1. Feed spring bulbs
Bulb that you planted in April or May (tulips, daffodils,hyacinths, alliums, freesias andbluebells) should be pushingthrough right now.
-
Top-dress with a specialty bulb fertiliser to encourage better blooms and water in well.
-
Apply a second dressing of fertiliser straight after flowering, when the bulb is absorbing nutrients for next year’s flowers.
-
Don’t cut the foliage afterflowering; as the leaves die down, their nutrients are transferred into the bulb for next year’s blooms.
2. Aerate your grass
Compacted lawn can become a significant problem during winter. Aerating your lawn is one of the best ways to manage compaction. Depending on the size of your turf, you can do this with a garden fork, aerating sandals or a petrol-powered coreaerator. Failure to manage soil compaction can result in fewer nutrients getting to the roots and diminishing the overall health of your lawn.
3. Erect a teepee
Get ready for summer vegetables which you can plant as soon as the weather is warm enough. A teepee, made with home-grown bamboo or stakes, can be planted with one tomato, one climbing bean and one cucumber. These plants grow well together, offering shade to protect developing fruit and creating a mix of scents that confuse insect pests.Three teepees will give you enough vegies for the entire season: the first teepee can be planted in late August, the second in late October and the third in late December.
4.Scent the garden
Brown boronia (Boroniamegastigma) offers irresistible lemony notes, thriving in a pot with native plant mix and added grit. Bring it indoors to fill your home with its perfume. Daphne is loved worldwide for its pink, heavily scented flowers from winter to spring. This small evergreen shrub reaches 1m and benefits from an application of controlled-release fertiliser after flowering.
5. Set roses upfor success
Plant bare-rooted roses in pre-prepared beds. After planting, water them in with seaweed solution and bed them down with good mulch – roses especially love lucerne or well-composted cow manure.
6. Clear lawn weeds
Large flat-leafed weeds like dandelion, cud weed, fleabane and lamb’s tongue are unsightly. Left uncontrolled, they will spread rapidly. Bindii isa most annoying weed because it quickly produces spiny seeds turning your lawn into a ‘no-go zone’ for children and pets. Common lawn weeds are best controlled by spraying once the lawn is dry, with a selective herbicide suited to your grasstype. This is critical as a wrong choice could kill your lawn. The most common lawn grasses are buffalo hybrids, kikuyu, couch hybrids, bent and fescue. Look for a herbicide with bromoxynil and MCPA. Avoid those with fertiliser and weed control in one product.
7. Stop the sap-suckers
Are the stems of your roses smothered in small white lumps? That’s likely a scale insect infestation.Scale are small, sap-sucking insects about 5mm long that cover themselves in a dome-shaped, waxy armour. They come in a wide range of colours, from white cottony tufts to shades of grey and even dark red or black. Their protective covering can be either hard or soft. Spray your rose with a mixture of eco-oil and eco-neem to smother scale. As the incubation period varies from one to three weeks, repeat the spray once a week over a three-week period, to catch the hatchlings.
8. Sow tomato seeds
-
July is a good month to sow tomatoes. It takes six to eight weeks for seeds to germinate and for seedlings to grow big and strong enough to plant out in the vegetable garden. In frosty regions, count back six to eight weeks from your last expected frost to time your sowing just right.
-
Set up a mini greenhouse with a heat pad to provide steady, gentle warmth. It's perfect for encouraging strong germination.
-
There are hundreds of tomato varieties to choose from, with growing interest in heirloom types. The oxheart tomato is an old favourite. This large, fleshy variety matures mid-season and produces sweet, ribbed fruit with a rich flavour. It's a reliable cropper and an excellent source of healthy vitamins.