NOTES The dormant winter garden
June is the month the garden settles into dormancy for the coming winter.
■ Continue planting cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale and silverbeet seedlings. Bok choy is a winter wonder, continuing to grow despite the weather. A side dressing of lime will be beneficial, especially if plenty of compost has been incorporated into the soil, for strong healthy plants.
■ Broad beans and peas can be sown still while some warmth remains in the soil, but not for much longer.
■ It’s garlic and onion time. Prepare an area with compost and lime for garlic and onions. Both are best planted this month ready for a midsummer harvest.
■ Raising the ground by creating little humps benefits spinach, which hates wet feet and growth is more assured with good drainage.
■ Put unused areas into a winter crop to prevent weeds and to increase soil fertility.
■ Turn over the compost heaps and sweeten with some lime, the worms love it.
■ If using your glasshouse this winter, treat for whitefly — spray and sticky traps are options. Herbs, salad leaves and tomatoes are all moneysavers for winter.
The flower garden
■ Spray roses and surrounds with a last copper spray to kill off the rust and fungus spores, so little can winter over.
■ Check buxus, gardenias and other susceptible shrubs for scale. They are sap-sucking brown bumps on the stems and need a good insecticide or organic Conqueror oil to kill them before winter.
■ Protect new delphinium and hollyhock seedlings with slug bait. They are very vulnerable in the coming months as growth slows down.
■ Mulch the crowns of frostsensitive perennials that are dying down for winter, with pea straw. This keeps weeds at bay and insulates the plants from the coming winter frosts
■ Cover new citrus and other sensitive plants in exposed areas with frost cloth. The next 16 weeks we could have frosts at any time.