BRRR! How to Tend & Prepare Your Garden for Winter
BY: JASON PENNELL, NATURE ZONE
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Autumn - cold, clear nights brighten into cool, sunny days. In the mornings, early light makes your garden glow in gold, orange and scarlet. Perhaps there is a dusting of frost icing the edges of leaves and encasing red berries in translucent white; Nature's diamonds sparkling before it melts away.
Autumn is a fabulous time of the year and here, in the sub-Tropics, it does not spell the end of the growing season. Far from it! The ground remains warm from our hot Summer and our continuously beautiful days, which assists our plants to thrive in the not-so-harsh cooler months ahead.
This year has seen a long spell of wet weather and we need to take advantage of this wonderful gift from Nature. It is the perfect time to fertilise and mulch our lawns and gardens.
If we look at Natural Rainforests, we can see how Nature gets it right; the rotted humus, with its tantalising musty smell from composting, organic matter alive with beneficial soil microbes and microscopic bacteria that all convert into the vital nutrients plants love and need in order to grow lushly and abundantly.
In our own gardens we can replicate this by using organic fertilisers rich in biodiversic goodness. Add life-giving composting mulch and you will have all you need for perfect, beautiful, new soil.
If you're lucky enough to have a rich tapestry of green fields or just a simple square of turf in your backyard, these cooler months are ideal for nurturing your patch.
Fertilising your garden now promotes good, healthy root growth making it stronger and more vigorous so it is better prepared for Spring's growth burst.
A couple of important tips for cutting your piece of green:
- SHARPEN YOUR BLADES - cut it, don't bash it around with blunt objects
- LIFT THE MOWER DECK - it will cope better with all that the seasons have to throw at it.
So - love your garden. Especially cherish and take care of your grass - after all, I bet when no-one is looking, you'll be rolling in it!
For more information contact Jason Pennell from Nature Zone on 0402 463 691
