S E P T E M B E R

Spring blossom is the sign of the garden waking from its winter sleep! The weather is unpredictable, so be prepared for a late frost!

It is time to fill up empty spaces in your garden with trays or bags of colourful annuals and perennials. Spring clean and tidy up.

Remove old grass clippings (thatch) using a rake or still bristle broom to allow fertilizer, air and water to penetrate to the roots. Feed your lawn with 2-3-2 or
3-2-1. Remember for a healthy lawn, lush and green, you need to keep to a good feeding program every 4 to 6 weeks.

Cut back withered shrubs, water deeply and fork in compost and a light sprinkling of 2-3-2 or 3-2-1 fertilizer, and 3-1-5 for flowering shrubs. A light pruning of evergreen trees and shrubs can improve their appearance! Do not prune spring and flowering shrubs or you will loose the flowers.

Lift and divide water lilies if they are overcrowded and replant them in a rich soil, feeding them with sprinkle grow tablets, which is a slow release fertilizer pill not harmful to fish.

While waiting for your small shrubs to fill out and mature, fill in spaces with groundcovers and annuals.

Weeds arrive after the first rains, eradicate them quickly using a herbicide before they come to flower.

Lift and divide perennials, which never flowered well last year. Dead-head existing flowering annuals to prolong their potential flowering.

Fertilize and water your roses well as they come into flower.