Thank the good Lord above that the sun has turned down from a High/Extreme to Medium heat this past week here in Perth and you can feel the change in the air. You can step outside without feeling like you have stepped into a blast furnace without protection. It has been a brutal Summer.
The mornings are darker for longer and the breezes a little stronger and while the days are still warm it is nothing like the blast furnace we have experienced this past Summer. It has been one of the hottest on record. The magpies have changed their song to a definite and more tuneful warble.
My poor garden is still recovering, not to mention the poor gardener who tends it! Despite all of the mulching, the soil wetter and the mature compost as well as the application of Yates Droughtshield https://www.yates.com.au/yates-2-5l-waterwise-droughtshield/ I have to say that my garden is not at its best…it looks well, parched!
My roses are OK (just) but I have purposefully removed the flowers and focussed on keeping the shrubs trimmed and thriving through the heat in the hope of a decent Autumn flush. The chili thrip has been kept at bay, for the most part, using a combination of water over the leaves in the mornings on the hottest of days, application of Seasol Powerfeed https://www.seasol.com.au/product-category/powerfeed-home-garden/ and removing affected leaves and flowers.
This week, I removed the spent Sunflowers which is a sure sign that the seasons are changing.
My thoughts are now turning to planting out containers for Easter and selecting Spring Bulbs. I will buy some annuals and cottage perennials to plant before the winter, which may sound weird to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere but we don’t have gardening seasons here as we garden all year round. So there is no 3-month winter resting for us gardeners in Western Australia, there is always planting, weeding, or trimming to be done.
Speaking of trimming, now that we are unlikely to get days over 40 degrees you can think about pruning hedges and tidying up cottage perennials to improve their shapes.
Frankly, it has been too hot to plant these past few months but you can start planting again now. This weekend check out Plants By Denise /https://www.facebook.com/p/Plants-by-Denise-100063755762034/ is having their ‘Hello Autumn, Goodbye Summer Plant Sale’ this weekend from 8 am-4 pm 15 Turner Road, Carmel, and also the https://kalamundagardenfestival.com.au/ is on this Sunday, March 3rd from 10 am to 3 pm in Stirk Park, Kalamunda, WA
Between St Patrick’s Day and Anzac Day, this year, I am going to plant out some Sweet Peas. https://www.yates.com.au/how-to-grow/sweet-pea/ Every year, I promise myself I am going to plant some and buy the seeds and time gets away from me and the seed packets sitting on my desk for another year, staring back at me, with the painful reminder that yet again, I missed the planting window…not this year!!!
Fixing up the patches in my Buffalo lawn will also be. apriority for me now, I am going to remove any thatch and feed it up again before it slows down its growth over the winter months.
So, it’s a busy time of the year in the garden…I’m ready to get stuck into it again, how about you?
