It’s time to plant new fruit trees, pop in some leafy green seedlings and plan spring crops 
Chores for your early winter gardening
Winter has come. Activity in the garden is slowing. In cooler parts of the country, growth has all but stopped. With the plants needing less attention, more time can be paid to longer-term and less-urgent tasks – build a cold frame to get a head start on spring. Or a tank to collect winter’s rain ready for summer’s dry weather. Or sort out that tool shed, clear the gutters, plan new plantings… the list goes on.
What to plant now:
Deciduous trees and shrubs and bare-rooted fruit trees can be planted now but hold off until spring for citrus. Unless your soil is heavy, sticky clay, many vegetables can still be planted in winter.
Try silver beet, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, kale, bok choy and garlic. Raised beds also help alleviate the possibility of soils becoming waterlogged – and unproductive – over winter.
Now is the perfect time to plant your garlic.
Frangipani and hibiscus propagation
In warmer areas, propagation of shrubs and perennials continues. In subtropical zones, frangipani and hibiscus may need pruning. Use the clippings to propagate more.
For frangipani, select cuttings longer than one metre. Cut straight across and leave for a few days until a callus forms (when the end hardens). For hibiscus, hardwood prunings around 10cm long are best. Dip all cuttings in rooting hormone powder, then pack into a sandy soil mix (remembering cuttings love company). Keep damp. Once roots are well-developed, plant them in the garden.
Prune your frangipani now, and save it for a few days before you replant it for the best results.
In temperate regions, hardwood cuttings may be taken from shrubs and vines while they are dormant. Likely candidates include hydrangea, roses, rhododendron, hebes, pomegranates, raspberries, grapes, bougainvillea and wisteria.
Top tip: Cutting the top of the cane at an angle, and the bottom straight across helps you work out which way up it should go – not always easy with bare sticks.
Dig and divide
Autumn-flowering perennials, such as solidago, helenium and aster, can be lifted, divided and replanted. This is best done every three or so years, or when the clumps appear tired. Separate sections of the root with shoots, by teasing apart or slicing and replant promptly.
Aster (left) and Helenuim
Consider this: Chipper
Mulcher, shredder, chipper – they’re all pretty much the same thing, a machine for easy, speedy conversion of tree and shrub prunings into a moisture-saving, weed-suppressing, soil-conditioning mulch.
Hyundai Wood Chipper 7HP 180, $1,599, at Trade Tested
The stream of chips can be left in a pile to rot, spread about the garden, or added to the compost. Be it an urban courtyard or a rambling country garden, there’s a chipper to match. Most of the gruntier versions, which can consume hefty branches, are petrol-powered; with the smaller versions tending to run on battery or electricity.
Steal this look
A sturdy wooden gate painted a pretty powder blue-grey sits among a profusion of foliage and flowers. The grey extends a calm and sophisticated understated welcome.
Were it painted burnt orange, the vibe would have been subtly different. A red gate, however, would suggest more of an exciting place where passion and good fortune may meet.
Black hints at a sober and elegant garden contained within. And white a fresh, old-fashioned purity and innocence. Purple, an unusual gate colour, lends itself to the noble garden, serious and spiritual; while pink exudes great puffs of love and romance.
The other important element in the scene is the arch of willow and clematis growing over the gate, offering shelter and a place to pause and check things that are either entering or leaving the garden. Surprisingly effective, these arches are easily made – see the instructions below.
How to make a living willow arch:
The number of willow canes needed will depend on how long you wish the structure to be. For a basic arch, harvest at least 16 willow canes, about 1.5 to 2 metres long.
Push the thicker end of the first two canes about 7cm into the ground each side of the path. Then interweave them over your head.
Plant several more canes close by, repeating the interweaving and twisting around each other.
Now, make a similar structure about 15cm away, ensuring some canes connect the two sets. The canes will quickly root in all but the driest conditions but regular watering will help them get well established.
Repeat the plantings for tunnels until reaching the desired length. Throughout the arch’s lifespan, occasional pruning and weaving in and out of shoots will be necessary. Prunings serve as valuable resources for new projects, whether planted or dried.
Landscape 101: Shady side
The most reviled, feared and neglected area of any garden is usually that dark, shady space on the southern side of a wall. Quite understandable in our climate, where we are inclined to grab all the sun and warmth we can, and in the process make such spots more attractive and habitable. Whereas the sunless sides of buildings are often service areas, storing the likes of bins, gas bottles and heat pump outlets.
Soil in shady areas is usually poorer than elsewhere. Trees impoverish the soil by sucking out its goodness and moisture, while high walls shelter beds from rain and prevent the accumulation of fallen leaves or other detritus to feed the soil.
Keeping that in mind, the number one rule for planting in the shade is to actively build up the soil by adding repeated and generous amounts of compost, leaf mould, manure, wood chips, straw – utilising anything and everything available. Number two is to be just as generous when planting. Dig holes bigger than you would imagine you need, then incorporate compost into the soil just below the root line of the new plants.
The choice of shade-loving plants is vast, and you may be surprised at the number of plants we grow in sunny spots that do just as well or far better in the shade, often having a longer flowering season and with more intense colours.
Hellebore, primroses, polyanthus, dicentra, aquilegia, many of the campanulas, thalictrum, Japanese anemone, day lilies, aconitum, phlox, violets, snowdrops, many ferns and our native rengarenga count among these smaller plants.
For shrubs look to the witch hazels, hydrangea, skimmia, Japanese maples, dogwoods, daphne, deutzia, spirea and some roses. Shade-loving groundcovers include vinca or for taller cover, try Carex trifida, a native of the Chatham Islands with an intriguing seedhead.
Words: Mary Lovell-Smith
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