White Christmas
Ornamentals
Make your front door or gate more welcoming for the festive season with pots of summer annuals. White and red are traditional Christmas colours, so likely candidates for pots include alyssum, petunia, salvia, lobelia, and impatiens.
Set off the blooms with plenty of greenery in the pots. Coriander, mint, ivy, ivy geranium, and prostrate rosemary are all great. Do it now to get them established by Christmas.
Banksia roses lightly trimmed back after flowering should provide another burst of blooms later in the season.
Trees and shrubs planted in spring should never be allowed to dry out. The same goes with new lawns, both those grown from seed and from turf. Keep well-watered.
Edibles
Sow our native New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides) for a ready supply of greens all summer long. As it is drought resistant once established, it is useful when water restrictions come into play. Soak seeds in hot water overnight before sowing in groups of 4 or 5 seeds on mounds 70cm apart in well-drained soil.
Continue earthing up potatoes by drawing soil up around the stems to form a ridge around the plant. This stops sunlight reaching the tubers which will make them turn green and therefore toxic to humans.
Remove laterals from tomato plants every few days. Laterals are the little branches growing in the crook of stem and a leaf. As the tomato grows, tie to the stake at regular intervals – not too tightly though or you’ll damage the stem.
Place netting over cherries, strawberries and raspberries to stop birds getting to them before you do.
Cover up
A good alternative to mulch for helping soil retain moisture in summer are ground covers. They also can suppress weeds and stabilise banks.
Good native ones include: Acaena inermis purpurea (bidibidi or piripiri) has small, tight purple leaves, a creeping nature and a spread of 1m. Blechnum pennamarina is a fern, grows in to 20cm high in full sun and shade, and anything in between. Coprosma kirkii is fast-growing and great for clay banks and steep or difficult spots, is an excellent weed suppressant, and likes full sun. Fuchsia procumbens or creeping fuchsia has small, round and bright green leaves, red and yellow flowers and red berries. It prefers semi shade and is frost-tender. Lobelia angulata (formerly Pratia angulata) has white flowers followed by red berries, is fast growing and easy to establish, especially in damp places.
– Mary Lovell-Smith