August is a great time to do some gardening research and create a checklist of plants (vegetables, herbs, flowers, natives) that you’d like for your garden. Plan for garden maintenance. This includes fertilising your lawns, turning over your soil, adding compost, replacing older plants, etc. Due to some unpredictable weather conditions, you may need to plan for shipment and dispatch schedules. We have some tips below for your garden this August.
Garden Maintenance
Plan your spring flower garden. Mix annuals and perennials.
Consider flowering native trees.
Feed your soil. Apply lawn fertiliser.
Keep weeding.
Prune your roses.
Trim your hedges.
Edible Garden
It's a good time to plant onions (California red onion, Pukekohe onions, spring onions). They grow best in friable soil and they are perfect companions to spinach. You may want to try planting onions in containers too, if you have limited garden space. Onions need to be planted 10cm apart and if you are planting them in rows, make the rows 20cm apart.
It’s a great time to plant cold-hardy vegetables like beetroot, brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower), spinach and peas.
Unfortunately strawberries were extremely hard to grow this season. It’s best to look after your existing plants in order for them to still fruit this coming summer. If you're interested in planting strawberries next season, please add your details on Awapuni's notifications list for every variety you're considering.
A quick reminder: Try to avoid planting crops in the same place as last year. It’s important to consider crop rotation.
Flower Garden
Take this time to think about your flower garden landscape. Have a plan to attract pollinators and beneficial insects. Mix and match annuals and perennials. More flowers present whilst your vegetable plants are flowering will help set the scene for more fruiting. Cornflowers, peonies, pansies, stock flowers - plant a mixture of flowers to encourage beneficial insects to visit your garden. You may want to consider adding some curled parsley in your flower baskets.
You may now also plant more herbs all throughout your garden: oregano, parsley, sage, thyme and coriander.
Natives
Planting natives gives you flexibility because they are highly adaptable to the NZ environment. Manuka, kanuka and native NZ flaxes provide food and shelter to native birds and insects. Awapuni Nurseries also has a Manuka High UMF variety which you may get here.
