Re: How are the girls going?

Ginny wrote:
Jill wrote:
Ginny wrote:
Your Clematis montana sounds lovely. My 'Elizabeth' died over summer

When i get time to put some videos up on youtube I have one of our montana which has been in place for a few years now - its about 35 - 40 feet up a pine now, and about 20 feet across.
Amazes me how far it gets every year.


:( I still have a couple of large flowering types and two C.viticella
but they don't do well over summer although the flowers are worth
trying to keep them alive. Been trying to get some vines growing on
the chook yard fence. So far pasionfruit, choko, grape and ivy have
all died when summer arrives. This will be the 4th summer to try
again. I even lost all the wormwoods. Going to try a couple
mulberries in the yard as soon as the cuttings are ready to
transplant.

That sounds like a slightly warmer climate than we have <g>


If I remember correctly you don't like it over about 20°C so our summers will knock your socks off.

Yes, same here. It's blimmin' cold here now but when I think of the joys of "better" climates I recall how bitchy I get when it's too hot!

Citrus would do okay if I wasn't on the solid clay but even digging a hole and back filling it with good soil only gives them a slightly better chance.

Raised beds.... Raised beds and lots of rocks because then the roots get a chance to shelter from the extreme heat and any moisture around gets prevented from evaporating. Raised beds on their own provide good drainage but that's a mixed blessing unless you can prevent loss of whatever water you manage to provide in the hottest times. Rocks, bricks, lumps of concrete....

So far most of the better garden beds are raised but they are harder to keep moist over summer. So the mulberries survive, lavenders if I don't overwater them, daisy bushes, that sort of thing. Succulents and cacti but they don't like the winter water logging.

Have you limed? A few years ago I read that bitter pit in apples is caused by lack of lime so I chucked lime all over the orchard. Amazing improvement in size of fruit and health of trees. Then I did the vege garden and everywhere except the rhododendrons. It liberates so much of the goodies in clay soil, of which I too have an abundance! Compost is good for adding some nutrients and de-clumping the rocky/gluggy clay but lime is the thing that really made a difference. Part of the problem with clay is it's SO hard to wet it when it's dry, and holes dug to plant in turn into ponds from which the water can't escape so it rots the roots in the wet weather. Diatomite is a great help if you can get it.

A post hole digger is one of my favourite tools for making water reservoirs, filled with sticks and all sorts of coarse vegetable matter to facilitate water draining down into the depths, and a place for worms to work and a destination for roots to seek out water and nutrients. Mine is an old human-powered model. Hard work but worth it. It's a long slow job transforming a clay patch into a good garden isn't it!

A L P



A L P
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