Tony Fawcett’s late-winter checklist to have a blooming spring garden
Now is the time to put in the hard yards to make sure your garden is ready for spring. This is your checklist to have your backyard blooming.
ICY winter blasts might be chilling our spirits in these dubious days yet we should rejoice that an early spring is imminent.
The signs are all about.
Our jonquils have already come and largely gone, daffodils are up and blooming wattles have been at their golden best for weeks, lilac buds are at bursting point and our flowering quince is festooned in orangey pink.
Soon the fun will start.
As the late comedian Robin Williams once quipped, “spring is nature’s way of saying ‘let’s party’”.
For keen green thumbs, the party involves rugging up and getting out there to welcome and encourage gardening’s greatest season.
Prepare and plant this month and a sensational spring is assured.
Whether flowering plants or spring and summer vegies, there are so many options — but a few jobs will make things that much easier.
It’s a good idea to work out a project hit list.
MIRACLE INGREDIENT
THE greatest gift you can give to an approaching spring garden is a good feed.
Homemade compost and decayed animal manure is the ultimate but, if that’s unavailable opt for an all-over application of a commercial slow-release fertiliser.
Many lawns benefit from a spray of a feed-and-weed type product now to eliminate those winter weeds — although, with warm-season lawns such as couch, kikuyu and buffalo, hold off your main fertilising until late spring.
HEDGE YOUR BETS
THE time is ideal for planting that hedge you have always wanted.
Get it in the ground now and come spring those roots will sprint away.
No matter the variety, put extra attention into ensuring you are planting into soil that drains well, is reasonably fertile and weed free and in a spot that gets good sun.
Established hedges benefit from a good shaping trim and a feed this month.
LEMON AID
BEING warmth lovers, lemon trees can look sick with yellowed leaves at this time.
Generally all that’s needed is a feed of blood and bone and old chook manure, or one of the specific citrus fertilisers.
Sometimes the problem can be a nutrient deficiency, yet whatever is ailing them a bout of fertilising generally does the trick.
If scale or sooty mould is visible on leaves, spray with white or eco oil.
Importantly, check right now that your lemon is not suffering swellings on its branches caused by citrus gall wasps laying their eggs in the tree’s soft tissue. If present, you need to act quickly — like this week. Wait any longer and you risk a new generation of wasps furthering the damage and putting your tree at risk of dying
Cut away the galls using a sharp knife or blade. Cut off smaller affected branches altogether. Destroy all cut material to ensure the cycle is stopped.
Elsewhere, peach and nectarine trees are susceptible to peach leaf curl, a fungal infection in which the leaves literally curl up and become disfigured, so a spray with a copper-based product is good insurance – although again, do it quickly.
VEG TIME
ON A more immediate level, the time is right to get in asparagus, broad beans, cabbage, lettuce, onions, parsnip, peas, seed potatoes, rhubarb, spinach and turnip.
And don’t forget to include a few flowering plants such as marigolds to encourage pollinating bees.
If a gambler, start a few early tomatoes in pots on a windowsill or in a mini DIY hothouse made from a clear plastic storage box.
COLOUR UP
ALREADY-FLOWERING perennial snapdragons are perfect for potting up and consider starting some displays of alyssum, arctotis, aster, dianthus and gazania.
Many roses are reawakening so treat them to a high-dose potassium food.
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