Symbiotic plants, or the process of symbiosis, is when two plants live closely together in harmony of one kind or another. There are four types of symbiosis - mutualism, parasitism, commensalism, and endosymbiosis/ectosymbiosis. 

The word ‘symbiosis’ comes from the Greek words for ‘with’ and ‘living’. They describe a relationship between two species or organisms that can often be beneficial for both parties. 

Commensalism is where one organism benefits from the relationship, but the other is neither benefiting or harmed by it. An example of commensalism would be a spider forming a web in a tree. It doesn’t hurt the tree, but it benefits the spider. 

Parasitism, on the other hand, is when one organism benefits at the expense of the other. An example of parasitism is an aphid feeding on the sap of a plant. The aphid benefits, but the plant is worse off. 

In the plant world, the best symbiotic relationship is mutualism - where the close relationship benefits both. In the human world, a mutualism relationship would be between a human and a pet dog. The dog offers companionship and the human offers food. 

Finally, there’s ectosymbiosis/endosymbiosis where one species lives inside another. Lice on your skin would be an example of this form of symbiosis.

 Now that you understand what a symbiotic relationship is, you will see that choosing plants that can work hand in hand can enhance your gardening experience. While it’s beneficial if one can provide support for the other, it’s even better if they work together and benefit each other. Below, we uncover some of the more beneficial plants to include in your garden for symbiotic purposes. 

Foxgloves

If you want your plants to grow up big and strong, with minimal risk of succumbing to disease, then foxgloves can be of assistance. Studies show that when you grow foxgloves, the surrounding plants are stronger and with a reduced risk of disease. 

 Marigolds

Marigolds are beneficial for your garden in many ways. Not only do they add a beautiful hit of colour, but they help your other plants as well. Marigolds produce a scent that attracts hoverflies. 

Why would you want a plant that attracts insects? Hoverflies feed on greenfly, twitch grass, and plant lice, all of which attack your plants. What’s more, the roots of marigolds also keep eelworm away. If you grow tomatoes, roses, or tomatoes, plant Marigolds alongside them.

Rosemary

Rosemary is a delicious herb that accompanies many meals nicely. It also works wonders in your vegetable garden. If you grow it with your sage, cabbage, and carrots, it will keep away cabbage moths, beetles and flies. It also makes broccoli thrive and enhances the flavours of your vegetables. However, it doesn’t share a nice bond with potatoes, so plant it well away from them. 

 Orange Nasturtium

If you grow cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, or beans, then you may see the value in also planting orange nasturtium. This plant with orange petals attracts all those insects you don’t want near your vegetables. While plant lice and whitefly are feasting on your nasturtium, they’re leaving your delicious veggies alone! 

Lavender

There’s nothing more pleasant than wandering out into your garden and getting a beautiful aroma of lavender filling your nostrils. While the smell is one reason to plant lavender, there are many more. Lavender acts as a border against insects, repelling them away from your vulnerable plants.

Tomatoes

Even though tomatoes can be quite a tricky vegetable to grow in colder climes, it’s a faithful friend to many other vegetables. Basil, asparagus, celery, parsley, onion, and carrots all love being planted near tomatoes as it helps them to thrive. 

The best symbiotic plants for gardens are easier to come by than you think. There are many vegetables, flowers, and herbs out there that can have a mutually beneficial relationship. 

The next time you prepare your garden for the changing season, take a moment to plan your planting. Your plants could thrive better than they ever have before. What’s more, if you get stuck, there are plenty of gardening experts available to help.  

As temperatures plummet and the nights draw in quicker than they did over December and January, it can only mean one thing. Autumn is here. It will just be a matter of time before daylight saving kicks in and trees say goodbye to their vibrant green leaves for stunning shades of gold, red, and yellow.

However, for the avid gardener, Autumn has so much more meaning. It’s the time for harvesting crops and preparing for a new season’s growth on the back of it. If you need a helping hand knowing what plants to plant this Autumn, or you’re not sure what the next step is, then read on. The experienced and knowledgeable Crewcut team is here to help.

