SPRING is such a magic time in the garden. You can feel and see the massive energy in the garden which is unleashed after a winter of waiting.
Spring is also our windiest season. I hope all your flowering trees manage to hang onto their blossoms as long as they can. Everywhere japonica camellias are covered in blossom. Yellow wattles are everywhere. Bulbs are filling gardens with yellow, blue, orange and every other colour of the rainbow. It's an exciting time in the garden
If your mower has been sitting in the shed all winter this weekend would be a great time to check the spark plug, give it a service and new blades before the spring rush.
The most important thing is to lift you mower height up and keep it up this year. You will have a better lawn for it. Lifting your mower doesn't mean you mow less often. You mow as often as you did previously so your lawn still looks tidy.
Trim up hedges such as box and Santolina. Give them a feed once you finish. Leave flowering-hedges, like Viburnum, until after they finish flowering. Tidy up wisteria now if you haven't to keep it in check. Remove the long spindly shoots and leave the swollen buds.
You will be amazed how much time you save by keeping your garden in shape by making small cuts often. It will save you having to spend a weekend once a shrub has grown out of control. Remember what they say about a stitch in time?
It is important to deal with pests as soon as you see them before they become a bigger problem. Spring is the time for bugs so keep an eye out for them.
Spend 15 minutes walking around your garden looking at your plants and you may notice some of these issues before they become problems. Snails and slugs are off and racing now also as are aphids and scale. Deal with them now.
The weekend's warmer weather has triggered weeds to grow. Any weeds left unchecked now will flower and set seed shortly. The trick is to deal with weed seeds before putting them onto the compost. You can cook them in a black plastic bag left out in the sun. This may take some time, as the sun doesn't have a lot of warmth just yet.
At TOP HEDGE our environmentally certified horticulturists know all this and more ways to make you garden thrive in our conditions, so if you love your garden but never have enough time give us a call on 5330 1071 or email murray@tophedge.com.au