Garden calendar June 2019
Planting
- Winter doesn’t have to be dull there are lots of vibrant flower seedlings to plant or pot out now for a great show of blooms through winter and early spring. Some favourites include cineraria, viola, pansy and calendula.
- This is the main season for planting deciduous trees, ornamental as well as fruit.
- Plant some winter fragrance with plants that include, daphne, including a new white flowering variety called Eternal Fragrance, Geraldton Wax, lavender including the variety 'Winter Lace', Wintersweet shrub (acokanthera) and Luculia.
- Split the clumpers such as agapanthus, Japanese wind flower, strelitzia, acanthus and clivia. Clean up crook foliage then replant.
- If you are planting out roses this winter then now is the time to prepare the beds with Baileys Soil Improver Plus.
- Time to lift and store dahlia tubers. You need to be careful to avoid damaging the dormant shoots at the neck of the tuber where it attaches to the old main stem.
- If you were given an indoor poinsettia for Christmas then trim it back and plant it in the garden in a sunny spot and next winter it will resume it brilliant colour storm.
- Deciduous fruit trees and vines are now available at nurseries and weather conditions make this the ideal time to plant them in your garden.
- Remember the onion tribe like cool conditions so this makes winter their prime time. Also this is the ideal time to plant radish and kohlrabi.
- It is a good time to plant both strawberry and asparagus crowns as well as rhubarb sets.
- Vegetables to plant now include all the cabbage family and onion tribe. Also get going with artichoke, shallots, garlic and why not try English spinach. Make sure you have a rich compost base by adding Baileys Veg & Herb Mix to existing patches.
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Feeding
- Feed sasanqua camellias once flowering has finished as this coincides with their main growing season. Use Baileys Energy Garden.
- Continue to feed vegetable plants in the patch to improve flavour and yields. Liquid fertilisers like Bailey Vitaplant are fast workers at this time of the year. These can be applied over the foliage for a sort of intravenous feed.
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Pruning and Maintenance
- Lightly trim back summer and autumn flowering evergreen shrubs such as hibiscus, many grevilleas, oleander, gardenia, many ornamental grasses, geranium, canna, salvia, plumbago, cistus rock rose, Chinese lantern or abutilon and tibouchina.
- To keep indoor cyclamen happy and cool put them out when you go to bed onto a cold patio.
- Trim hedges to keep them neat for most of winter as there is little growth likely to happen for the next couple of months.
- Cut back the fern like fronds of asparagus to the ground so that new edible shoots will pop above the ground ready for harvest.
- Now that grape vines have dropped their foliage it’s time to do the annual pruning. It’s a good practise to apply a spray of lime sulphur after pruning to kill off fungi such as mildew.
Lawn Care
- Spray your lawn to combat winter grass.
Pest Control
- Winter fruiting citrus and loquat can become a target for fruit fly in those states that suffer their depredation. Apply bait to foliage to attract and eliminate the female fruit fly before she lays her eggs; to keep the pests from developing.
