July In The Garden - 2026
Hello friends,
July is the depth of winter here in Otago, New Zealand. Frosty mornings are a familiar sight, the garden has settled into its winter rhythm, and much of this month's work has been focused on preparing for spring. Although everything feels a little slower at this time of year, there are still plenty of signs that a new growing season is on its way.
Here's what July has looked like in my garden...
What's Flowering:
Surprisingly, the first yellow daffodils are already flowering in my backyard. Their foliage began emerging in early June, with the first blooms opening in early July. For now it's only a handful of flowers, but the main display will begin in August and continue right through until October.
There are still a few calendula flowering in the garden. Over the years I've found they provide flowers for almost the entire year, and their cheerful blooms always brighten the cold, dreary days of winter.
And finally, my young 'Perfume Princess' daphne has been flowering over the past couple of weeks, and its fragrance is intoxicating, filling the entire backyard on sunny still days.
What's Growing:
The lemons on my 'Meyer' lemon tree are beginning to ripen, and I'm looking forward to harvesting them over the coming weeks and putting them to good use in the kitchen.
I'm overwintering some sugar beet plants for seed saving, and they've taken all our winter frosts in their stride. They've remained completely hardy and continue to grow without any problems. It is still another 9 months until I can save seed from these plants, and no doubt I'll have to corral them to stop the seed heads from falling over in summer and autumn.
And finally, I gave my strawberry bed a tidy-up by weeding, removing
the older plants, and replanting it with fresh runners. In the process, I
increased the number of plants from 24 to 40, which should mean a much
bigger strawberry harvest this summer.
Nature Notes
Bird life is abundant at this time of year, with many birds searching for food throughout the garden. As always, the blackbirds have been busy digging up the lawn, vegetable garden, and flower beds in search of worms. Tauhou (also known as silvereyes or waxeyes) have been flitting between the few plants still in flower, searching for nectar, while a pair of pīwakawaka have made themselves at home, darting about in search of insects.
I even managed to photograph one of the pīwakawaka as it followed me around the backyard one sunny afternoon—a lovely reminder that even in the middle of winter, the garden is full of life.
I usually put bird feeders out in the front garden over winter, but with the recent arrival of bird flu in New Zealand, I decided to follow the advice of our local ecosanctuary, Orokonui, and take them down. Hopefully it won't be too long before it's safe to welcome the birds back to the feeders.
July has been surprisingly mild. We've had a total of 19 frosts, with temperatures ranging from –0.1°C down to –2.6°C. For the coldest month of the year, that's quite unusual. In a typical July we would normally expect at least a few frosts of around –6°C, along with plenty of mornings below –4°C.
Every day it seems I'm outside in the early evening throwing frost cloth over my citrus plants, wasabi plant, and seedings growing in my glasshouse. My citrus plants look like ghosts in the garden the next morning...
Our biggest weather event this month occurred on 5–6th of July, when a severe winter storm swept across the South Island. Many areas were blanketed in snow, but unfortunately the air wasn't quite cold enough here. Instead, we received torrential rain from the east, prompting MetService to issue a Red Heavy Rain Warning for Dunedin.
Whenever we get this type of weather pattern, it almost always leads to flooding in our backyard, as well as more widespread flooding across Dunedin. On the 5th of July we recorded 113 mm of rain in just 24 hours, followed by another 80.3 mm on the 6th of July.
As usual, the path leading to our woodshed flooded, so we built a temporary flood barrier using bags of potting mix to keep the water at bay. We keep meaning to fix the problem properly, but this particular weather pattern only comes along every few years, so it never quite makes it to the top of the to-do list.
I took a trip out in the pouring rain to check out our local stream. Luckily it stayed within its banks, even though the water was so swift that even the local ducks didn't want to go anywhere near it.
Luckily, the torrential rain eventually came to an end and the garden began to dry out. We've since enjoyed a run of crisp, sunny winter days, making it much easier to catch up on jobs around the garden.
As July draws to a close, the garden is slowly beginning to wake from its winter rest. My seed orders are on their way, and I can't wait to start filling the glasshouse with trays of seedlings. It won't be long before another growing season is underway.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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A Week of Extreme Weather In October
Hello friends,
October is usually a tumultuous month for us here in Dunedin, with the weather swinging in extremes from hot north westerly gales, to cold southerly fronts, including the threat of possible snow and frost, and this October was definitely no different from previous years regarding this.
In the third week of October we were warned of a spring north westerly wind storm approaching, and the resulting weather watches and orange wind warnings from Metservice had me worried.
In preparing for the north westerly wind storm, it first meant picking up anything outside that could go airborne, including my frost protection buckets (I lost one in the wind, but I eventually found it days later), taking down our bird feeders, moving our patio furniture to a more protected spot, putting our wheelie bins into the woodshed, and tying the glasshouse doors shut as they face the North West.
I also took the precaution of moving my most precious plants out of the glasshouse and into the garage for extra protection. I just couldn't risk losing our tomato plants, and dahlias in pots due to something unforeseen happening, like our glasshouse blowing away.
The big north westerly wind storm itself was frightening, and our house shook and shuddered for hours, first with the North Westerly gales, and then the Southerly front behind it, which took out our grid power for 8 hours. Luckily, we have solar panels on our roof, and a solar battery in our garage, and this system kept our house powered during the blackout (our battery has a storm watch function, and as soon as Metservice sent out the orange wind warning, the system began charging the battery to 100%). We are now very glad we invested in a solar system a couple of years ago.
All around Dunedin mature trees were blown over, trampolines went flying, fences were blown over, and the roofs of houses were lifted off. Many people in the lower South Island lost power for hours, and some for days, and even weeks.
Unfortunately, there were two casualties in my garden from the north westerly wind storm. My Avalanche camellia in the backyard garden snapped off at its base, killing the plant. It was only a year old, and didn't have a thick trunk yet, and it looks like it bent over in the wind until it just snapped. The only good thing about this happening is that it has given me one extra spot to plant a dahlia in this summer, but I am sad that I lost a beloved plant...
And the second casualty, was that my quince tree lost two north west facing tree limbs. They snapped partially off, so I had to trim them back to the nearest healthy branch on the tree. My quince tree is only 3 years old, so it won't suffer from losing a couple of young tree limbs. Thankfully the quince fruit forming on the tree didn't fall off during the storm.
With the north westerly wind storm over, it was time to clean up the garden of plant debris, reinstate our garden furniture to the patio, return the bird feeders to their rightful places, and transfer my precious plants sheltering in our garage back to the glasshouse.
The weekend after the north westerly wind storm was Labour Weekend, the traditional time to plant everything out in the vegetable and main gardens, but I was wary of doing this because Metservice forecast a cold southerly system occurring, with the potential of snow to low levels, and a frost afterward. I refused to risk planting out all my plants into the garden that weekend, only to have to frost cloth them for nights afterward.
So instead of spending the entire Labour weekend out in the garden planting out everything, my plants stayed safely inside the glasshouse where it was definitely warmer than outside, and I watched as the cold weather arrived...
And thank goodness I listened to the Metservice forecast, because the predicted low level snow fell, and settled to about 200 m above sea level in the hills surrounding us, and our temperature dropped to 1.1˚C overnight.
The dahlias growing outside were protected by their frost protection buckets, and all the plants in the glasshouse was protected by a number of layers of frost cloth. After a couple of days the weather warmed up back to early November temperatures, and it was time to plant stuff out in the garden, but it adds to my growing evidence that late October/early November is a risk to my Labour weekend gardening plans.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Spring Seed Sowing Week 1
Hello friends,
We're now into the last month of winter, and it's finally time to start sowing seed for spring. It's a tricky time of the year, as it's possible to get snow here in Dunedin even into the first week of October, so there's nothing worse than sowing seeds too early, and then having to try and keep them alive if there's a late frost or snow in early October. Last year we had snow laying on the ground the first week of October, and a couple of frosts the weeks after that, so it was a stressful time trying to keep all my seedlings alive, looking after my growing potato plants, as well as my new dahlias which had just popped out of the ground. Seedlings don't get transferred outside and into the vegetable garden until Labour Weekend, which is the third weekend of October, so that's a long way off right now.
I have a specific order in which to germinate seeds, so that I don't have too many plants sitting in the glasshouse for such a long period of time. The first seeds sown are my tomato plants. I grow enough plants for our own needs, but also for family members as well. I usually have at least 12 plants growing in our glasshouse, and poke any others that are spare in free space I have in the vegetable garden. We eat a lot of tomatoes fresh throughout the summer, but the bulk of it is frozen away for using in autumn and winter cooking.
This year I'm growing the following tomato varieties:
Franchi Sementi Pomodoro Red Cherry - A red cocktail tomato with great taste. This is no longer for sale in New Zealand, I save this seed every year.
Kings Honeybee F1 - I haven't tried this one before, I wanted to try another cocktail tomato, we'll see how this goes. One of my sister's grows her tomatoes outside, and it's far easier to ripen smaller tomatoes in Dunedin's short summers.
