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AUTUMN - Jobs around the Garden
- Pull out any sick, struggling plants and relocate them into more suitable areas. If they’re not well suited to your conditions and soil, consider getting rid of the plant or putting it into a pot where you can more easily control its environment.
- Look around your garden and consider any layout changes or projects ? perhaps make a new path along a worn track of grass or even a pergola to shade you next summer.
- Sharpen your garden tools and oil the handles they get a lot of use over this time and are much more functional if kept in good order.
- Be careful not to over-water indoor plants in autumn and winter; they have a natural dormancy and reduced requirements for fertiliser and water in the cooler months.
- Watch for snails around cymbidium orchids ? they love the emerging stems and flower buds and do incredible damage in just one or two nights, ruining your flowers for the season.
- If you’re going to add fruit trees in the future, begin soil preparation now to increase the texture and fertility of the soil. Increase the height of the soil, over an area of about 15m x 1.5m and 30cm deep to enhance the drainage.
- Citrus and deciduous fruit trees such as apples, pears, plums and apricots all benefit from this soil improvement. When the time comes for planting just dig a hole in the enriched soil.
- Divide perennials such as stachys, bergenia and Japanese windflowers now by lifting them with a fork and gently separating the crown into sections with roots attached. Plant into well-prepared soil in new garden areas or give them away to friends.
- Weeding is not just about pulling up the odd dandelion in among the flowers. Do a regular check around your fence line and see if the birds have deposited any ‘woody’ weeds while perched on your fence. These weeds are often small trees and shrubs and while they may look less ‘weedy’ than the weeds you are used to, they can be no less problematic. Check with your local council or garden centre if you are suspicious of any new arrivals in your garden.
Plant now
Strawberries can be bought in punnets or small pots. Look for the tasty varieties that are best for the home gardener as they have superior flavour to many of the commercial varieties.
Cultivate the soil deeply and raise the beds to improve drainage and soil friability, add compost or well-rotted manure.
Mulch well and feed fortnightly with organic liquid fertiliser – you should have fruit in the first season!
Plant Australian native shrubs now for winter colour. Many of these tough customers flower profusely over winter when there is precious little colour elsewhere in the garden.
Prepare the garden for winter by planting varieties with colourful foliage or annuals that flower in late autumn and through winter.
Variegated-foliage plants also serve to brighten up the winter garden scene so use them as permanent ‘colour’ in your favourite combinations in pots or in the garden.
Many spring flowering bulbs are in the garden centre, ready to be planted now.
Fertilise now
Magnolias, camellias, daphne, azaleas and rhododendrons can all be fed now.
- Gently clear any mulch from around the drip line of the shrubs, fertilise, thoroughly water and then replace mulch, taking care not to bank up mulch around the stem of the plants.
- Feed citrus fruits such as limes, lemons, oranges, mandarins and grapefruit to encourage leafy growth and more fruit production.
- Replenish the depleted veggie patch by forking in well-rotted animal manure into fallow areas in preparation for winter crops
- Annuals, or seedlings, need a continuous supply of nutrients for peak performance.
- Fortnightly liquid feeding of winter flowering seedlings will improve growth and flowering – this is even more critical with plants in pots or hanging baskets.
- Fertilise autumn flowering bulbs now. A light application of a fast-acting fertiliser is ideal, watered in thoroughly.
Autumn lawn care
- Fertilise, if required, with a slow-release (sustainedrelease) fertiliser. Apply these once or twice per year.
- Fast-acting fertiliser such as ammonium sulphate greens the lawn quickly but, in doing so, creates more mowing, can run off and end up in waterways and does little to improve the overall strength and vigour of your lawn in the longer term.
- Top-dress with loamy soil and sow/plant runners as necessary to repair worn patches.
- Autumn is ideal for laying a new turf or seed lawn.
- Aerate the lawn with a lawn-aerating tool or ‘corer’ in areas of high-traffic compaction. Fill holes with sharp sand, and water thoroughly to stimulate new growth.
Prune now
Always have your secateurs ready when walking around the garden to deadhead all flowering plants to tidy and promote bushiness.
In late autumn or early winter, prune hydrangea macrophylla (traditional mophead-type hydrangea) canes to leave 2 sets of leaf buds on each stem above the crown of the plant.
Tip-prune fuchsias in early autumn to tidy up old flowers and promote bushy growth.
Prune summer-flowering hedges (photinia, lilly pilly, lonicera, Portuguese laurel and ligustrum) to prevent seed set or berry (which can be weedy in some parts of Australia) formation now.
Promote a mass of late-autumn flowering on roses by pruning all over the bushes by a third in early autumn.
In only 6-8 weeks they will have produced a mass of lush new growth that buds up with new flowers.
Latest tools for rent
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CONCRETE MIXER
Ideal for both concrete and mortar, these machines will mix approx 85L in just 6 minutes.Comes in Petrol or electric
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Daily: $60.50
Weekly: $242 |
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BISCUIT JOINER
The neatest way to reinforce timber butt joints. Simply cut slots with the joiner and glue in the reinforcing wooden biscuits to make the joint.
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Daily: $66.00
Weekly: $264 |
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