 Growing Gardens
with Julia Hancock
Be Ruthless
Things are ticking over nicely in north coast gardens this month – lawns are staying short, weeds are behaving themselves for a change and the soil is staying moist enough to cut right back on the watering.
All this means there's time to fiddle around tidying up the bits that normally get neglected during busier gardening times. Perennial beds which have flowered well into early winter now need attending to, to enable them to perform well again next year.
Salvias flower all year round here, but at the moment they are overgrown and straggly, so sacrifice those remaining blooms and cut back by one half, removing entirely those canes that are old and woody. New canes will shoot up almost immediately to replace them, and fresh buds will quickly form on the trimmed canopy.
The spent flowering stalks of red hot pokers, daylilies, cannas, gingers, tuberoses and chrysanthemums can be snipped off at the base and dead foliage removed. Geraniums quickly become top heavy and underproductive unless they are regularly snipped to manageable proportions. New plants strike easily from cuttings taken now.
If you haven't trimmed up your tibouchinas after their autumn flowering, then do it now, along with roses (except climbers), abelias, buddlejas, hydrangeas, fuchsias, ixoras, sasanqua camellias, plumbago, crepe myrtle and hibiscus. However, if your area is frost-prone, it's wise to hold this job over until late winter.
Deciduous fruit trees should also be checked for diseased or dead wood, overcrossing branches and signs of borer, which must all be removed to maintain the overall health of the tree. Check for scale and spray with white oil if it is present.
Pruning jobs are best done when the moon is in its waning phase and plant energy moves back down into the roots. By the next full moon the plants will be showing vigorous regrowth.
 Lismore Garden Club
Plant your seed potatoes for the bushes to look their best for the spring carnival. Plant straight away well shot seeds. Tidy up your strawberry bushes, remove runners and dead leaves. Stake tomatoes and remove side shoots. Keep an eye on pot plants for moisture, even though it is cool, they still need to be checked. This time of the year is a great time to manually remove weeds from your lawn and apply a light fertiliser – perhaps a sprinkle of urea.
– Happy gardening! Don 6624 3855.
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