Ask the Gardna

Ask the Gardna Garden Advice,
Specialist Fruit tree pruning and care,
Plant Doctor.

Here's what I wrote in the latest copy of the Beacon's Ita supplement if you missed it.Water HarvestingSummer weather is...
18/12/2025

Here's what I wrote in the latest copy of the Beacon's Ita supplement if you missed it.

Water Harvesting

Summer weather is starting to kick in. and watering will become one of the main tasks in the garden. Water Harvesting is the term to describe collecting and storing your own water. It offsets the water meter bill and can be used in times of emergency.

Rain water is great for the garden and some plants such as strawberries, palms and tomatoes are quite sensitive to chlorine which is present in treated town water. Chlorine can also build up in the soil of indoor house plants.

Water collection can be a simple as well placed bucket or rubbish bin under a shade sail drip.

You can also collect off your roof using rain diverters, which are a small plastic device that is easily installed into your current down pipe. A standard 15mm hose fitting clicks into the side of the diverter and the other end of the hose drains the water into a tank or barrel. When the barrel is full, the diverter sends water back down the drain pipe where it would have gone anyway. This way the tank never overflows and is always topped up. There is a very clever diverter that will NOT collect the first 20 litres. The idea being that the first flush of water contains a few leaves and any debris off the roof . This gets diverted down the drain pipe first and then the following water goes into your tank. Tanks and barrels can be located in strategic positions to allow for watering or positioned near the down pipe and hidden around the side of the house or behind a hedge. By placing the barrel or tank on a stand you will be able to place a bucket or watering can underneath the outlet.

Food grade plastic barrels (the size of the good old 44 gallon drum) are ideal and hold about 200 litres. I saw one recently that caught water in a wheelie bin. A bucket could be quickly filled by lifting the lid. If you are really keen then get the biggest tank you can afford. Its amazing how much water comes off a standard house in a small shower. The plastic tank you see in a metal cage is called and IBC (international bulk container) and are ideal.There are also thin rectangular tanks to fit beside the house. A wine barrel looks flash,

Tips

Many books suggest watering in the evening only. The main reason being less water will be lost by evaporation from the sun. I disagree with evening watering. Watering in the evening drops the soil temperature and growth slows down. Wet leaves in the evening are more prone to fungus diseases compared with those allowed to dry out before it gets dark. The ideal time to water is 10 AM. This allows time for the plant to dry out and the soil temperature to get back to normal

Some people love to water. They go around and give each individual plant the amount it needs. You can dream and plan and generally escape the world. Some plants require more water than others depending on the type of plant or soil or position. Reducing water on leaves can reduce fungal problems, Hand watering with a hose or watering can suits me

Irrigation systems are great if you are busy. or going on holiday. There are a myriad of easy fit connections that can spit, mist, drip or spin depending on plant need. Some send water 90 or 180 degrees only so you can keep paths dry .The idea is to buy a basic starter kit and then add the particular emitters as you need.

Mulching is a term used when you place things like grass clippings or compost around plants to reduce water loss. Now is the time to mulch all plants. Don't use fresh clippings as these tend to heat up as they rot . Bagged up compost or pea straw work well

December Jobs

Continue to sow summer vegetable seeds directly in the soil. Vegetables such as lettuce, spinach,carrots and beetroot don't transplant very well and bolt to flowering at this time of the year. It’s too late for capsicums or eggplants from seed, so get some plants instead. Plant two or three courgette seeds in the ground now so that when your current ones get mildew in February you can pull them out without a gap in production

Keep some of the laterals you remove from tomatoes. These form roots very easily and when planted in February will provide you with strong healthy tomatoes when others have succumbed to blight. Push laterals down into soft soil and water them in. These will flower and produce fruit in under a month

It may sound strange yet NOW is also the main period for sowing plants for the winter garden. This week I am planting parsnip seeds directly into the soil and shall be planting seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts and leeks. By planting now, they will have all of Jan Feb March and April to grow while there are still temperatures above 15 degrees. As May and June arrive the temperature will drop and no real growth occurs. You will be harvesting right through to June and July (winter). Winter is a storage time not a growing time, so start your winter garden now.

Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is an old fashioned small tree still found in a few gardens. It is deciduous with heavily scent...
16/08/2025

Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is an old fashioned small tree still found in a few gardens. It is deciduous with heavily scented mauve/purple flowers in September.
Traditional cuttings taken now only yield a few plants per 20 cuttings, so if you do it this way take lots.
Root cuttings are the most reliable way to propagate new plants. These photos show the root being exposed and then then wrapped with old copper wire cut from any old car wreck. I once used the spring out of an old pen .
Then cover the hole back over. Pumice helps with drainage if you are in a low spot but is not necessary.
Green shoots emerge around November from each wrap. These can be cut from the parent plant and planted in their permanent position or left connected until next winter when it's dormant again. Leaving them until next winter means you won't have to look after them at all. However, be careful you don't accidentally behead them with the lawn mower.

10/08/2025

August is grafting time. Feijoa are first, as they are the first plants to show new growth when
they emerge from winter dormancy. The idea is to catch this quick window between
dormancy and waking up. Collecting from the trees and grafting are done on the same day.
Next are deciduous trees such as apples and will be grafted at the end of the month. Right
now you need to collect the varieties you want and store pieces the size of pencils n the
fridge. I will do a video about this in the next few days. Here are a couple of videos and
photos (part 2 and photos in comments) about grafting feijoas, which needs to be done now.

Back in print. Today's Beacon supplement.
18/06/2025

Back in print. Today's Beacon supplement.

It’s time to prune most trees and I am available to do this for you or teach you how to do it yourself or a bit of both....
08/05/2024

It’s time to prune most trees and I am available to do this for you or teach you how to do it yourself or a bit of both. You can contact me, Shane O’Leary, through my page https://www.facebook.com/askthegardna or phone 0275138788 or email [email protected]
In general, a good rule of thumb for WHEN to prune fruit trees and ornamental shrubs is immediately after they have fruited or flowered. This gives the plant an entire year to do its thing again following your intervention. If you delay a few months, then the plant loses months of development time which can lead to smaller fruit and a lower yield. Pruning too late after flowering will result in little or no fruit at all.
Blueberries and feijoas are good examples of plants that need a whole year to develop and must be pruned now for best results. These trees need to be cut back now to allow light and air for plant health and fruit development.
Peaches, plums,grapes, figs and all the deciduous trees and shrubs can be pruned now that most of the leaves are off. These trees fruit on older wood that must remain on the tree for 3 or 4 years. On this old wood right now, are structures called spurs. From these spurs, green shoots will appear next spring and carry the fruit. If you pruned incorrectly and removed these spurs, you can lose fruiting for up to two years.

Fruit Tree Pruning Time.If fruit trees are left longer than 5 years between prunings, there will be thick branches (Wris...
25/06/2023

Fruit Tree Pruning Time.
If fruit trees are left longer than 5 years between prunings, there will be thick branches (Wrist size) or larger that will inhibit fruit size and yield. These branches still fruit, however the fruit is often much smaller than the 2 or 3 year old wood on the same tree. The problem is further compounded in summer, when the old unproductive wood is full of leaves, shading the lower younger fruiting growth. It can also increase humidity around fruit, increasing the likelihood of fungal problems like brown rot and black spot.
When pruning older trees you need to recognise which limbs to remove so the remaining fruiting wood gets maximum sunlight and air circulation. Trees younger than 5 years old need a totally different approach, as each and every pruning cut is a carefully considered decision about how the cut will be influencing future growth. The aim of pruning young trees is to set up the permanent trunk and arms of the vase shaped tree. After that, there should never be any wood older than 5 years allowed to remain. Look at big old orchard trees, they can have huge 50 year old trunks and limbs, some way older, yet the orchardist has maintained the growth emerging from the "permanent structure " by pruning out the oldest wood each year over a 5 year cycle. The young twig emerging this spring should stay on the tree for 5 years and year 2, 3 and 4 will be productive by which time it will be about wrist size and removed to continue the cycle .
I can help you get your old trees productive and new plantings pruned correctly for future shape and size. We can do it together side by side and learn at the same time or I can do the job for you. Send me a message if interested. Prune in June, if you deny July, then in August you must.

