READY FOR SPRING?
PREPARE FOR THE WARM SEASON WITH THESE IMPORTANT TASKS
IN CASE you haven’t noticed, winter is “officially” at an end (according to the calendar, that is), and spring will be only one day away when you read this article while enjoying your Saturday morning or arvo cuppa.
With this in mind we need to plan for the inevitable rise in temperatures and drop in piercing southwesterly winds that spring will eventually bring to our region.
Probably the most important task to perform is mulching.
Spring is one of the driest times of our year (September is one of our driest months based on average rainfall charts) and there’s always the warm north-westerlies that sneak in around the end of September to suck any remaining moisture from bare soil.
Before laying your mulch (remember – chunky mulch, no thicker than 75mm), broadcast a soil-wetting granule to ensure maximum infiltration of any rainfall or irrigation.
A finer, thinner mulch such as chopped lucerne will be great on the veggie and herb patch.
By now your spring flowering annuals should be well established and almost at full, mature growth, so it’s time to start planning your summer display.
At this time you can plant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds, Salvia, Lobelia, alyssum, Celosia, Cosmos, and Verbena, if you are confident we won’t suffer a ripper frost late in the season.
Don’t forget to plant some bulbs as well, as they are one of the most water-efficient of garden plants.
Bulbs to plant in late winter/spring for a late spring, summer or early autumn flowering are Alliums, tuberous begonias, Gladiolus, Crinums, Bearded Iris, Cyrtanthus, Dahlias (taller varieties will need staking), Dierama or Fairy Fishing Rods, Scadoxus, Sprekelia (Jacobean Lily) and Zephyranthes or rain lily.
Of course, a gardener’s work is never done, and there are many more jobs to be completed as the garden begins its fairly speedy transformation from the quiet back-street of winter to the fast lane of spring.
If you are considering using some type of herbicide to control a major weed outbreak, then the next couple of weeks will be an ideal time to do so, as selective and non-selective herbicides are much more effective on actively-growing weeds germinating after the patchy rainfall of the last week than those that are struggling due to dry conditions.
You can now also think seriously about fertilising your garden as the weather begins to warm.
Currently, soil life will be at its minimum due to cooler soil temperatures, but microbial activity will begin to build as the air, then the soil, begins to warm from September onwards.
Encourage the rapid build-up of soil microbes in garden beds by fertilising with organic products such as quality composts, pelletised chicken manure and composted cow and sheep manures.
Lawns will love you if you broadcast the finer, granulated form of organic fertilisers as it will easily make its way down to the soil surface due to a smaller particle size than normal pellets.
Don’t worry too much about using the higher analysis synthetic fertilisers at the moment – they will be useful once we get into the hopefully wetter, late spring/early summer months.
If you have any bulbous plants that have just finished flowering, this is the ideal time to fertilise them, as they will now need additional energy to produce offspring for the next season’s display.
Tickle a little blood and bone into the soil around any bulb that’s finished blooming for the season. That’s all they need.
Once you are convinced that the danger of frosts has passed, then it’ll be time to grab the secateurs, loppers and shears, clean and sharpen them, and get pruning.
Begin by removing all frost-damaged foliage from your tender plants.
This will encourage rapid replacement with new spring growth.
It’s a great time to prune small trees and shrubs to direct their growth into a natural shape, or if so desired, unnatural shapes such as standards, topiary, espalier, and hedges.
A general rule-of-thumb pruning principle states – “Prune after flowering”, so when your flowering trees and shrubs finish their spring display, it’s time to act.
Remove spent flowers and prune back to a bud to encourage bushy growth if that suits the style of plant growth you require.
Let’s not forget the vegie garden in all this excitement.
Begin planting your warm season crops such as beans (dwarf and climbing), beetroot, cucumbers, capsicums, carrots, melons, silver beet, sweet corn, squashes, tomatoes, zucchinis, lettuce and pumpkins.
Hate to be a cracked record here, but, beware of frosts.
Most of the aforementioned vegies are frost tender so be prepared for some losses if the temperature plummets.
Some cool season vegies will also have varieties that will tolerate the warmer months, such as Sugarloaf cabbages and some spinach types, and you should still have some harvesting to do from winter crops such as broccoli, peas and cauliflowers.
Sneak a few herbs into the spaces as well, such as basil, borage, chives, coriander, oregano, parsley, rocket, sage, and thyme.
So get planning today, your garden is beckoning you. Bring it on, I say.