Wallsend Nurseries Online

Gardening Tips for Autumn

    Now is a great time to replenish the mulch on your garden beds. In most cases you can simply dig the old mulch in and apply a new layer of fresh material. We recommend sugar cane mulch as ideal for this purpose. It retains moisture well once settled and deters weeds from shooting up between your plants. A complete fertiliser such as Organic Life® cam be applied just before placing the mulch.

   Autumn vegetables include such goodies as Cabbage, Cauliflower, Silver Beet, Early Onions, Beetroot, Lettuces, Broccoli,  Carrots, Parsnips and Turnips. Leave planting of Peas till after St Patricks day for best results.

   Herbs include Coriander, Mints, Parsley, Sage, Thyme, Rocket and lots of others to make wonderful flavoursome meals and salads all year round. There are quite a few more unusual herbs available these days such as Lemon Grass, Rue, and Stevia.

   Flowers include Pansies, Viola, Lobelia, Marigolds, Calendula, Poppies, Sweet Peas, Snapdragons, Lupins and Delphiniums. Of course there are many more interesting things you can plant for a burst of winter colour right throughout the cooler weather.

  Most flowers and vegetables are easily grown from seed and this is a very rewarding way of producing your own seedlings in large numbers inexpensively. All you need is the packets of seeds, some seed raising mixture and a seed tray. Some varieties can even be sown direct into the garden. In cases where the seed is really tiny you may prefer to buy seedlings as small seeds can be hard to raise without experience.

  Keep an eye out for the appearance of Winter Grass in your lawns. Most types of lawn can be treated by spraying with Endothal® winter grass killer. Kikuyu cannot be sprayed with Endothal® as the chemical badly damages the grass. In Kikuyu you will need to remove the weed manually.

   The whole garden will benefit from regular feeding with a liquid fertiliser applied during autumn and winter. We use Thrive® and there are several good organic based ones as well such as Nitrosol® and Seasol®. Seasol® is more of a tonic than a fertiliser but helps prevent plant stress after transplanting and rapid root regrowth.

 New season roses will start to arrive from early June so prepare your garden beds now. Orders will be taken from now till they arrive if you want a particular variety.

  Purchase your spring flowering bulbs now but don't plant them until after Anzac Day for most varieties. Freesias make an exception as they shoot very fast from late summer on.

  Some bulbs such as Tulips and Hyacinths require a chilling to make them flower properly in our warm climate. Place the bulbs into the crisper of your fridge, not the freezer, for four to six weeks prior to planting them to provide the cold they need.

  Give the lawn a last light feed with a quality lawn fertiliser like Organic Life® or Munn's Golf Course Green® to help maintain good colour and growth during the cooler months. Keep an eye out for lawn grub which sometimes strikes during the cooler moister autumn weather. Treat with Baythroid® if necessary. This is a a fast acting and relatively low toxic insecticide that works very well. It controls lawn beetle and crickets if they are causing problems too.