AS the weather (hopefully) becomes drier during winter, the chances of plants drying out increase so keep that water up to them
• Rather than apply water more regularly it’s better to mulch around trees and shrubs so that applied water is conserved
• Rose planting can be done this month. Plant them in a sunny position in soil enriched by compost and animal manure, and a little bit of rose planting fertiliser will help
• Pinch the tips out of broad beans to encourage more flowers to form
• To ensure hearting variety lettuce form hearts and don’t bolt to seed, it’s important to keep them growing well with a regular fortnightly application of a soluble fertiliser (like Thrive)
• Early bindii may start to appear and, if so, hand removal is easy or spray with an appropriate herbicide
• Now’s the time to plant tomatoes as there are fewer pests around. If you want to grow tomatoes you should firstly apply some dolomite to the soil. This will have the twofold effect of raising the soil pH and also minimising the likelihood of blossom end rot by adding calcium, which prevents blossom end rot
• Use winter as the time to tidy up around the garden. Stack pots away, clean up fallen branches, reset garden edging and generally get the garden looking shipshape
• Deciduous fruit trees should be pruned. If you’re not sure what to do, check a good book or the local nursery to determine the pruning requirements for your type of tree
• Cut the old stems of asparagus down, top-dress with well-rotted manure or compost and mulch
• Look over citrus trees for bronze orange bug. They suck sap from new stems causing them to die. Wear protective glasses if you want to squash them as they can squirt a caustic solution, or spray with an appropriate insecticide
• Also check citrus for gall wasp attack. Trim out the stems with swellings to prevent them rotting off later
• Mound soil around potatoes already growing to prevent pest attack and to stop the potatoes growing on the surface from going green
• Lift dahlia tubers, brush the soil off and store them in sawdust to prevent them from rotting
• This month you can plant rhubarb crowns into soil enriched with animal manure and blood and bone. Use this on established plants as a mulch
• Pinch out the tips of your sweet pea plants to make them bush up and produce more flowers later
• Hold off on pruning roses until July
• Some plants will lose more leaves during this month, like bougainvillea, but that’s OK. They will recover
• Watch out for black-spot fungal disease in paw paws – treat with a copper-based spray
• Citrus leaves may develop a yellow colour. This is because the cool soil slows down nutrient uptake through the roots. You can boost them with a foliar spray of a fertiliser with trace elements
• If your snowflake bush failed to flower or flowered only on one side, you may have to look at the position of any nearby lights. They need a shorter amount of light to flower well. More light means less flowers
• It’s your last chance to prune hydrangeas back almost to ground level. Use the prunings to propagate new plants
