SUMMER
Your Gardening Guide for January
COOL REGION
SUMMER
Your Gardening Guide for January
COOL REGION
Welcome to January!
While the hot summer heat can slow us down, your garden can still thrive with just a few small, mindful tasks. See below our top tips that will encourage your garden to flourish in the summer sun.
January Top Tips
#1 Mulch
Top up mulch on your vegie patches, herb gardens and ornamental beds. This will conserve water, reduce weeds and insulate roots from the heat.
#2 Summer Colour
Continue planting summer colour – as long as you can keep the water up to them when young. Annuals like cosmos, marigolds, verbena, salvia and alyssum love the sun, look great and attract beneficial insects.
#3 Water
To water effectively at this time of the year, water first thing in the morning or later in the evening. Try to water the root zone rather than the foliage to prevent fungal problems.
#4 Planting
There is still time to plant basil, corn, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, silver beet, zucchini, squash, and chilli. Young seedlings may need protection from intense heat.
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 nowDiggers top pest tips
Earwigs
Earwigs can be a problem in a newly sprouting summer garden. Tell-tale signs are small holes in the middle of leaves or holes with ragged edges. Use traps and rolled up paper left overnight to attract them and remove in morning.
Learn more about earwigs
Slugs and snails
Use copper tape around pots and raised vegie gardens. Beer traps are good to attract, check regularly to clear them out.
Aphids
Watch out for aphids on roses, vegies, fruit trees & small ornamental trees.
Learn more about aphidsDiggers recommends
Diggers top garden idea
Encourage ladybirds and lacewings
Encourage ladybirds and lacewings (natural predators to thrips) by planting beneficial plants: dill, coriander, Queen Anne's lace, Fennel, Tansy, Cosmos, Coriander and Marigolds.
Plants to plant now
Lettuce can be grown at the tail end of January but consider putting them under a shade cloth tent.
A second planting of silverbeet will give you extra plants to see you though the winter when production slows down
Get ready for February
coming soon