It's a fabulous time of the year to be gardening. The air is filled with delicious scents, there are lots of flowers to enjoy and the soil is warming up ready for planting. Hopefully everyone has received their share of the recent rains (although not the hail) so watering is not a priority at the moment and you have more time to relish the seasonal beauty. Each time you go out around the garden enjoying the spring bounties, take a bucket and pull a few weeds as of course they are also growing well at the moment.
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Can you believe it's just 7 weeks to Christmas?! For Christmas colour, summer flowering annuals such as alyssum, begonia, celosia, Californian poppy (Eschscholtzia), nasturtium, petunia, phlox, portulaca, salvia and annual vinca work well in sunny spots. For shade, impatiens is great.
Other heat tolerant annuals which can be planted now include cosmos, sunflowers, gomphrena, stock and zinnia.
READ MORE GARDENING:
Roses are starting to flower now. To encourage more flowers on newly planted repeat flowering roses, cut blooms with short stems and deadhead the finished flowers. Cut just above a leaf with five leaflets and you should get a new flower appearing within a few weeks. Roses will last better if they are picked early in the morning or in the evening and are put straight into water covering the stems right up to base of flowers. Re-cut the stems when you are arranging them for the vase. Keep vases away from direct sunlight and keep topping them up with water.
Prube Azaleas as they finish flowering. Fertilise, then spray with copper fungicide to help reduce the chance of petal blight next year. Protect the fresh new growth from sap-sucking lace bugs, which make the foliage turn silvery, by dislodging them with a strong squirt from the hose or smothering them with horticultural oil spray.
If you have patchy areas of lawn, scarify them with a rake or fork. Then scatter lawn seed and a little fertiliser, rake it in an keep it moist until the new grass is established. Reinvigorate lawns by feeding with a slow release fertiliser to encourage a vigorous lawn leading up to summer.
The next meeting of the Armidale Garden Club is on Thursday, November 26, at 7:30pm in the Uniting Church Youth Club Hall. Everyone is welcome and all COVID requirements adhered to.
