Gardening with Gael - Spring means Seeds vs Weeds

 

Every year I plan to liberally sprinkle Californian poppy seeds around at the end of winter or beginning of spring as the packets recommend. Most years I look in dismay as the Californian poppies bloom elsewhere and yet again I missed the sowing season. This year I may just accomplish it. I have wild flowers, Anzac and Californian poppies, marigolds and calendulas ready. The rain has germinated every seed lurking in the soil and the garden is a mass of weeds and early flowers. Calendulas and nigellas have popped up everywhere.

For those people whose gardens are constantly on the move this has been an amazing spring. As usual there has been a good deal of movement of plants around the Block garden and the rain has been brilliant for them all. I haven’t had to cart buckets of water at all. In goes the plant, down comes the rain.

The fence around the walled rose garden is complete and after the administrations of Jan, the roses are all a mass of new shoots. The Gardener magazine this month has a great article on roses including recommendations for their care. I have not managed the recommended spraying programme to avoid black spot and I am reluctant to spray for insects. Instead the article suggests planting nectar rich plants around the roses to attract ladybirds, hoverfly and other aphid eating and beneficial insects. Sage, dianthus, asters, catmint, stocks and penstemons are all recommended. I guess that means a trip to the market.

This year Rowie has grown beautiful tall stemmed dianthus. I fell upon them with delight. I remember my son Matthew growing them in his school garden and we picked their flowers for months. She has a huge range of potted colour ready for gardens in the Garden Ramble who need to fill empty spaces, including a number of the recommended annuals and sweet peas.

I was down there by 8am last Saturday morning to gather up a selection to plant around the roses. At the last minute I spotted some hollyhocks. I love hollyhocks but have never had the right situation for them. Now I have a fence that forms the walled garden, the north face an ideal place to grow the hollyhocks. More rocks, more compost and the hollyhocks are in facing north and getting the full sun they require. An hour later it rained.

Right next to Rowie, her son Rick has a wide selection of native plants, many of them endemic to the area. He has my favourite kohekohe and griselina lucida. Box has bought hundreds of flowering manuka for the hillside from him and they have doubled in size and flowering already.

Then over to the g.a.s. service station which has an amazing array of plants in a relatively small area. I think Jacquie is psychic. She always has exactly what I am looking for, including a good range of seeds and my favourite red back gardening gloves. If she doesn’t have a plant she is adept at ordering in.

Locally we are now well supplied with trees, shrubs, natives and seedlings, garden centres servicing both the village and the Heads. Mangawhai Landscape Supplies near Jack Boyd Drive has increased their range of plants and I noticed some little white stones I may need for the path. Box suggested that would be easier than scouring the beach. Mangawhai Garden Centre, situated at the old Naja site, has reopened with a great variety of coastal plants. New varieties arrive every day and there I found some well grown calendulas.

The race between the seedlings and the weeds is on.

FULL SUN: I love hollyhocks but until now have never had the right situation for them.