Spring / summer annuals and summer flowering bulbs are available from now. Mulch the entire garden to ensure the water stays where it is needed most.

Planting:

• Plant tomato seeds in punnets and plant out seedlings once there is no danger of frost.
• Choose drought-hardy perennials such as nemesia, geranium and scabiosa for summer colour.
• Plant impatiens in shady areas.

Fertilising:

• Feed all garden plants.
• Feed and trim all hedging plants.
• Keep fertilised plants watered. If using greywater, use plant-friendly washing detergent.

Pruning:

• Trim back camellias lightly to encourage bushiness.
• Hibiscus can be pruned back and fertilised to encourage flowering.
• Prune passionfruit vines back to the main leaders.
• Deadhead flowers of spring flowering bulbs then let foliage die off before removing it.

Lawncare:

• Kill off lawn weeds including bindii with Lawn Builder + Weed Kill. Apply evenly with a lawn spreader and read the label carefully.
• Quickly repair bare patches caused by weed removal with PatchMaster Seeds + Repair Mix.
• Argentine Stem Weevils are active in spring and damage lawns. Lawn Builder + Grub & Insect Control will eliminate them. It also kills ants.

Controlling garden pests:

• It's time to deal with all the major insect pests on your ornamental plants. Aphids, caterpillars, scale, mealy bugs, lillypilly psyllids, azalea lace bug, leaf hoppers, whitefly and thrips can all be eliminated with Defender MaxGuard.
• Now is also the time to defend against snails.

Top up your mulching around the garden to prepare for those hot summer days. Keep up the water to shallow –rooted plants such as azaleas, camellias and gardenias. They will suffer the most through the hot weather.

Planting:

Summer is still a good time to plant flowers and vegetables!

• Plant zucchini, pumpkin, beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, leeks, lettuce, sweet corn, cucumbers.
• Plant herbs.
• Plant autumn flowering bulbs such as sternbergia, belladonna lilies, colchicum.
• Plant impatiens, celosia, bedding begonia, French marigold, zinnia, salvia, sunflower, torenia, verbena in early summer.

Fertilising:

• Fertilise the whole garden and add soil wetting agent at the same time.
• Fertilise phosphorus sensitive native plants such as grevilleas and waratahs.
• Use Miracle-Gro® Tomato Plant Food on all vegetables and especially tomatoes to help prevent blossom-end rot.
• Citrus trees would benefit from a feed with a high-potassium fertiliser to promote flowering.

Pruning:

• Prune camellias and azaleas lightly where needed in early summer.
• Keep hedges pruned – often and lightly.
• Continue to dead-head all summer annuals and perennials, and summer-flowering shrubs including roses.

Lawncare:

• Mow the garden regularly. This helps keep it thick and discourages weeds.
• Help to make lawns and gardens more water absorbent by applying a Wetting Agent.
• Prepare lawns for the hot dry months by fertilising in early December. Well- fed lawns are better able to cope with drought stress.

Controlling garden pests:

• Protect summer vegetables against caterpillars, thrips, aphids, whitefly and other soft-bodied insect pests with Defender™ Pyrethrum Insect Spray
• Mites can do a lot of damage to ornamental plants. Try Defender™ Bug-B-Gon which is also effective and long-lasting against a wide range of other pests.
• Watch out for black spot on roses. Spraying with diluted milk powder may be effective, or a fungicide may be needed.

Now is a great time to start a compost heap in your garden. Autumn leaves are great for the compost heap!

Planting:

• Spring-flowering bulbs will be available now. Buy them early to get the best pick but don’t plant them until the end of April.
• Plant strawberries, lettuce, onions, spinach, radish, broad beans, cabbage.
• Plant pansies, violas, polyanthus, cineraria.
• Plant natives such as correas, bottlebrushes, lillypillies and grevilleas.

Fertilising:

• Fertilise azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons, daphne and pieris using a fertiliser designed specifically for acid-loving plants.
• Fertilise whole garden with a controlled release fertiliser.
• Indoor plants can have a final feed before the winter months set in.

Pruning:

• Deadhead roses.
• Cut back pelargoniums by about two-thirds.
• Cut down herbaceous perennials that have finished flowering.

Lawncare:

• Aerate lawns, using a garden fork to spike the lawn.
• Feed the lawn one last time to keep it green through the cool months.
• Destroy broadleaf weeds in lawn with Scotts® Lawn Builder™ with Weedkill

Controlling garden pests:

• Keep an eye out for aphids, especially on roses.
• An anti-snail campaign now will pay big dividends in the spring.
• Treat fungal diseases such as black spot and powdery mildew with a fungicide.

It’s sometimes hard to venture into the garden on cold Winter days but there are still a few things on the gardening calendar for the winter months. The good news is you will warm up in no time!

Planting:

• Now is the time to transplant anything that needs moving.
• Plant roses, shrubs and deciduous trees.
• Plant kohlrabi, carrot, leeks, sweet potato and cabbage.
• Choose winter-flowering shrubs to add winter colour. Camellia, daphne, magnolia and wattle bloom in winter.
• Plant seedlings of Iceland poppy, cineraria, calendula, pansy.
• Plant bare-rooted deciduous trees and shrubs including roses.
• Do not water succulents at this time of year. They can rot easily and need no water.

Fertilising:

• Fertilise winter flowering bulbs such as jonquils with when buds first appear. Continue to fertilise all bulbs after flowering is complete to ensure good flowering next year.
• Fertilise leafy winter vegetables.

Pruning:

• Cut back herbaceous perennials such as wind flowers, penstemon, catmint, bergamot, canna.
• Prune deciduous trees and shrubs such as maple, ash, elm if required. Prune spring-flowering deciduous shrubs eg weigela, flowering quince, forsythia after flowering.
• Prune roses in mid-to-late July.

Lawncare:

• Lawns need to be sprayed for weeds now. Winter grass, clover and bindii are all actively growing and need to be sprayed before they seed.

Controlling garden pests:

• In early winter Azaleas will be setting bud and will need to be sprayed with for petal blight regularly from now on.