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| Winter means shorter days but still plenty to do in the garden |
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By HEATHER BUTLER WE are well and truly into the season of beanies and hot cuppas! Still plenty to do but just a far shorter span of time in the day to do it! Roses should be pruned and if you are having ongoing trouble with powdery mildew and/or black spot fungal diseases, then now is also the time to give them a preventative spray of lime sulphur. This spray used on plants in full leaf will defoliate them quicker than you can blink! However, used in winter, it disposes of the dormant spores, and gives you a head start for spring and summer. That doesn't mean you won't have any problems ever again, but hopefully to a lesser extent which will mean less spraying by you overall. Bed the roses down with a dressing of your favourite manure and mulch and you should have the best display of the street this spring! This includes any bare-rooted roses you have bought. Make sure though that you don't mix any fertiliser into the hole as you plant them, as it will burn any new roots they produce. Put the food on the soil surface and let it percolate down in its own time. Treat any new bare-rooted fruit trees the same way, remembering to prune at least one third of their branches off to compensate for the roots that have been cut to remove them from the beds where they grew. The main sprays used in winter are leaf curl spray for peaches and nectarines, and pest oil on apples to help with wooly aphis and codling moth. Don't forget to spray your new peaches and nectarines because they will probably be infected and this disease affects the vigour of the trees at any age. Raspberry canes need to have the canes that fruited last season removed, as they will have died. You can prune any young canes that are too tall, but remember, these are the canes that will fruit this spring and if you prune too hard you will have no fruit! PS: Just in case that isn't enough-don't forget its nearly spud time. Make sure you buy them early or you'll miss out!
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