Garden Advice › Garden Tips of the Month
Digger Dan's August Garden Tips
Slightly longer daylight hours and glimpses of sunshine tell us that spring is round the corner. But if you want confirmation, then look beyond the tired foliage of your perennial flowers and vegetables - there's fresh growth at the base of many plants now!
In the Edible Garden
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Fertilise fruit trees, especially citrus that are beginning to flower now. For an organic treatment, liquid feed them with Living Earth organic certified Liquid Compost, or apply a layer of sheep pellets. A good tip - apply BLACKGOLD Mulch compost over the surface root area - this inhibits any rapid weed growth during early spring
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Fertilise all edible plants gently (they don't need much in August) using liquid fertilisers, such as Organic Liquid Compost by Living Earth, or the Yates' Thrive range
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Sow carrots, spinach, spring onions and beetroot directly; sow tomatoes, capsicum and lettuce in trays indoors or under cover, if you don't have a greenhouse.
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Get herb gardens ready for spring - prune and shape thyme and rosemary, lift and trim roots of mint and plant coriander and flat-leaf parsley.
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Lightly prune fruiting plants - blueberries, feijoas and autumn-fruiting raspberries.
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Weed the vegetable garden - this allows all your desirable plants to have plenty of room to grow.
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Fork fresh Garden Mix or Compost through the top 10cm of your vegetable bed - this is the area where the roots of young vegetable seedlings will need some nutrition.
- Get planting those potatoes - read how to do it here
General Garden Work
- Time to plant pretty early spring flowers - even if you forgot to plant spring bulbs way back in autumn, now's good for hellebores (winter roses, azaleas, and camellias. Great mileage can be had from the potted colour table at the local garden centre with primulas, polyanthus and poppies. Or, if you have the space plant a NZ clematis, C. paniculata - it has beautiful flowers appearing now.
- Prune hydrangeas back to double shoots, unless the stem ends in tightly pointed foliage - this is an early spring flower - see photos
- Planting a tree - dig a hole twice as wide and slightly deeper than the tree's container. Make sure you mix plenty of compost into the soil or plant straight into Garden Mix, with a good layer in the bottom of the hole. Remove the tree from the bag, loosen the roots a little and place into the hole, then push the surrounding soil down the sides, firming around as you go. Stake the tree if necessary and water well
- Forward planning makes it easy, so you can Sit back and relax! After weeding, apply BLACKGOLD Mulch around your plants - they'll love you for it! Filled with rich organic compost from Living Earth, BLACKGOLD Mulch is a designer black blend of recycled wood that will look amazing on your garden. That's weed supression, conserving moisture where it works - at the roots and nourishing plants - All-in-one!
Lawn Care
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Advice from Prolawn, the turf professionals - 'if the lawn is wet, don't try to mow or walk over it, you're better to wait until it dries out a bit"
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We continue to recommend a general lawn fertiliser during August - Prolawn Garden Supreme. Garden Supreme strengthens the lawn's ability to withstand the cold weather and early seeding of broadleaf weeds