Autumn Action
Autumn is the best time for action in your garden, with delightful weather and so many fun tasks to do. Get stuck into planting, feeding and pruning, and be sure to check on your indoor plants too. Refresh pot plants – pot them on, divide them, feed them or throw them out and start again. Often, we hang on to half dead pot plants which really would go to much better use in the compost heap!
Feed the whole garden, from lawns and roses to fruit trees, vegies and everything else. Autumn feeding is particularly important for lawns as most water wise lawns (kikuyu, couch and buffalo) are active in the warmer weather and go dormant and often yellowish over winter. The secret to having these lawns look good over winter is to feed them well in autumn, and having a strong healthy lawn over winter also reduces competition by winter grasses. Remember that as the weather cools, increase your mowing height and avoid mowing the last flush of growth too low as when the temperatures drop, lawns stop growing and your lawn will not look good.
Think Pink
On the weekend of March 29 & 30 visit your local Garden Centres SA centre and ‘think pink’ to support the great work done by the McGrath Foundation. Breast cancer strikes randomly and two years ago it struck one of the teams at a Garden Centres of SA centre, so they organised a Strike me Pink! Day to help raise funds. The group decided to have another fundraiser this year so that’s wonderful.
On that day you will be assured of ‘seeing pink’ in the Garden Centre, with staff wearing pink, pink flowers out on special, raffles and other activities to raise funds for the cause. Some may be offering special prices or prizes to customers wearing pink on the day! So add some pretty in pink flowers to your garden, choosing from pink Salvias, Daisies, Geraniums, Hebe and Dahlias to name but a few, and part proceeds will be donated to the McGrath Foundation.
Check out where your nearest GCSA member centre is by visiting the ‘Find a Member’ page’ on the website and see what is happening by visiting the member’s Facebook page. You can also donate direct to the McGrath Foundation for the day. Learn more about it by visiting the Strike Me Pink! page HERE
Get stuck into the Vegie Patch
Plant your winter vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, silver beet and kale. Many cool season crops are repeat harvest so you only really need to plant them once at the start of the season and they will crop right through. These include kale, spinach, silver beet, rainbow chards and leeks. Others like cabbages, cauliflowers and kohl rabi are grown for a single harvest and then you pull the plant out.
Most broccoli produce heads which can be harvested, and then side shoots will develop and keep cropping for a while, and some sprouting types just produce small bunches and no main head. If space is limited choose sprouting varieties which will give you multiple harvests rather than one big head. The same can be said for cabbages in smaller plots. Grow a few smaller ones rather than large heads which take up a lot of space and take a long time to mature.
Be sure to plant some garlic too as this superfood is easy to grow in a sunny position in well drained soil.
Buried Treasure
Plant spring flowering bulbs now for spring bling. Bulbs add the element of surprise and excitement to a garden, as each year, we eagerly await their emergence from the soil, followed by their breath-taking performance. Although the flowering period of most bulbs is generally only brief, they make up for their fleeting appearance by their stunning display. Most grow best in well-drained soil in a sunny position, however they will grow well under deciduous trees which are often devoid of leaves for most of the growing and flowering period of the bulb.
Finally, it is important to remember that newly purchased bulbs have enough nutrients stored within them to produce flowers the first year after planting, but regular feeding during the growing season (provided that all other conditions are satisfied) will ensure flowers for the following year. Bulbs also look great in pots.
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