It’s the last day of summer!

As I write this it’s pouring with much needed rain across most of Sydney.  One of our biggest challenges over the last 6 months has been the dry conditions, so it’s great to see the wet weather prevailing once again.  I thought I might share some maintenance tips to ensure your garden gets the most out of these remaining warmer months.

Water

We encourage all of our clients to consider installing a drip irrigation system.  Not only are drip systems easier and less time consuming than hand watering, but they are also more effective.  Hand watering often only wets the very top layer of the soil, while the constant drip effect ensure the water gets where it’s most needed; to the roots.

We recommend completely saturating lawns, rather than multiple light amounts of water.  By saturating the law and soil, you are encouraging the roots to dive deeper in search of the water, which results in a healthier and stronger lawn.

Lawn

Although the traditional Sydney backyard has grown smaller over the years, lawn still plays a huge part in many people’s gardens.  Generally speaking the healthier the lawn, the less weeds appear.  When it comes to maintenance, lawns require more than just mowing and edging.  We generally first aerate the lawn and fertilse with good old ‘Blood and Bone’.  It super important to finally soak the lawn so the ‘blood and bone’ penetrates the aeration holes.

Plants

Except for natives, we like to use basic chook poo to feed our plants and a little bit of slow realise fertiliser, nothing too fancy.  For natives we recommend a special native slow release fertiliser such as Osmocote Native Gardens.

Plants generally respond to pruning by sprouting new growth and leaf material.  This is particularly important for hedges and more formal gardens.  Letting hedges and shrubs go too far between cuts can make pruning a nightmare, so we recommend frequent pruning which results in a more dense and healthier plant.

It might be raining today, but I assure you the dry conditions will return.  This means it’s important to keep a good coverage of mulch over those garden beds.  I like to use a compost such as ANL’s Greenlife Compost as mulch rather than pine bark.  Unlike pine park, compost actually improves the nutrient content of the soil and keeps the moisture in too.