- It’s a good time to fertilise and prune hibiscus so they develop a bushy habit and produce lots of flowers in summer.
- If you have a veggie garden, don’t forget to water it once or twice a week. Although it’s cooler, the drier winter winds will drain the moisture from the soil.
- If you’re growing pineapples, give them a side dressing of complete fertiliser in late August. They like acid soils, so avoid using lime or dolomite.
- Spray the flowers of your mango tree with a copper based spray to fight anthracnose disease.
- Plant your new roses now. Bagged and bare-rooted roses are in plentiful supply.
- Fertilise your existing rose bushes by mulching around them with cow manure.
- Keep your strawberries fruiting with a fortnightly feed of fish and seaweed solutions.
- Divide your Michaelmas daisies and rudbeckias now. Replant and fertilise with a seaweed and fish emulsion.
- Apply a light application of a lawn fertiliser to give your lawns a small boost into spring.
- Start to lower your mower blade height, as the lengthening days allow the plats to get more sunlight – so they don’t need as much leaf area.
- Established passionfruit vines should be fertilised in early spring, use up to 1 kg of blood and bone with 100g of sulphate of potash added, spread onto moist soil and mulch well.
- Make sure fruit fly traps are in place by late August.
- This is a good time to clean out a water garden. Divide waterlilies every year if they are in a container, every 3 years if they are on the bottom of the pond. Re-pot into fresh, slightly clay soil with either pulverised cow manure or a slow-release fertiliser added. Binding the fertiliser into solid clay balls helps to stop it floating away from the roots. Top with a thick layer of sand or clean gravel to stop the water becoming murky.
Vegetables
Plant carrot, lettuce, radish, beetroot, capsicum, celery, cucumber, eggplant, beans, pumpkin, silverbeet, spring onion, choko, squash, sweet potato, tomato, zucchini, broccoli, asian vegetables, cabbage, peas, spinach, coriander, rocket and turnips.
Flowers
Plant marigold, petunia, calendula, bedding begonia, californian poppy, carnation, chrysanthemum, coleus, dahlia, gaillardia, gazania, gerbera, kangaroo paw, phlox, portulaca, snapdragon, zinnia, amaranthus, salvia and statice.
