CHRISTMAS GARDEN TIPS
Edibles
Rosemary bushes and hedges will be due a summer prune. Turn the prunings into aromatic kebab sticks for the barbecue by stripping the leaves. Bundle together a dozen or so and tie with a pretty ribbon, and you’ve got a useful gift for a cook.
Some early potatoes may be ready to harvest. Check by burrowing your fingers into the base of one of the plants and feeling how big the potatoes are. Continue to mound up potatoes.
It should be warm enough to safely sow basil directly in the garden as well as beetroot, carrots, lettuce, radish, silverbeet, spinach.
Mulch
Prepare the garden for the dry months by mulching. This is useful for preserving moisture in the soil around trees and shrubs planted within the last year, fruit trees and bushes, perennials, bulbs and annuals in the flower garden, and vegetables. This is especially important if you are planning to go away over the holidays.
Mulches may also suppress weeds, improve soil texture as they break down, encourage beneficial soil organisms, and protect roots from temperature extremes.
Good organic mulches include bark or wood chips, compost, grass clippings, mushroom compost, leaf mould, pine needles, pea straw, seaweed or well-rotted manure – though the use of manure on vegetables which are eaten raw is not recommended.
Mulch is best applied at least 7cm thick, preferably when the soil is moist.
In garden beds mulch can be applied all over, being careful not to smother small plants, or touch the trunks of woody ones.
Water well after mulching.
Ornamentals
Fertilise roses after the first flush of flowers is finished.
Plant out chrysanthemums. Annual flower plants will welcome regular watering, and regular applications of a weak liquid fertiliser.
Cut back euphorbia flower heads to the ground once they start to fade.
Cutting back some springflowering perennials may result in a second round of flowers later in the season.
When weeding, ensure you remove all the weeds around the base of shrubs and perennials. Little looks worse than grasses and seed heads poking through.