Blocked gutters, clogged drains and slippery decks are a reminder of the power of fallen leaves.They can bring a city to...
09/06/2023

Blocked gutters, clogged drains and slippery decks are a reminder of the power of fallen leaves.They can bring a city to a halt. Leaves are also a powerful improver of soil and now is the time to take advantage of this bounty ,so it can be made into leaf mould for use in the vegetable and flower gardens next spring. Leaf Mould is what remains after large piles of fallen leaves are left in cages to rot down. I use it in spring to make seed raising mix on a big scale. It's w**d free and with its huge surface area to volume ratio it holds lots of moisture. Unlike commercial seed mix it has a lot of biological activity and I have never had any fungal problems with leaf mould as seed mix.
Look for areas along fence lines where deciduous leaves collect. I use an old wool fadge and pick them up with two bits of plywood as paddles. You can also suck them up with a leaf blower.
Pack as many leaves as you can into a ring of chicken wire pegged to the soil. This will give maximum aeration and stop the leaves blowing away. Then just leave the leaves to the elements over winter. In spring it will be reduced to about a tenth and now be a chocolate coloured mass called Leaf Mould.
I use wheelbarrows of it in August when I mix it with equal parts of sifted pumicefor the best seed mix ever. Tomatoes love it.

Growing young gardeners
16/03/2023

Growing young gardeners

After the bread we went into the garden, harvesting and planting. Get your cabbages and cauliflowers in now. They need t...
16/03/2023

After the bread we went into the garden, harvesting and planting. Get your cabbages and cauliflowers in now. They need to grow before the frosts. Winter is coming.

Blight is a fungus disease that thrives in warm humid weather. It has been particularly bad this year and wiped out man...
21/02/2023

Blight is a fungus disease that thrives in warm humid weather. It has been particularly bad this year and wiped out many tomatoes. Preventative chemicals can be applied right from seed stage, however I prefer not to use harsh chemicals on food plants.
My first approach is varietal. By growing about 6 different varieties or more in the same year, at least one of them will come through for me and give me the buckets full I need for preserving and freezing.. The thing is, the variety that yielded well last year may not be the one to perform this year. Each tomato has it’s ideal conditions, some originate from damp climates like ours eg San Mazarno from Italy while other tomatoes are from dry climates such as Roma from California. This year all my Roma plants have blight on the fruit, but last year 10 Roma tomatoes yielded two big banana boxes. This year there is barely 10 fruit edible
My relish this year is from a variety called Oxheart which totally failed last year when we had a dry hot summer.
Andiamo is another variety only available from King's Seed, it has been the most regular performer even in poor seasons.
Regardless of blight, I always pick the fruit as soon as the green shoulder on the fruit has gone.They won't get any bigger or sweeter, so I pick them green and put them in the dark with a gap between each tomato. The result is, two weeks later, lovely firm red tomatoes. The red is quite unique, which I'm hoping shows in the photo.
Once you see blight on the first fruit, pick the unblemished perfect ones below which will be about two weeks younger. Dropping the temp by dark storage hinders the blight ‘s development.
Copper sprays have had no effect.
Ripening the tomatoes in this way, also increases your harvest as you don’t lose tomatoes to insects, birds, rodents, hail and other weather.

19/01/2023

Here is s video on pruning raspberries. It also applies to Boysenberries. A blind gardener taught me this when I was ten. He would feel for the brown ones and prune them out leaving the soft new growth that he could easily distinguish. Even easier with eyes, out with the old and in with the new. Space them out and add fert. Done.

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