By Drew Cooper
As spring slowly approaches and the soil tries its best to warm up, we begin to think about new plantings in our native gardens: filling gaps, introducing more screening along our boundaries and bringing more colour into the landscape. The birds and bees will be on the hunt for nectar, so more flowering plants may be high on the agenda.
However, it’s important to make sure our gardens are ready for new plants, and there are a few things we can put on the weekend to-do list in preparation for spring plantings: pruning, mulching, and irrigation system checks.
Before embarking on a new planting project, it’s worth assessing whether any of your established plants could do with a prune or tidy-up. Removing some of the lower branches from some of our trees and shrubs often gives us a little more room to introduce more variety into the garden. Cutting back some of this overgrowth will not only improve the health of our plants but also direct new growth where we would like it. You can then mulch the prunings for future use or pop them in your green-waste bin.
Once the pruning has been done there will be better access to remove weeds that have sneakily occupied the garden over winter. Removing or spraying your weeds now will hopefully ensure you won’t have your new plantings compromised. The next step would be to make sure our soils are protected. While we have some spaces between our existing plants, it’s a good idea to barrow in a layer of mulch to help retain moisture in our soils and reduce future weed growth. If you need to check and/or install drip irrigation in these areas, you may want to do this before mulching.
Testing and extending your irrigation system before planting and mulching will give your plants the best opportunity to thrive as the weather really heats up. We don’t recommend using your irrigation all of the rime, but it is advisable to have drip lines installed to help new plantings establish and for those very dry periods when your plants can suffer from heat stress and thirst. It’s not difficult to install and you will find plenty of information online or at your local irrigation supplies store to assist you. Drip irrigation tends to be better than overhead sprays for a number of reasons: deeper watering leading to better root growth, reduced fungal issues, and a reduction in weed growth.
Once you’ve ticked these jobs off the list, it’s time to enjoy the fun part: planting. While your local nursery will be able to offer advice on species selection, it’s always worth having an idea of what sort of plants you want. And if you are unsure what may grow well in your area, have a look at what plants are thriving in your neighbourhood.
Peninsula Plants Nursery
w: peninsulaplants.com.au