Harvesting Time 

Take a look out into your garden and check out the fruits of your labour. Are they ready for picking? If you have been growing pumpkin or squash, rhubarb, rocket, silverbeet, beans, courgettes, cucumbers, or lettuce, then it’s time to harvest. All of these delicious produce should now be ready to consume. Harvesting time also provides an opportunity for pickling, making sauces, jams, and marinades to share with family and friends.

What Plants to Plant in Autumn? 

Now that you’ve harvested all your produce and had a garden tidy up, it’s time to consider what you are going to plant for the next growing season. Will you stick with vegetables, plants, or flowers? Or, will you opt for a mixture of all three? Below, we’ve included some of the most popular things to plant once the cold weather hits. 

Broccoli

Broccoli is one of the easiest vegetables to grow, while also being one of the most nutritious. Start the growing process in seed trays before planting them in your vegetable patch within 1-1.5 months. 

Beans 

You can sow bean seeds directly into the ground now, but ensure you use stakes to help them grow upward as they start to sprout. 

Pansies

If you want to add a splash of color to your garden over Autumn, then consider planting pansies. You can start the growth process in Autumn and enjoy them through winter, spring, and summer. You can plant them in hanging baskets, window pots or boxes, or even garden borders. They grow beautifully in well-draining soil with potting mix. This heat-tolerant plant is stunning and easy-care. 

Lettuce

Lettuce forms the foundation for any sandwich or salad, which is why it’s a must-have in any autumn garden you’re getting ready. You can sow lettuce seeds directly into the ground, but ensure you cover them with a drink bottle cut in half to protect them from hungry birds.

Sweet Peas

Sweet peas are a beautifully fragrant flower that you sow in autumn for flowering in spring. Make a tentfrom bamboo stakes and plant the seed directly into the ground. Once they grow, they cling onto the tent. 

Brussel Sprouts

While they’re not everyone’s favourite childhood vegetable, brussel sprouts can be quite a worthy ingredient. They are also exceptionally easy to grow and work beautifully with other seasonal vegetables lightly sautéed in a pan. Start the growth process in a seed tray before planting out in four or six weeks. You may also like to add lime or nitrogen when they are halfway through their growing process. 

Carrots

If you’re a novice gardener, then carrots are going to be one of the most lucrative plants to grow. It can take a disaster of mammoth proportions to see your carrots fail to thrive. Plant them in well-draining soil and water them daily until they start to grow. Before long, you’ll have fresh baby carrots for a range of delicious menu items.

Autumn Planting Maintenance

Autumn can be quite a busy time for the average gardener. If you’re not perusing the rows of seed options at your local vegetable store, you’re trying to get your garden beds ready for a new crop of plants. If you’re feeling a little frazzled, and don’t know what to do next, then stick to this list. It can see you on your way to a prosperous autumnal planting season. 

1. Dry your seeds in preparation for spring sowing. If you save and store your bean, melon, and tomato seeds, you don’t have to buy more when it comes time to plant them. 

2. Add a new layer of compost to your garden to replenish the soil.

3. Thin your carrots to reduce the risk of uneven root development.

4. Don’t be afraid to grow lettuces in cold weather. Protect them, and they will be fine.

5. Cut long and leafy stems from your tomato plants to promote fruit growth on the lower stems.

6. Feed your established plants with nutrient-rich plant tonic to promote healthy growth. 

7. Use a mildew spray from your local garden store to prevent mildew from affecting your courgettes, cucumbers, and marrows. 

It has been hard to say goodbye to the blue skies, festive fun, and games of backyard cricket that summer brought us. Autumn is here, and it’s now time to embrace the season by planting beautiful vegetables and flowers to carry us through a new season of growth. 

