Jobs to do in the garden this week
- Give fruit trees complete plant food topped with a composty straw mulch out to the drip line. Apples, pears and quinces, which attract codling moth, need to be checked with a pheromone trap, to indicate insect activity and or covered with exclusion netting. Don’t confuse codling moth traps with Dak pots, which are hung in stone fruit trees to trap fruit fly.
- Banksia roses, as well as ramblers, are not pruned back in winter, as other dormant stock, only in late spring once flowering is over. They can be pruned quite severely if need be to remove any old congested wood. It is the new growth of this summer that will carry next season’s bloom.
- Just how and when to water is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of indoor plant care. Better to let a plant dry out to the point of drooping somewhat, rather than over watering thus causing roots to rot. Sitting pots on saucers of gravel will catch any excess water, at the same time supplying required humidity as it evaporates.
- Cut off clumps of webbing caused by caterpillars on narrow leaved native plants like leptospermum (tea-tree). Failure to cope with the problem in spring will not only mean lost foliage but a whole season of flowers.
