Most of you will be wanting to know who won the $50 Oderings Credit Voucher. Thank you all for your suggestion (and there were a lot of them). There were two topics that took our fancy. 1) A centre piece for the Christmas dinner table. 2) How to deal with keeping gardens watered while you are away on holiday. After careful consideration we decided that the winner was "The Carey Family". They wrote...

"Not a big suggestion, but one that would really help me is how to deal with the veg and flower gardens while I am away for 10 days over Xmas. My adult kids say they will water and although I showed them what I wanted last year, I don't think they grasped the concept of enough water rater than a light shower to wet the leaves! Is there a way to harden up plants to survive better? Therefore needing less attention?

Unfortunately there is not really a way to harden up the plants so they will survive not getting water but there are tricks to conserving moisture and getting the most out of the little water the garden may receive. The easiest way is to put in irrigation but if you haven't got the time, money, or you wouldn't use it enough to warrant putting in irrigation for the Xmas period, there are other options.

My favourite for watering pots while away is still the old water in a bottle trick. Get 1.5 or 2 litre bottle and fill with water. Replace the lid and drill a small hole in the top. Turn the bottle upside down and push into the soil. Remember to always place pots under a tree or a shaded area and water before you go away. If the water does not run out of the bottom of the pot then you haven't given them enough!

In the garden though no one wants that many bottles, so here are your options.

A soaker hose connected to a water timer is a cheap way to irrigate your garden. Always have the water coming on either early in the morning or later in the evening. For those that think water timers are too tricky there are a lot of easy models out there that all you do is turn a dial. Personally I would not leave my garden without my water timer.

Mulch is an excellent way to conserve moisture and this practice should be incorporated into all gardens. Mulch can be in the form of shredded leaves, peat, sphagnum moss, bark, straw, stones etc. Mulch is added as a top layer over the soil and is used to conserve moisture, suppress weeds and keep a consistent soil temperature. Look out for the article on mulch in the latest Oderings Live & Grow magazine due in store next week.

There are also products available to help keep soil moist. By adding these products into the soil they reabsorb each time the garden gets water. These would be an excellent idea if you have kids or people watering your garden while you are away like the the Carey family do that don't quite do it right. These products are peat moss, Yates Water Storage Crystals and SaturAid. The water crystals absorb water and end up hundreds of times their original weight, the plant then draws on water as they need it. When ever the crystals are watered again they replenish themselves and store water again. SaturAid is a granular soil wetter that makes water soak directly to the root zone for the strongest, healthy growth in garden beds, pots or lawns. This product works immediately so watering, rainfall and fertilising is more effective even in clay or compacted soils.

With that covered you should have a garden that will last while you are on summer holidays.

Oderings have some exciting new giftware in store now for Xmas. Here is a little preview of the lines available also advertised in the Oderings Live & Grow magazine. Also keep an eye to our website on www.oderings.co.nz as we are about to update all the gifts online. You can buy gifts, seeds, tools, vouchers and much more online with Oderings. Let us take the hassle out of Xmas for you and shop online; we will send them to the recipients house (or send them to yourselves so you don't have to go out shopping).

I have also been asked to put this keen young mans photo in our newsletter. His name is Cameron Matthews and he is 6. He has been growing our new range of Oderings Seed Tapes that we advertised in the spring issue of Oderings Live & Grow. Seed tapes are so easy to use (no more thinning needed) and I cant wait to see the carrots, spring onions and the red beets that people have grown. Thank you to Cameron and his Grandma for sending in the photo of your radishes; I am going to send you a $10 Oderings Credit Voucher for such a great effort.

Other Garden Tasks For December...

• Maintain roses by spraying at fortnightly intervals. Alternating the sprays are best. Apply fertiliser to encourage more summer flowering and growth.
• Make sure you have plenty of bird netting on your strawberry patch.
• Apply Derris Dust, Success or Target to brassicas as white butterflies are appearing.
• Do not allow the garden to dry out. Watering is best done in the early morning or late evening. Mulch NOW.
• Garlic may be ready for lifting on the longest day (22nd of December) but this depends if you planted on the shortest. If you were late planting leave in the ground for the full 6 months.
• Finish planting spring/summer annuals into pots.
• Dead-head annuals regularly to keep them looking fresh for Xmas.
• Do not allow lawns to dry out too much. Don't mow too short as longer grass shades the soil and helps conserve moisture.
• Repot orchids or any other winter and spring flowering houseplants.
• Be cautious about pots and hanging baskets as they may need to be watered more than once a a day in the hot weather. If going away put on the ground under the shade of a tree so they can be watered with the rest of the garden; otherwise they will more than likely be dead when you get home.
• Feed gardens and pots with summer flowers with Oderings Total Replenish to keep them flowering and looking healthy.
• Mulch citrus, tomatoes, strawberries and fruit trees to prevent them from drying out.
• Water tomatoes and strawberries a little less closer to harvest as this helps sweeten the fruit.

I hope to send you weekly VIP specials each week leading up to Xmas for online shopping, so watch this space. I think we now have the problems with people being able to see this page correctly... but if you are still having problems viewing this email please email me at pamela@oderings.co.nz

Merry Christmas. Oderings would like to thank you for choosing to shop with us and we hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Christmas!