorb rain. Hard ground is like concrete, prone to flooding.

Think about your gardens and lawns as if they were extensions of you. What happens if you over water yourself, especially when it’s hot? Or don’t cover up in the heat of the sun?

Simple. We dehydrate faster if we take in too much fluid too quickly. Because we literally flush our systems out. Our bodies cannot absorb that much fluid at once. Slow and steady, a little at a time.

And if we don’t cover up in the heat of the sun? We have one of the higher rates of skin cancer in the world. One of the worst weeds to have in our lives.

Take care of your gardens and lawns. Take care of yourselves and each other. And take it easy on Mother Nature. She knows what she’s doing. She just doesn’t know what we’re doing and it’s making her mad.