Keep Gardening…..
Although we are nearing the end of the summer season, keep up the task of ‘dead-heading’ to give the garden colour for another month. If you are planning to colour your beds through autumn and winter, you can start to sow poppies, pansies, alyssum, petunias, dianthus and foxgloves……. a huge variety. Sweet peas must be sown early to make sure of good strong plants and many flowers. Add a lot of compost, bonemeal and an organic fertilizer to the soil as sweet peas enjoy a rich and well-drained soil.
Hopefully the rains are still helping with the irrigation, but if not, keep watering regularly especially the lawn areas. Avoid cutting the seed lawn varieties too short as the roots can get damaged by the sun’s heat. Be on the lookout for mole crickets and harvester termites, and treat as soon as you see any early signs of damage.
Talking of rain; do you have an area in your garden that tends to remain wet for a long time after the rains? Instead of worrying about drainage, why not turn this area into a Bog Garden. There are such a wide variety of grasses and reeds with different colours, heights and textures to create a beautiful ‘wetland’.
Roses will continue to produce blooms with regular watering and feeding. With all the wet and moist weather we are experiencing, continue the preventative sprays against black spot, mildews and rust. Camellias and azaleas will bloom in late winter and spring. It is now that you will need to promote the blooms. These and other spring flowering varieties are now starting to set their flowering buds. Feed with a high potassium fertilizer such as 5.1.5 or 3.1.5 make sure that the plants do not suffer from drought and keep the leaves healthy and green with a dose of Epsom salts or Iron Chelate every six weeks. A mulching of acid compost will also not go amiss.
Similarly, your citrus varieties should also be kept well fertilized and watered to ensure a good harvest in the up-coming season.
There is still enough warm weather to keep up with the herb and vegetable garden. Do start looking for seeds of the cooler season varieties and plan for these when removing the summer varieties that are no longer producing. Remember the concept of “Green Manure”. All the green leaves and stems of the summer season crops no longer needed can be chopped up and worked into the soil when preparing the beds
Remember Valentine’s Day this month. Perhaps a rose bush; some chocolate mint plants to go with that box of chocolates, a lavender plant for the garden together with some scented bath products. Let your imagination create something special and longer lasting on this day
Happy Gardening!
