The grass will soon be greener
Lawns
Scarify and aerate your lawn, then apply potassium-rich autumn lawn fertiliser. (Nitrogen-rich fertiliser encourages soft growth, which will be prone to disease at this time of year.)
Prepare new lawns, either with turf or seed.
Repair bald patches in old lawns by spreading fine, sandy soil over gaps, pressing down firmly, then sowing seed. Do not let it dry out until the grass is well established.
Ornamentals
Plant all spring-flowering bulbs except tulips. As a general rule, bulbs should be planted at twice their diameter. So, a bulb that is, say 4cm across, should be in a hole 8cm deep, and have 4cm of soil above it. If you can, try to plant bulbs the right way up. This makes life easier for them. The leaf and the root ends are usually easily discernible with a little observation.
Start to reduce the amount of water given to houseplants as their rate of growth slows heading into winter (some go dormant) and their water uptake drops. By winter, the soil should be almost dry between watering. Bear in mind though, that different plants do have different needs.
Sow cinerarias. Given the right conditions – semi-shade and protection from frosts, such as under trees – these gaily coloured annuals will return year after year.
Edibles
To encourage the last of the season’s tomatoes to ripen, reduce water and pull off any leaves shading the fruit.
Tomatoes may also be ripened indoors by putting them in a paper bag and storing somewhere warm, such as a hot cupboard or sunny window ledge, for a few days. Or, cook them green. Fried green tomatoes are a popular dish in the south of the United States, where they are battered before frying, but they are pretty tasty sliced in half and fried in oil with a little salt, pepper and sugar.
Sow silverbeet in soil that has had compost incorporated and a handful of blood and bone and lime per square metre added. (Or a general fertiliser.) Sow seeds about 1cm deep in rows 50cm apart. Seaweed laid between the rows will also help this coastal plant.
Carrots need not be harvested until it is time to eat them. They may safely be left in the ground until August.
Keep on fertilising and harvesting beans – the more you pick the more they grow. As with zucchini, smaller is definitely better with beans.