What to do in the garden this month

Winter is a great time to be outdoors, enjoying the company of friends and family snuggled around a fire pit or enjoying the warmth of winter sunshine out of the wind.  It also the idea time to plant many trees and shrubs, particularly good for camellias, roses, deciduous trees, conifers and natives.  Indoor gardening is a must, so get your green on and revamp your terrarium, trim your bonsai and keep a handle on your kokedama.

We would recommend getting a jump start now on a few jobs around the garden too.  If you want to manipulate the colour of your summer hydrangea flowers, now is the time to use hydrangea bluing tonic or dolomite (for pink) blooms.  After pruning your deciduous fruit trees, apply lime sulphur fruit trees to their bare stems burn off fungal spores. Before planting a rose, dig in some cow manure thoroughly a fortnight prior and if you’re about to prune your roses, sharpen your secateurs then neatly trim back 1/3 of each plant to an outward facing bud.

Don’t forget to plant a tree on National Tree Day – you’ll thank us ever summer when you have some cooling shade to shelter under…and what better way to celebrate NAIDOC week than by planting a wattle, banksia, grass tree or grevillea in your garden and learning the First Nation’s Dreamtime story behind it.

If you’re visiting our display gardens at Macquarie Park, check out the incredible Orange flowering trumpet vine we have growing around the reservoir, our grove of citrus in full fruit and the winter flowering Aloes than are always full of birds.