A vine time to feed the grapes
Edibles
Keep grape vines well-watered and feed weekly with liquid fertiliser until the grapes begin to ripen, then give neither.
Remove leaves shading the ripening bunches of fruit. Nip off excess laterals so the vine’s energy goes towards maturing the grapes instead of leafy growth.
Sow cabbages, silverbeet and spinach, ensuring seedbeds never dry out.
Sow crimson clover, a nitrogen fixer, around fruit trees. It also attracts beneficial insects.
Ornamentals
Dying patches of turf in your lawn may indicate grass grubs (or a female dog). These beetle larvae, which are white, c-shaped and up to 2cm long, eat the lawn roots. To treat, rake the area to expose them to their natural predators – birds. As well, you could remove any visible grubs yourself.
A healthy turf is another good defence against their damage, so keeping it watered and fertilised, mowed to no shorter than 10cm helps, as does having a diversity of species growing in it.
Trim back the likes of delphiniums, oriental poppies, russell lupins and shasta daisies, with the expectation of their putting on one more flowering display before winter.
Before cutting back flower heads on perennials, such as aquilegia, lychnis, astrantia and so on, save the seeds. Many can be sown now, but some, such as delphinium, penstemon and thalictrum, require winter chilling before they will germinate. So, either sow them now in trays and leave them outside to get their winter chilling naturally. Or store them in the fridge until sowing outside in late winter/early spring.
Mulch rhododendrons, azaleas, roses and other surface-rooting plants with lawn clippings.
Some gardeners like to treat many of their shrubberies and ornamental beds almost like a compost by adding layers of ingredients that otherwise might go into the compost heap. The likes of lawn clippings, wood ash, pea straw, pine needles, horse, sheep or cow manure may be spread around plants, being careful not to get too much contact with them (especially in the case of unrotted manure). The bigger the plants the more generous the layers, though it is always advisable to always spread wood ash thinly.
Check your compost heaps or bins. Composting tends to happen faster in the centre of the heap than the outsides, so check the middle and if it is way ahead of the outsides in terms of breakdown then it will pay to tip all the contents out, mix them up and pile them back into the bin or heap. You can never spend too much time on composting, as the addition of compost always makes the garden healthier and growth more vigorous. – Mary Lovell-Smith