Most gardens in New Zealand have perennials hiding somewhere within the shadows or recesses of the landscape. Protecting and caring for perennials over the cold winter periods can be very successful with some simple easy to follow gardening advice below: - Bring indoors any tender culinary herbs you have within your garden that you may want to keep from frost burn, place the containers somewhere with good light, provide free drainage and water in-frequently over the winter season. - Cover any plants within your garden that are tender to frost with frost cloth, Citrus when young in particular. Some lower growing perennials such as begonia will survive a hard frost using straw as a frost cover. Cover with a layer 100 mm thick, if possible remove the straw during the sunlight hours. - A gentle hose or sprinkler cover of all plants in a heavy frost can break any ice, WATER BEFORE SUNRISE!!! This may help avoid plants from 'melting'. - Shade cloth or weed mat can substitute as a s...
With the heat of summer one of the best New Zealand drought resistant NZ native plants is the Astelia nervosa 'Westland', favoured by landscapers and gardeners alike. Found to grow in most well drained soils and dry sites, we have found that they will grow in very poor soils or tight containers and show no real signs of stress. They do require a good water every couple of weeks and the occasional fertiliser, but seem to do well in harsh situation. Clump forming they will spread to approx 400mm high and 400mm wide or more, if left to go for it in the open ground they can cover a good amount of ground area quite quickly.