Top 10 Winter Gardening Tips

It's time for winter garden maintenance and harvesting of citrus, use these tips to keep your garden looking great.

1. Frost protection - keep frost cloth handy for those frost tender plants.
2. Fruit trees - Give deciduous fruit trees a spray of liquid Copper on leaf drop to prevent leaf curl and other fungal/bacterial issues.
3. Harvest - Lemons, Limes and early Mandarins are starting to be ready. Pick up any rotten fruit like feijoas under trees and compost them. Keep an eye on your harvested fruit – some varieties have a short-shelf life! Remove any diseased leaves on the ground under your fruit trees. Remove the diseased leaves of stone fruit trees infected with leaf curl from around the trees - do not compost them. Also time to start a spray for curly leaf. Use a Copper fungicide and don't forget to spray the ground under your trees as well.
4. Cut back any perennials that have finished flowering; many can be lifted and divided later in the month for next year.
5. Start your annual Rose Prune. Make sure your secateurs and loppers are sharp. Disinfect blades between bushes .
6. Prepare your planting sites for winter planting. Spray, cultivate, repeat until site is clear of weeds. Check your soil condition. If necessary, use a good garden lime.
7. Watering - You can cut back on watering now provided your plants are well established and mulched for winter. Ensure adequate drainage so water is not pooling around the base of your plants for the winter.
8. Weeds - Make sure if you use herbicides near fruit trees that they are non-residual.
9. Mulch - Collect all your leaves to compost and return to the garden in the future as a very beneficial leaf mould. Adding a layer of mulch around your shrubs and trees will act like a blanket and keep them warm through winter, suppress weeds, and add nutrients to your soil
10. Protect - Check for aphids, white fly, spider mite, and scale - treat with an appropriate insecticide like Neem Oil and Conqueror oil.