April in the garden...

WORDS By Kristee Semmler

Autumn weather is upon us.

Cooler days and nights means our trees and gardens will be putting on an incredible display of autumn leaf colour.

Be sure to take it in in all its glory.

The mild weather we get in autumn certainly makes it easy and enjoyable to be outside in the garden and there is plenty to do at this time of year.

As I mentioned last month, Autumn is one of the best times of the year to get planting. Planting now means plants have a good 6-8 months of milder weather to get established before the heat of next summer and the soil is still warm enough for plenty of growth to occur.

If you haven’t done so already, it’s a great time to start harvesting the final fruits of your summer garden and preparing for your winter vegetable garden.

Plenty can be planted at this time - why not try cauliflower and broccoli - known to be some of the most sprayed vegetables you can buy.

Growing your own means you control what goes on them in terms of chemicals and fertilisers and there are plenty of natural and organic solutions available to control winter pests such as cabbage moth butterfly, or more specifically its caterpillars.

Our friendly staff at Barossa Nursery can step you through all the options.

Other great vegetables to grow now include onions, cabbage, Asian greens, broad beans and peas, leek, rocket, kale and carrots.

If you’ve found your vegetable garden needs a break or is feeling a little overworked, try planting a crop of garden peas throughout. Think of it as a cover crop for your vegetable garden.

Peas are legumes and nitrogen fixing plants, which essentially helps to improve and replenish your soil.

You can enjoy eating fresh homegrown peas over the coming months and your soil will enjoy a nice nutritious break too.

When the peas start to die off, work them back into the soil to further enrich it.

Flowers are important too!

As we say goodbye to petunias and vincas, we say hello to flowers like: pansies, violas, stocks, calendula, cinerarias, cornflowers, sweet peas and Primulas.

These are all cold loving flowers and trust me, by planting these little beauties now, in the middle of winter you will be thanking yourself for planting such happy little flowers that help brighten your freezing cold days!

One job that seems to be a re-occurring job every month is weeding.

A little rain is all that is needed for weeds to sprout up in their thousands!

My advice is to keep on top of it early.

Try not to let weeds go to seed if you can help it - it’ll just mean more weeds otherwise!

The mild summer conditions we had along with summer rains have found many of our customers encountering the dreaded Caltrop weed.

These nasty weeds appear in late summer and autumn and have the sharpest burrs/seeds on them.

If you’ve never encountered one think of the seed having sharp little nails poking out of it and if you have encountered them you will know how painful they can be!

A heavy weed spray will help to kill the plant but won’t kill the seed. Therefore the best way to control them is by carefully digging them out and picking up as many seeds as possible to reduce numbers next year.

Never put these weeds in your green bin!

Another weed that will start to rear it’s ugly head soon too if left untreated is ‘winter grass’.

This weed is a notorious pest in lawns as very few sprays have any effect on them and they can spread their little seeds so quickly.

We have just got a new product in store which is a pre-emergent treatment for winter grass (and other weeds), it needs to be applied now to help control this pesky weed.

Check for pests

There are plenty of active pests around at the moment.

In particular keep an eye out for lawn beetles and its larvae in your lawns, lawns that look patchy. Or if you are digging up ‘witchetty grub’ looking larvae in your garden, it is a sure sign you have lawn beetle. Treat with a good lawn beetle granular systemic insecticide.

Citrus leaf miner on citrus is another active pest at the moment. Remove worst affected leaves and spray citrus well with white oil to control.

My plant of the month - Tree dahlias

Tree dahlias flower from Autumn and into Winter before dying down completely and reshooting again in Spring.

They are fast growing plants that create a beautiful, mass display of flowers on tall stems when the rest of the garden is bare. They also make an excellent cut flower.

Position: Due to their height, tree dahlias do well against a fence or wall where they can have some protection from strong winds and from frosts.

They will tolerate full sun to part shade. Some staking may be required.

Height: 3-4 metres

“Time spent among trees is never wasted”, Katrina Mayer.

Happy Gardening!