By Mark Dowling, CEHL Co-op Development Coordinator
We have had a wonderfully wet Autumn and Winter, providing a bumper start especially, for weeds, in the garden for the coming Spring. So, if you are looking to plant more natives, exotics, perennials or annual plants, or even give your existing plantings a ‘kick along’, now is a great time to prepare your soils for this upcoming productive period.
This is the time you should be looking at mulching your plants, keeping the available moisture down in the soil, whether they are in a garden bed or in a lawn situation. There are lots of different types of mulches, but not all of them will do the best job for the soil or the plant. Organic mulches rob Nitrogen from the soil that should be there for the plants, so I always apply Nitrogen before putting down the mulch, either by using Blood & Bone, or a pelletized chook manure like ‘Rooster Booster’. (If you have native plants, then only use Blood & Bone, as the majority of natives suffer from Phosphorous toxicity, an element high in chook manure). A couple of handfuls per square metre will generally do the trick.
This is also a great time to be planting new trees and shrubs, so prepare the soil rest by mixing organic composts into the soil profile, to give plants a great start. Just about anything organic is great for soils and for plants, mushroom compost, stable manure, horse manure or, better still, homemade compost. All soils benefit from the addition of organic matter, sands, loams and clays. The more organic matter, the better the soil for the plants. If you have any soil issues, I would be happy to help you with ways to get the best from your soil.
Now is a great time to be planting annual flowering plants, for yourself and your bees, like poppies, Queen Anne Lace, Love in a Mist, Cosmos, Corn flowers, Calendula, Hollyhocks, Canterbury Bells, Sweet Peas and Native Everlastings. All can be sown direct now into moist soils by seed. The only thing you will need to ensure, is that they are kept moist during germination, a problem I don’t see this season.
Also, it’s a great time to be planting more Perennials. I have changed my front yard over Winter with a totally new theme and layout, moving, replacing, dividing and adding at least another 100 or so perennials and , for the first time, growing annuals from seed, both exotic and native species to all the various pockets that I can cram more into. Now, having done this, it’s still time to do a little bit more by way of feeding your beds, and at the end of Winter I will add a balanced organic fertiliser, such as Neutrog’s ‘Gyganic’, or ‘Sudden Impact for Roses’, with a follow up in late Spring, at a handful per square metre. A little effort now will give you, your plants and your bees, I have a hive, a wonderful, long and productive flowering season.
Cheers and gardening gloves off.