Important jobs to get done in the garden

Plants are growing fast while some flowers make an appearance

Despite everything else going on at the moment, like Christmas shopping, writing Christmas cards and wrapping parcels, the garden doesn’t stop growing and there can be a plethora of jobs to do before the festive season really takes a hold.

Unlike more northerly parts of Europe where winter has probably set in and gardens can be covered with frost and in some places snow, here in Cyprus, we enjoy reasonable temperatures and lots of warm sunshine.

The air is full of the heady scent of loquat flowers and the pretty leaves of tiny cyclamen are popping up under trees and in sheltered places. Freesias and ornithogalums continue to grow at a fast rate along with osteospermums, some of which are already in flower. Self-sown seedlings are popping up through the ground and cuttings are putting out roots.

There are many indoor jobs to do at this time of year as you prepare for all the festivities to come, but there are some other important outdoor jobs to fit in. Feeding the fruit and nut trees is top priority.

The trees will be putting out new leaves as the fruits colour up and need a fertiliser that will feed everything this month when hopefully the winter rains will wash it all into the roots for you.

Mature trees need 900gm (3 mugs) of 20.10.10 fertiliser, whilst young trees need 300gm – (just one mug) spread around between the trunk and the tree canopy, where it will do the most good.

A reminder about the numbers on fertiliser packets that some find confusing. Fertilisers are generally referred to by the letters NPK. The first number is for Nitrogen, for good green growth; the second number is Phosphorous, which ensures good root growth and ripe fruits and the third number is for the Potassium content, which promotes good flowers and fruits. 

There are other ‘helpers’ included in the fertilisers called ‘trace elements’, which include some zinc and iron and other things to assist healthy growth. 20.10.10 fertiliser will nourish the roots, fruits and leaves of the trees in the right quantities at this time of year.

Mediterranean fruit flies may be about now that the fruits are ripening, which makes the skins much softer for them to puncture and lay their eggs inside. Not lemons though, as their peel seems to be too tough for them. Choose a still day if you feel you must spray your fruit trees, so that the spray is not blown everywhere. 

I mentioned last month that this is a good time to be planting fruit trees if the ground is not too cold. If in doubt about what you might be buying, choose a tree that has a few fruits on it already, so that you will not be disappointed. 

Some trees can be pruned now that their leaves have dropped. Pecans in particular can grow to enormous heights if they aren’t kept under control. Shrubs as well as trees may also need a tidy up.

This following rule applies to both trees and shrubs – cut out any dead or diseased branches and those that cross in the middle of the tree.

The exceptions to this rule are plum trees, which grow at higher elevations here. They should be pruned after harvesting the fruit, or they may be affected by ‘silver leaf’, a fungal disease of the wood.

The fungus infects the wood through pruning wounds that have not healed, and causes a silvering of the leaves, followed by the death of the branch. 

I have stopped growing any prunus trees in my garden, along with other friends who live nearby, as they were subject to bacterial canker, which is very difficult to deal with.

A reminder that there is still time this month to plant bare root roses now if the ground is not too cold. When you get the plant home remove the packing and stand it in a pail of water for several hours to recover. Trim the roots to about 15cm.

Make sure that the planting hole is larger and deeper than the roots. Add some slow-release fertiliser to the bottom of the damp hole and fill in with soil keeping the graft point above the level of the soil. If you don’t do this  you will eventually get suckers forming at that point from underground. All hybrid tea roses are grafted so allow for this problem.

As the weather chills down and if you live above sea level,  you may need to protect your potted plants during the winter months and you can do this by bringing them under cover or wrapping them in horticultural fleece or sacking but remember to leave a space so that a flow of air can get to the plant.

Weeds love a drop of rain and also a little sunshine and before long they can become a forest! If you are growing winter veggies then any rain or watering you might do will just encourage weeds to sprout up between the rows!

So out with your hoe and get rid of them before they become settled in! Just a little walk round every other day or so, should deal with them.

If you haven’t planted your brassica plugs (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and so on) yet, remember not to plant them in the same place each year. If you don’t change their position a fungal infection may occur in the soil leading to stunted growth and distorted roots. Although work has been ongoing to produce club-root resistant seeds, I am not sure if they have reached Cyprus yet! 

If you are growing broad beans, then remember to pinch out the top growth when the plants are about 10cm so that they will bush out. There may be some cabbage white butterflies about laying their eggs on any fleshy succulent leaves, but hopefully they shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

In some old village gardens and in coastal areas you may see tree poinsettias in bloom, which really need a humid environment in which to thrive. Their bracts are a different shape to the potted variety, more elongated and have a bigger cluster of yellow flowers in the centre.

Originally found growing wild in southern Mexico by botanist Joel Robert Poinsett, they have been developed over many decades into those we know today. It is recorded that they were to be found in American nurseries as long ago as 1836, when some seedlings were sent to Botanic Gardens in England, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that they started to be regarded as ‘the’ Christmas flower in England. In America there is even a special day dedicated to them – December 12!

A reminder that poinsiettas belong to the Euphorbia family, which all have a milky sap, so that when a stem breaks off, this sap oozes out. Some people are allergic to this, so take care when handling the plants.  

Red still seems to be the most popular colour, and why not, as it is regarded as a must for Christmas. Much hybridising has been done over the years and speckled varieties are now available with creamy or mottled bracts (remember that the tiny flowers are yellow and held inside these bracts).

They do need some extra care if they are to last over the Christmas period. Place them out of draughts and not between the curtains and the windowpane. Only give them a little water occasionally when the top of the soil is dry.

Sometimes they can last for months and might even colour up again later in the year all on their own! In spite of all the efforts of the growers to give us a variety of colours and forms, I still prefer the ‘Christmassy’ red ones.

POTM

Euphorbia milii var. splendens

Euphorbia milii var. splendens is also known as the ‘crown of thorns’. It is a broad-leaf evergreen plant and a native of Madagascar, which has a more tropical climate than Cyprus.  Nevertheless, it grows well here, usually as a pot plant.

The fleshy, bright-green leaves hide sharp black thorns, so beware when handling this plant. Like other euphorbias including the Christmas ones, any broken stems will exude a sticky irritating white substance.

The tiny flowers grow in clusters and rather like bougainvillea are surround by bracts of red, peach or sometimes yellow.

These are drought tolerant plants and do not need a lot of watering, in fact if they have too much, they may suffer from root rot. So, water sparingly and perhaps cover the top of the soil with some small pebbles.

In Cyprus they bloom in late summer into autumn but need some shade from the midday sun or the leaves may burn. Having said that though plants exposed to the sun will give you more flowers.