Because trees take such a long time to grow, deciding whether to cut one down or trim it can be a tough call. There could be advantages and disadvantages for both situations, but what if you don’t make the right decision? You may have cut down a tree for no reason.

Before you go ahead with tree cutting or tree pruning, think of the following points. They may help you to make a decision quickly!

Why Undertake Tree Pruning?

There are many reasons why you would decide to prune your tree, and knowing how tree pruning can solve problems may stop you from hiring tree cutting services. There are three main reasons for pruning: tree health, aesthetics, and safety. You may like to trim branches if they look terrible or you want to benefit from better fruit yields.

You may also like to prune your trees if the branches are damaged, cracked, or don’t look safe. In this case, you have to ascertain whether the damage is severe enough to consider tree cutting as opposed to only tree pruning.

Finally, tree pruning is beneficial for the health of your tree. It encourages growth, removes dead and dying branches, and can end up being the more suitable option – instead of having to call someone to come cut it down!

When Should You Undertake Tree Pruning?

If you have decided that tree pruning is far better than having to cut your tree down, then you will want to know when the best time of year is. However, that can depend on the type of tree you have.

Winter tends to be an excellent time to trim trees as they are dormant and don’t have new growth. In summer, pruning can slow down unwanted growth, while helping you to identify problem branches as well. Autumn tends to be less suitable as trees heal slowly and can succumb to air-borne fungi. If you decide to prune in spring, wait until the flowers begin to lose color or structure.

Why Insist on Tree Cutting?

Knowing how much good you can achieve by pruning your trees, why should you still go ahead with tree cutting? There are many reasons why tree cutting is a better option than getting out the secateurs and giving your tree a haircut.

1. Disease

Trees can succumb to all types of illnesses – some that you can’t fix through tree pruning and removing diseased branches. A sick tree is a dangerous tree, as it’s not as strong as a healthy one and can spread its disease to other trees as well. The best thing you can do is chop it down. Ask for expert help on how to achieve this safely.

2. Danger

Trees don’t always grow how you want them to. Some end up on precarious angles which can be dangerous in the wind, while others end up too close to your personal property, power lines, or neighbouring properties. If tree pruning cannot rectify the problem and remove the hazard, removing the tree is the best option.

Left untended, tree branches can cause damage to people, property or power lines.

3. It’s Not Thriving

If you plant several trees and they grow up together, you may find that they are fighting for their share of nutrients, sun, and water. Unfortunately, there is going to be a loser in this situation. You can remove a healthy tree to let the smallest one access what it needs, or you can remove the one that’s not thriving.

4. Shade

While trees can add so much beauty to your backyard, they can also create just a little bit too much shade. Shade can cause mould and dampness, and can even create the right conditions moss to grow and spread as well. If you have other trees in your yard that are less of a problem, you may wish to chop the troublesome one down and focus on the others.

5. Wood

Trees have many benefits. They offset our carbon footprint, improve our mental wellbeing, and brighten up any public park as well. However, they also provide us with wood for building and burning. If you want to stock up on winter firewood or you need supplies for woodwork, then you would go down the tree cutting route instead of tree pruning – as it’s serving a purpose.

Safety

Whether you decide to cut down your tree or only prune it, make sure you are up to the task. Even tree pruning can be labour-intensive, so you may find that calling in the tree experts may be the best option. The same rule applies to tree cutting. If you don’t own the correct safety gear or a chainsaw, you may find that hiring someone with the right tools and experience can make for a successful tree cutting exercise.

Knowing whether to trim or cut your tree down can be a personal choice. Believe it or not, in some cases it can also be an emotional one. Weigh up the pros and cons and find out whether pruning can solve your problems or whether tree cutting is the best and final solution.  

In New Zealand’s warmer climes, fruit trees are a Kiwi backyard staple. From lemons and grapefruit, through to apple and feijoa, there is certainly no shortage of options to fill the fruit bowl. However, not every homeowner knows how to make sure their tree produces the best fruit – which is paramount if you’re an average Kiwi kid trying to sell homemade lemonade outside your house.

