The January summer garden is alive and full of so many joys

The joy of just ‘being’ in your garden surrounded by the symphony of birdsong

It’s such a joy wandering in my garden in the freshness of the early morning, or at dusk with the lingering warmth of the summer sun. Just being in the moment, appreciating and loving the many scents and birdsong. It’s a lush garden this January thanks to regular rain. A lush area is defined as “...a lot of green, healthy plants, grass, and trees”. Most interesting!

It’s easy to forget to stop and relish the rewards of your work. Take more than a moment to pause and enjoy your mid-summer garden. This is the time when your garden often catches its breath and has a second wind. Gardens are very forgiving no matter how much time you’ve been able to spend on them. It’s so encouraging to be rewarded with new flowers, growth and colour. Notice where there are new bursts of colour, and while you’re at it, what’s that birdsong. Is it new?

This is payback time if you have edibles in your garden. My strawberries are flourishing. Perhaps it’s because of this summer’s increased rainfall or the feed of compost 6-8 weeks ago? It’s hard to beat having homegrown strawberries ready for Christmas. Key to growing ‘fruitful’ strawberries is a nice well-drained sunny spot, organic fertiliser or compost, regular watering and bird netting. If you plant two or three different varieties you will extend the fruiting season. I discovered an upturned double laundry tub in our garden which I filled with a mixture of dry twigs, compost and sandy soil from our garden. The strawberries seem quite at home! You can also grown them in pots and hanging baskets.

Strawberries growing happily in an old concrete tub with rogue poppy to the left

They’ll fruit happily for a few years before you need to replace the plants. Look out for runners (there’s one hanging down the front of the rub in the image above). I leave them attached to the plant, and make sure they’re lying on top of the soil to root. If you’d like to  help pin them down you can use small stones. Once they start to show signs of life you can cut the runner and plant them out to replace an older plant.

Fruit picked from the concrete tub

Not the biggest plum harvest this summer, thanks to a wet and blustery spring during blossoming, but we’re appreciating the plums we do have, and plum jam and stew is once again on the menu. We have plenty of grapes ripening despite my harsh pruning of them in winter. It’ll be interesting to see if the cooler start to summer weather will affect their overall sweetness.

Apps that will help you identify NZ flowers, plants and birdsong

I’ve been trialling bird and plant apps while out on my summer walks with our Irish Terrier. It’s quite fun! How about giving some of the apps below a try?

Search on your phone, tablet or PC for:

• Aotearoa Species Classifier

  • identifies NZ plants, animals and fungi

  • developed by NZ researchers at Waikato and Canterbury Universities

• iNaturalist (app and website)

  • identifies plants, animals and fungi

  • developed in 2008 by UC Berkeley School of Information

  • good choice if you want to connect with others, share data and contribute to citizen science

• Seek by iNaturalist (app)

  • identifies plants, animals and fungi

  • good choice if you do not want to create an account, share data or are just getting started exploring nature

• NZ Trees app

  • identifies NZ’s native trees, ferns and shrubs

  • developed at Auckland University of Technology (AUT)

• Merlin Bird ID app – NZ pack

  • developed by NZ Bird Atlas team

  • works offline so handy if you’re in a remote location

• Bird Nerd NZ

  • share information on NZ birdsong

  • developed by Chris Hawkins 2019

This month’s gardening gems:

• it’s never too late to add mulch to your garden. It’s best to wait until after rain before mulching.

• targeted weeding (pull and drop, unless it’s noxious: oxalis, convolvulus etc)

• add organic fertilisers for a bit of a boost to your garden. There are many to choose from but some to look out for include Bio Gro certified, Ecofriendly and GroSafe products; organic plant food, chicken and sheep pellets; epsom salts (good for citrus, veggies and roses).

• targeted watering – especially for plants you’ve planted in the last 6-12 months

• de-head or lightly prune flowers and flowering shrubs to encourage new growth (chop and drop = mulch)

• summer pruning (as opposed to winter pruning) of fruit trees is less likely to encourage strong regrowth

• feed your lawn and check for grass grub or Porina caterpillar. I notice my lawn has small, patchy areas of dead grass which indicates grubs are present. There are also some signs of moss.