News location:

Canberra Today 16°/18° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Trim little, but often for hedges

Azaleas in full bloom… can get a trim back now. Photo: Jackie Warburton

Gardening writer JACKIE WARBURTON shares some tips about the best out of hedges. 

CANBERRA has a fascination with hedges and the key to maintaining a good, thick hedge is to trim little, but often. 

Jackie Warburton.

The smaller the leaf, the better the hedge. They are a long-term investment in the garden and very important as privacy screens and microclimates. 

The ground preparation is important and it’s helpful if plants can be laid in a trench, so the root system of the hedge is equal. 

When choosing hedges, think of the future maintenance and access for pruning. One of my favourite hedges I recommend for Canberra is Viburnum tinus. It’s a run-of-the mill plant and very common, but my reasons are that its evergreen, flowers in winter, attracts bees and predatory insects and is tough in all weather. It grows up to four metres but can be clipped at any height. 

If viburnums are cut really hard, they respond. They do get some silvering on the leaves, and this is more than likely thrips. 

Remove fallen and dead leaves from under the hedge and allow good air flow and this will minimise the insect damage. Spray with organic horticultural oil in the cool of the day and when the hedge is not in direct sunlight if you have this problem. 

BROAD beans are really coming into flower now as the weather warms.

Broad beans are planted directly in the soil in the dead of winter and are not bothered by frost. The warmer weather initiates flowering, and pods can be picked when they are young and harvested constantly to ensure a continuous crop. They are of the Fabaceae family, meaning that they enrich the soil that they are growing in with nitrogen. 

When I pull out the entire plant, I will plant leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, silver beet, rocket in that spot so they benefit from the extra nitrogen left in the soil. 

Broad beans… coming into flower as the weather warms. Photo: Jackie Warburton

NOW’S the time to get climbing beans in the garden. Bush beans are self-supporting, but climbing beans require a frame at least two metres high. 

Bush beans are ready to harvest in 50-60 days and climbing beans will be ready for harvest around 70-90 days. Beans need at least six hours of sunlight and like a rich loose soil. Plenty of manure and a pH of 6-7 for optimum growth and fertilise with high-potassium fertiliser. Potassium is for flowering plants and helps them move water and sugar inside themselves. 

SPRING flowering natives such as philothecas, boronias and any that have finished flowering should be lightly trimmed and fertilised with a low-phosphorus fertiliser, such as a native fertiliser. Ground-cover natives, such as brachyscome and scaevolas, can have a trim now the spring flush of growth has finished. 

Kangaroo paws should be coming into flower and make a beautiful cut flower in the house. They suffer from a fungal disease called ink spot, which shows up as a blackening of the leaves and flower stem. 

To prevent ink spot, prune them hard after flowering, remove any damaged leaves and put the cuttings in the green bin and not the compost. But not now as flowers are forming, it’s a job for autumn.  

CAMELLIAS should have a good prune now and have drooping branches shortened. Old camellias can get a brutal cut and can survive quite well. 

They are shallow rooted and don’t like root competition; they need moisture around their drip zone and are a must coming into and through summer. 

Azaleas can get a trim back now, too. Some small trees such as crab apples and ornamental peach can be pruned after flowering to keep their shape and is best done when the weather is dry and warm to prevent fungal diseases.

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Jackie Warburton

Jackie Warburton

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Wine

The local fiano that punches above its weight 

"The Collector fiano was perfect to drink on a hot day: crisp, textural and with an element of preserved lemon. It is not a low-alcohol wine with a nudge above 13 per cent alcohol by volume," writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.

Lifestyle

Two words and you may be off to Jamala Lodge

Here's a special advertising feature with a twist of April Fool's Day fun and the chance to win a free night's accommodation for two, valued at $1850 at the award-winning Jamala Wildlife Lodge at the National Zoo and Aquarium.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews