In a big, productive backyard, there's always work to be done.
Spring brings with it a lot of new growth,
and the soil is warming up for a bumper summer crop.
I'm spending some time on a few simple yet important jobs
you can do in a day
to ensure your hard work all year keeps paying off.
The new leaves bursting forth on citrus now
are tender and juicy.
They're the perfect meal for leaf miners and aphids.
Keep an eye out for the squiggly white lines on leaves
which are the mark of leaf miner larvae tunnelling through
and eating them.
Aphids will cluster on the new tips,
and they're often camouflaged
by being the same bright green as the leaves.
You can snip off infested parts
or squish off visible pests regularly
to keep them in check.
If it gets worse, you can spray with horticultural oil.
Give them a light prune once all the fruit is gone,
just to keep them shapely and to take out any diseased parts.
This can also help if you notice citrus gall wasp.
A common pest, it forms these unsightly lumps on stems.
If you're unsure, just snip it off and put it in the bin.
You can even use a potato peeler or sharp knife
to peel back one side of the gall.
Exposure to the air will kill the larvae inside.
Give citrus a feed to help that new growth along.
It's the perfect foundation now for the next fruiting season.
Look for or yellowing leaves as a sign of a hungry plant.
Every spring, water in trace elements,
essential micronutrients
that are often lacking in our soils,
and a seaweed emulsion
which will encourage soil microbe activity
and better water retention when the heat comes,
and mulch well to keep moisture in as the weather warms up.
Lawns are taking off,
and it's time to give them a bit of extra TLC.
Turf and weeds will use the opportunity
to creep their way back into garden beds.
So get on top of it, either by hand or spade.
You'll reduce competition
and there'll be less work to do later.
Bindi weeds will be taking hold too.
So get in there and dig them out using a weeding tool like this,
before the prickly and somewhat painful seed head
has a chance to mature.
This is quite therapeutic work.
Just do it bit by bit.
Lawns will love you for top-dressing.
After mowing, use a garden fork as an aerator
to help get more air, water and nutrients
deeper into the soil
and break up any compaction.
And then spread a thin layer of compost evenly over the area.
It'll get rid of any ankle breakers and depressions.
There's lots to go into the vegie patch
and there's a few empty spaces ready to be planted out.
Succession planting means new seeds or seedlings
are going in every few weeks,
to ensure a continuous supply.
The soil should be ready to go, with plenty of compost.
Let's get started by succession planting some leafy greens.
As the soil's warming up,
you can start to transplant seedlings like lettuce, silverbeet
and tatsoi.
What spring without a little bit of colour?
I thought I'd put a band of sunflowers in here.
These seeds are a variety that only grow to about 40cm tall.
So they're not going to shade the vegies.
They like a moist, free-draining and fertile soil.
Once they grow up and they're in flower,
it'll bring plenty of pollinators in
and the veggies all love it.
Lots of annuals are in bloom now.
I'm putting in some marigolds, stocks and violets.
Go on, get some fun and food for the insects into your garden.
Now, you might be tempted, like all us gardeners,
to put in lots of plants
that are looking good in the nursery at the moment.
But the thing you got to remember, if your place gets really hot,
those plants mightn't get the chance to get their roots in and settled
before the summer.
To overcome this, what you can do
is either put up some shade cloth over the area,
or, alternatively, you can plant those plants in pots,
and that way you can move them around
and out of that really intense daytime sun.
Around now, there's always jobs to do in the garden,
so it's time to SPRING into action!
(BOING!)