Kings Tomato Juane Flamme - Our favorite tomato, an orange tomato with the best taste of any tomato I've ever grown.
Tomato Grosse Lisse - A beefsteak tomato that was a favorite of my grandfather. The best tomato for putting a slice on a hot piece of toast, and eating it with a pinch of salt on top.
Tomato Island Bay Italian - I haven't grown this tomato variety before, but I've heard good things about it. Good for eating fresh and processing apparently.
Tomato Lebanese - Also a new tomato variety this year, I'm hoping it will have good disease resistance, and tastes good too.
The next seeds to be germinated are my chilli and capsicums plants. I've successfully grown chillies in our greenhouse, but I haven't had any luck with the big traditional bell pepper capsicums.
This year I'll be growing the following chillies and peppers:
Chilli Serrano - I had a huge crop of chilli last season, so I'm growing this variety again.
Alma Paprika Pepper - Trying once again to grow my own paprika. Last season they didn't grow as well as I hoped, am trying again for the last time.
Capsicum Marconi Red - A prolific sweet Italian variety. I'm hoping that it's narrow shape will mean it ripens faster.
Capsicum Orange Sun - My last attempt at growing a bell pepper variety.
Capsicum Red Bell F1 - Also another last attempt at successfully growing a bell pepper variety.
The tomato and chilli seeds were sown into two mini greenhouses, and placed in a warm sunny spot in our dining room. It's warm in there on sunny days, and also thanks to the benefit of our wood burner being in that room, they're kept warm in there every night in winter. I'm eagerly waiting for the seeds to germinate.
The next seeds to be sown are all my sweet pea varieties. I've collected quite a lot of Keith Hammett varieties over the years, he's a New Zealand breeder who produces the most stunning sweet peas. Sweet peas germinate in cool temperatures, so they are now potted up and put into the glasshouse.
The last of the seeds to be sown for now are the herbs coriander and dill. Coriander prefers to grow in cool temperatures, otherwise they will bolt, so I sow one lot in late winter, and another in early autumn. They don't like to have their roots disturbed while planting into the ground, so I sow a bunch of seeds into a biggish pot, and then when it's time to transfer them into the herb garden, I plant the whole container worth in one spot, I don't separate out the seedlings at all. For the dill seeds I do the same thing as with the coriander, it ensures I get a relatively big crop of leaves without the problem of using up a lot space.
The sweet peas, coriander, and dill are all now sitting in my glasshouse. We're were expecting snow down to 200 m last night, so I've put off doing any more seed sowing tomorrow. Hopefully soon they will be joined by a lot more seeds as the month goes on.
Have you started seed sowing yet? I'm interested in what choices you've made for the coming growing season.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon.
Snow Day - Sunday 2nd July 2023
Hello friends,
We recently had our first snow day for the year, with snow falling and settling briefly at the beginning of July. During the week before, meteorologists and local weather experts began mentioning the possibility of snow over the coming weekend, first at high elevations, and then coming down to lower and lower levels as the week went on. By the time it got to Friday the 31st of June, they predicted snow to sea level on Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd of June.
Hubby was very excited about this prospect, as his birthday was on Saturday the 1st of July, and he wanted snow for his birthday. The weather got colder and colder on his birthday, but all we got was a few sleety showers passing by, but unluckily no snow. The weather was so insignificant I didn't even bother taking any video for the blog.
On Sunday the 2nd of July we woke up to snow on the nearby mountains and hills, but no snow on the ground. It was all very disappointing, so we cranked up the wood burner, and kept warm on the first day of our week long staycation at home. I had basically assumed that the cold weather was all over at that point.
But then we had a small snow shower come through, but the snow was very wet, and it was too warm to settle on the ground.
And then an even bigger snow shower came through, and actual, real, proper snow came drifting down out of the sky. The flakes were big and fluffy and dry, the perfect snow for settling on the ground.
The snow shower then turned even heavier, and lasted for about 20 minutes, and it was finally cold enough to begin to land and settle on the ground.
It wasn't a lot of snow, but it was nice for it to feel all wintery and cold even for an afternoon. We snuggled up next to the wood burner drinking hot chocolate and left over birthday cake. It wasn't very long at all before the snow melted away, and then the rest of our week long staycation ended up being warmish and sunny, which I appreciated because I had some winter garden projects to do.
Down here in Dunedin, we don't start to get the possibility of snow until after the winter solstice, and then it can potentially happen all the way through until the beginning of October, like it did last year. I'm sure there will be another two or three possibilities of snow in the coming months until Spring takes over.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon.
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