If you only planted fruit trees to see what would happen, or you inherited them from a previous homeowner, then you may not have inherited the knowledge that goes with them. No matter how you came to be in possession of a fruit tree, however, it’s a good idea to find out how to treat it right. Below, you will find all the information you require on pruning fruit trees and general fruit tree care.

Why You Need to Carry Out Tree Pruning on Fruit Trees

Even if you’re not much of a gardener, it’s important to know the basics of tree trimming or have contact information for someone who does. Otherwise, you may not bear the best fruit – or have the best-looking fruit trees either.

Pruning trees is essential for many reasons. Firstly, it makes the time for harvesting that much easier. If you let your fruit trees grow large and unwieldy, then how can you possibly hope to collect the fruit from them? Reducing the size of your tree every year, while keeping it in healthy growth, helps to make harvesting the literal fruits of your labour that much less labour-intensive.

However, tree trimming can also have some surprising side effects for the health of your fruit trees. When you undertake tree pruning, you are encouraging new stems to grow, which help to create a bountiful harvest. You are also enabling better airflow and light to promote ripening. As a rule of thumb, there should be a gap through the center of the tree large enough for a small bird to fly through.

Finally, tree pruning is beneficial for achieving the desired shape in your yard, as well as removing any branches that are dead, dying, damaged, or diseased.

When Do Fruit Trees Not Require Tree Trimming?

Believe it or not, there are now new fruit tree varieties available that require no pruning. These include dwarf cultivars such as nectarine, peach, apple, and apricot trees. Ask a gardening expert whether your fruit trees need tree pruning or if they are of the prune-free variety.

When to Begin Tree Pruning of Fruit Trees

If you are new to fruit tree ownership, or you are beginning to take an interest in the ones you have, then you may wonder when a good time is to undertake tree pruning. The best time for pruning trees can depend on the type of fruit they bear.

Apple and pear trees require annual tree trimming every winter to help prepare for an even better crop than the year before. Kiwifruit trees, however, need pruning in winter back to five buds. You then have to tie long branches back so you can train them to follow a particular shape. You will also need to do the same for cherry trees.

With feijoa and citrus trees, you can start tree trimming right after harvesting. Wait until frosts pass and you may also get away with biennial pruning.  If you are lucky enough to have a thriving nectarine, peach, or plum tree, then ensure you undertake tree pruning in summer. If you choose to prune in winter, you may end up spreading disease which ruins crops.

How to Get Started with Pruning Your Fruit Trees

While you can begin tree pruning yourself, there are also plenty of expert gardeners who can help with tree trimming and all manner of tasks. If you lack the time, tools, or confidence to trim your fruit trees yourself, then make a call to avoid your fruit trees getting neglected. Alternatively, in a few steps, you can be on your way to confident tree pruning on your own.

1. Choose the best day

The best day for tree trimming is a dry day with no wind. Wait until the grounds are dry and there is no hint of rain in the air. By doing so, you can limit the spread of any diseases or fungal spores which could ruin your crops.

2. Prune properly

The best way to prune your fruit trees is by using a pair of sharp secateurs. These can help you achieve a clean, angled cut above the buds. Don’t prune to excess.

3. Clean up

While garden tidy-ups are something you can hire someone else to take care of, you can also do it yourself. Remove all the clippings and dispose of all the mess you made. You may also like to clean your secateurs after use and before storage.

4. Set them up for winter

Fruit trees are prone to winter diseases, so after you finish with tree trimming, you may like to set them up to survive. If you have any deciduous fruit trees, spray them with a copper-based concoction to prevent winter disease.

Whether you’ve had fruit trees for a long time or you’re new to gardening altogether, you will enjoy your new-found hobby. However, not everyone has the time for tree trimming and taking care of fruit trees. Need extra help with your fruit tree? Get in contact with a Crewcut specialist!

