We surely have a lot of excited gardeners this season - planting flowers, winter vegetables and hedges. Autumn is widely acknowledged to be the best time to plant hedges, trees, shrubs, flaxes & native grasses.
Take advantage of the abundant rain, warmish sun and New Zealand's mild, cool breeze. It's time to turnover your soil, clean up the autumn leaves, weed, plant or trim your hedges, mulch and plan for the spring season.
For many lucky gardeners, it's also time to preserve the excess summer crops and buy lettuce and parsley/herb seedlings to fill up free garden spaces or for staggered planting to ensure winter supply.
Garden Maintenance
Rake leaves up (some leaves can be used for compost or mulch)
Enrich your soil - add compost
Trim/shape your hedges
Fertilise your citrus plants
Mulch vegetable and fruit gardens
Move or cover frost-tender plants
Harvest feijoa and last of passionfruit
Turn over soil and replenish gardens
Plant winter flowering annuals to keep the pollinators coming
Deadhead flowers to encourage growth during spring
Get your bird feeders out
Apply lawn fertiliser
You may want to consider replenishing your garden soil with a fresh load of compost and natural fertilizers such as sheep pellets. This will not only add essential nutrients to your soil, but also promote the growth of diverse microorganisms that can improve soil health.
May is a great time to plant onions, carrots, lettuce, celery, broccoli, onions, peas, kale, spinach, cabbage. To ensure a continuous supply of these vegetables, try using the staggered planting approach. Plant vegetable seedlings each week or so to harvest them in phases. Additionally, if you have some free garden beds, you may want to consider planting cover crops such as mustard or native blue lupin, which can help improve soil fertility by fixing nitrogen.
We see many chili growers still harvesting bright-coloured chillies until now! Dried chillies can be used in a variety of dishes and will retain their flavor and heat for several months when stored properly.
Awapuni Nurseries will have strawberries, garlic & seed potatoes available on our website soon. Write a list of your favourite winter varieties and add yourself to the notifications list to get an email as soon as the plants are available.
Prepare for frost...
Frost can be a serious threat to plants during the winter season. When temperatures drop below freezing, ice crystals can form on the surface of plant tissues, damaging or killing them. However, there are several strategies that gardeners can use to protect their plants from frost:
1. Cover the plants: One of the simplest and most effective ways to protect plants from frost is to cover them with a cloth or blanket. This will create a layer of insulation that can help keep the plants warm. It's important to use a breathable material that won't trap moisture and cause the plants to rot.
2. Use mulch: Mulching around the base of plants can help insulate the soil and protect the roots from frost. A layer of straw, leaves, or other organic material can also help keep the soil moist, which can help protect the plants from dehydration.
3. Water the plants: Watering the plants before a frost can help protect them by raising the temperature of the plant tissues. Water releases heat as it freezes, which can help keep the plants warm. It's important not to overwater the plants, as this can also cause damage.
4. Choose frost-tolerant plants: Some plants are naturally more resistant to frost than others. If you live in a cold climate, consider planting varieties that are adapted to the local conditions.
Choose flowers with vibrant colours for a bit of winter cheer. Plant your winter flowering annuals and divide your perennials. It’s a great time to plant lavender, lupin, delphinium, viola, polyanthus, pansy, cornflower, poppy, statice, lobelia! Purple and blue flowers are known to attract bees the most.
Awapuni nurseries has about 20 pansy varieties - blue, yellow, red, pink, pastel in many different sized blooms.
Don't forget to plant calendula, also known as winter marigold, is a favourite amoungst many gardeners because it repels many pests, attracts pollinators and blooms profusely in winter. You may also plant sweetpea, they do love the cooler climate too.
Here's a list of some of our perennial favourites: hollyhock, love in the mist, dianthus & english daisy.
Of course, if you would oblige us, we've prepared a list of our top fragrant flowers to plant in autumn too: stock (matthiola) and lavender.
You may want to consider growing strong-smelling herbs such as thyme and sage, as they are useful companion plants for brassicas (broccoli and cabbages) as they help repel pests. Sage and thyme like mint, chives and oregano can handle colder climates.
There's still some time to plant your hedges! Pittosporum varieties, akeake, griselinia, kowhai are fast-growing trees. We now also have some of New Zealand's tallest trees: matai, black maire & golden totara.
Forestry
We also offer non-native trees (eucalyptus nitens) & hedges (leyland cypress). Awapuni nurseries grow radiata pine commercially and can handle huge volume orders fit for 10h to 100-hectare plantations. If you have a bigger project and specific plant requirements, please contact Henri at 021 340 300 for more contract growing solutions. We currently have 150,000 radiata pine tree seedlings now available for the 2025 planting season.
Check our planting calendar here to learn more about which flowers and vegetables would be available each season. If you see varieties that you are interested in, but they are not yet available online, add your name to the notify list and our system will email you as soon as they are available.
Happy gardening!
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