Summer - An overview

Summer - An overview of the season

Summer is here, and it’s this season when the garden goes haywire. 

Summer to me means: children playing outside on the lawn, the delicious aroma of family barbecues with friends.... and lots of mosquitoes. 

That’s right! It wouldn't be an Australian summer without them. With school holidays for half of the summer season; most of us are relaxing and enjoying the time outside, the weather and the garden. 

Agapanthus are flowering everywhere as they love the heat, but I must admit the weather in the Illawarra has been very unpredictable lately. We've had some crazy hot days, followed by cold, wet days. One minute it's raining, the next; it's too hot to be outside in the garden for any length of time.  

One of the biggest concerns in Summer is water. For your plants to survive; your garden needs to be mulched to retain the moisture you give it. 

For different garden beds, I recommend the following: 

Flowering & Native beds: good old Eucalyptus mulch 

Vegetable & Herb beds: Sugarcane and Lucerne

If you keep your beds mulched with a thick 75mm to 100mm layer, and water the mulch (not the foliage) in the early mornings....your garden should survive.

My  vegie garden has really taken off with so much produce to give away to family and friends...but....

I haven’t had much luck this season with tomato’s due to the rapid weather changes we've been having, but the fruit are still there. The plants themselves look pretty dismal, but I'm still picking tomatoes.

I will continue with more on summer in February before we head into autumn.