You may wonder what climate change and global warming have to do with tree care and planting trees, but you will be surprised at the connection. However, firstly, it’s important to understand what climate change is and what it means to you.

What is Climate Change?

Climate change relates to climate patterns, natural processes that are a part of our earth’s history. They became more apparent around the late 20th century, and are thought to be caused by the sun’s energy, earth surface changes, the greenhouse effect, and atmospheric carbon dioxide linked to the use of fossil fuels.

What is The Greenhouse Effect?

The greenhouse effect is a process that warms up the surface of the earth. It’s both natural, through the likes of volcanic eruptions, and caused by humanity. Earth is only warm enough for us to inhabit it because of the greenhouse gases, equating to a temperature of around 15 degrees. However, because humans are creating more greenhouses gases, they are warming up the earth. So far, humanity has increased the earth’s temperature by around 35 per cent.

What Can Tree Care and Planting Trees do for Climate Change?

It can still be confusing to understand how planting trees and partaking in tree care can make a difference to climate change, but trees play a pivotal role. One of the major gases responsible for much of global warming is carbon dioxide, produced by humans burning coal and oil and other fossil fuels. It’s also natural, but not at the same high levels.

By planting trees, you can offset the greenhouse gasses you are putting into the environment. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, storing it within themselves. The more trees we plant and grow, the more we can benefit from fewer emissions and more forested land.

How New Zealanders Can Do Their Part

You might think that you, one lone Kiwi, can’t do a lot to help climate change or our country. However, there is plenty you can do. You can gift native trees to loved ones for birthdays and other special events, start tree registries for special events and become involved in your community meetings with a focus on planting more trees.

You can also fund trees if you have the opportunity and ability to donate to a good cause, and ask councils to plant trees for the benefit of waterways, erosion reduction, and biodiversity. You might think that one person can’t do much, but planting trees and tree care is something that everyone can do.

However, beyond tree care and tree planting, there are also other things you can do. You can reduce energy consumption in your home or business, opt for alternative sources of power such as solar, and travel smarter by walking or biking instead of driving your car. New Zealand wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below its 2005 level, but we need your help to do it.

Where Does New Zealand Stand with Climate Change?

Being isolated from the rest of the world in little ol’ New Zealand can make many people feel like significant world events don’t impact them. When it comes to climate change and global warming, however, they do. We are blessed here in New Zealand to be able to produce 80 percent of our energy through renewable sources, but we also have a much higher portion of production in the food industry which emits a significant amount of greenhouse gases. It takes ten times more energy to produce one kilogram of meat than it does to produce one kilogram of grains.

How to Plant a Native Tree

If you want to do your part for New Zealand, climate change, and the world, then you can start by planting a native tree. However, as not everyone is born with green fingers, it’s a process that might take some figuring out. You can ask for expert assistance, or you can talk to your local garden store worker when you buy a beautiful native tree.

1. Time of year

The best time of year for tree planting is between April and May or August to September. If you plant in a drier time of year, you will spend much of your time watering them to keep them alive.

2. Get the site ready

Prepare the site by watering it and keeping the plant cool. Dig a wide hole with room for the tree’s roots to grow.

3. Plant the tree

Remove the tree from its bag and place it in the hole. Cover the roots with a thin layer of soil, compacting it down on each layer. Plant it up to the same area as it came in the garden bag. Make the top layer loose soil and water it.

4. Tree care

Now the fun begins! Create a mulch out of old newspapers, cardboard, and carpet, covering it with wet bark chips and straw or compost. Doing so helps to keep moisture in the ground while protecting the tree’s roots and stopping the growth of weeds. If you manage to retain moisture well, you will only need to water once per week in hot conditions, or less with correct mulch layers. Shade and cover the ground until the trees are well established – at around two or three years old.

Climate change is all of our problem, and the more we can do to fix it, the better off the planet will be. Take the time to find out more about climate change today, or get involved in planting trees and tree care. You will be glad you did.