What to Do

 

Episode: #8 19/05/07
Presenter: Sue McDougall

Autumn is nature’s natural planting time; the soil is still warm so whatever you put on the ground it will shoot away beautifully. It is also a great time of the year to finish off all those unfinished projects, so take advantage of this gorgeous autumn weather and get stuck into it!

How many of you have always got pots that have fallen on their sides because of our strong winds? It misses its watering so it starts to die back, the soil becomes bone dry and it won’t absorb any water and the plant just looks awful, now is a great time to get stuck into them and re-pot them.

The plant can always go back into the same pot; all you need to do is cut off some roots with a pruning saw. You can be pretty ruthless with olive tree which is what Sue is re-potting, because they are just so tough. Use premium standards potting mix to give it the best chance of survival. Lastly prune about a third of the branches off the top of the plant.

Autumn is the most stressful time of the year for citrus trees particularly the ones that are growing in pots. Their root system is confined and dries out really quickly through out the summer months at the same time all the nutrients are being used to help develop the fruit. So what tends to happen is that the leaves start to go yellow. Most people put granular fertiliser around the roots system to try and fix the problem, but it is actually one of the worst things you can do to the plant because it causes the leave to drop which can cause all sorts of problem like dieback.

To fix the problem and feed the fruit as well as the leaves at the same time is to apply a soluble fertiliser over the foliage and around the root system now and again in four weeks time.

You can be prepared for the change in annual colour, things like Dianthus (Gem fire) once they go into the ground they will be flowering in a few weeks. To follow on with some early spring colour just put a few Stock’s (Giant Imperial) in because you will be rewarded with beautiful perfume flowers.

You will find many things that will happen in the garden are seasonal and maybe what is happening in your backyard is happening in someone else’s so don’t forget to pick up a copy of the latest edition of the Garden Guru Newspaper and find the answers to frequently asked questions at this time of the year, there is 28 pages of quality gardening advice. You can pick one up from Mitre 10 stores or any good garden centres.

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