Garden guide: December - Cool Region

SUMMER

Your Gardening Guide for December

COOL REGION

SUMMER

Your Gardening Guide for December

COOL REGION

Welcome to December!

December is here which marks the start of summer. It’s a time of festivities, summer BBQ’s and spending more time outdoors.

Follow these summer gardening tips if you wish to have more time for your loved ones while keeping your garden resilient against the intense summer heat

December Jobs

#1 Mulch

Mulch keeps water in the soil, lowers the soil temperature

#2 Roses

Fertilise with organic fertiliser, mulch and dead head. A very light prune of roses after their first spring flowering will help ensure another flush of blooms later in summer.

#3 Feed

Feed tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums and together fruit bearers with potash or seaweed fertiliser to help promote and develop fruit.

#4 Harvest

Time to start preserving your garden harvest. Your garden should be providing strawberries, raspberries & other cane berries, lots of salad and even some tomato varieties.
Other fruits to harvest include gooseberries, figs, cherries, early nectarines and peaches and last of the mulberries.

#5 Coddling moth

Put bands around apple and pear trees to try to catch coddling moth pupating. Check every 3 weeks and destroy any caterpillars you find. Read our article on coddling moths

Read article

#6 Tomato care

Remove any central tomato plant leaves and any that are shaded, this keeps a better airflow to keep diseases at bay.

October Essentials

Get some hot tips and tricks for garden success this October, from pricking out, to seed saving rules as well as planting edible tubers.

Watch now

Diggers top pest tips

Thrip

Thrip are small insects that attack a wide variety of plants including fruit trees, vegie crops, roses and other ornamental plants, leaves may appear to be finely mottled with a silvery appearance. Eco-oil as remedy.

Learn more about thrip insects

Cabbage white butterflie

Cabbage white butterflies are a problem this month. Cabbage grubs burrow into the hearts of tender vegie plants and can devour leaves overnight. Spray Dipel on both sides of the foliage in the evenings for most effective use.

Spider mites

Watch out for spider mite and aphids on roses (spray with eco-oil)

Learn more about spider mites

Diggers recommends

Diggers top garden ideas

Succession planting

Succession plant now to get a longer harvest time. Replant beans, corn, cucumber, carrots, baby pumpkin and zucchini alongside your existing crop and continue to plant lettuce- you can never have too much salad this time of year!

Drought tolerant

Look to plant more drought tolerant varieties of fruit & vegies include artichokes, lebanese eggplant, chillies, cherry tomatoes, bay, olives, cane berries, feijoas and cherry guavas.