Lismore Garden Club News

With thoughts of continuing our countdown to spring it’s time for us to give away our winter lethargy and get stuck into some essential pre-spring garden jobs. We don’t want to arrive at the first week in September and find that we have not properly prepared!

It’s time to prune passionfruit vines and feed then water with Seasol. Flowers will form on the new growth. Lift and divide gerberas and also cannas. If you want a good lawn this summer now’s the time to mow it, aerate it, apply an organic fertiliser such as pelleted chook manure and water it in. This is also your last chance to get rid of bindiis. They can be dug by hand or sprayed. Watch for aphids on roses and remove by hand, squirt with a jet from the hose or spray with a non-toxic spray. Apply a weekly application of liquid fertiliser to leafy greens to keep them growing and prevent bolting to seed. Remove gall wasp swellings from citrus and incinerate cuttings or treat with boiling water. Divide and replant water lillies. Use garden soil, not potting mix, including some weathered cow manure, and put some pebbles on top.

The Lismore Garden Club meets on the second Thursday of each month at the Lismore Workers Club at 1pm. For information phone Rosemary on 6629 3353.

Finally: “Let gratitude be your attitude.”

Happy gardening

Ron Burns