Summer gardening tasks you should not skip | Gardening 101 | Gardening Australia

If you can find the time for garden jobs at this busy time of the year, it will set your garden up for the months ahead. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe

Lawns:
Lawns can help cool the house, offer habitat for smaller birds, and also be a fantastic place to lie around in summer.

Millie’s lawn is by no means perfect but it works for her; she gives it some extra care to set it up for summer use.

– Soil under turf is often compacted through high foot traffic, so Millie goes over the lawn with a garden fork, gently lifting and aerating the soil.

– Excess thatch from mowing is raked up.

– Flat weeds are dug out to stop them spreading and smothering the grass.

– Summer is a good time to feed grass because it’s actively growing; Millie uses an organic fertiliser that feeds the microbes in the soil, as this keeps plants healthy.

– She also uses a mix of fine sand and compost to fill some uneven patches, while the whole lawn gets a thin top dressing of the same mix.

– Water the fertiliser and compost mix in well.

Propagating:
Cuttings from many evergreen shrubs will take very quickly in the warm weather, and seed is constantly being sown to provide new crops for the productive patch.

Today she’s planting out cucumbers.

– Cucurbits do best when planted in warmer weather, so in cool areas hold off planting cucumber, melons, pumpkin and zucchini seedlings until the soil temperature is above 16C.

– Prepare the bed by adding a layer of compost and forking it in.

– If using a climbing variety, provide a growing frame.

– Most modern varieties of cucumbers are bred to be gynoecious – that is they produce mostly female flowers. But these still need a male flower to pollinate and produce fruit, so plant a range of types to make sure there are some male flowers in the mix.

– Got room for a companion crop? Millie plants bush beans alongside hers. The seeds were soaked overnight in water to speed up germination; simply push two seeds in each hole about two knuckles deep, and thin to the strongest plant as they emerge.

– Mulch and water in the newly planted bed.

– As the plants grow it’s a good idea to avoid watering cucurbit leaves, as this can make them susceptible to fungal disease.

Flowering plants:
Millie has a rule that for every 10 vegies that go into the ground, there should be at least one flowering plant, whether it’s native, exotic, edible or ornamental.

There are already some cornflower seedlings planted and started to flower, but Millie adds “the big guns” – some dahlias. These were lifted last autumn, stored in the shed, potted up in early spring and are now itching to get back in the ground.

Featured plants:
Cucumber ‘Calypso (Cucumis sativus cv.)
Bush Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris cv.)
Dahlia (Dahlia cv.)

Filmed on Taungurung Country in Central Victoria
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This time of year, early summer, is one of the most exciting times in the garden. There is so much anticipation of the season to come, but it is also a fantastic time to get a whole lot of work done to set you up for a beautiful and bountiful season ahead.

Now, some people don’t love lawns. They think they’re a bit of a waste of space. But I am not one of them. A well-managed lawn in the right position can cool a house and garden, it can offer habitat to many of those smaller birds that need seeds and grass,

And it can also be a fantastic place to lie around in summer. True turf heads would laugh at my lawn. It’s mostly couch, but there’s a bit of rye, some clover, and even a little island of Achillea around the washing line. It’s by no means perfect, but it does a great job,

And this time of the year is the perfect time to give it a bit of TLC. One of the best things you can do for your lawn, particularly after a cool and wet winter, is to aerate it, particularly in those areas where there’s a lot of traffic.

It gets really compacted, and that means there’s no oxygen down at the roots where the plants need it. The next thing I’m doing is raking out the thatch, which is all that built-up dead grass. And again, that just helps a little bit of air and moisture penetrate to the lawn.

While I’m not fussed about weeds like the clover, the flat weeds have to come out because they’ll spread and smother the lawn. It’s also a really great time to fertilise the lawn while it is actively growing. And I use an organic fertiliser because, as well as providing nutrients,

It also helps to build organic matter in the soil, which is what feeds the microbes and ultimately what keeps our plants healthy and strong. The lawn has quite a few holes and undulations, so to level them up, I’m filling them with a mixture of coarse sand and fine compost.

Because the couch is a running lawn, it will quickly grow into these bare patches. The rest of the lawn gets a thin top dressing of the same stuff. Just going to give that a good water in. And at this time of the year, we know lawns grow faster than we can mow almost.

So in a couple of weeks it’ll look really great. Be good enough to lie around and relax on. Not me. I’ve got work to do. One thing I do heaps at this time of year is propagate. Cuttings taken of lots of evergreen shrubs and herbs will form roots

Really, really quickly if you keep them nice and moist. And of course, I’m constantly sowing seed for the productive patch. Got this tray of cucumbers ready to go in the ground. And while your tomatoes can go in a few weeks earlier, you really need to wait for the warmest soil and the warmest

Part of the season to plant any cucurbits. That’s things like zucchinis, pumpkins and these guys. So I’m just going to prep that bed. I’m preparing the bed by forking it over and applying a layer of compost. There’s heaps of worms for the soil and a few for the chook.

I’ve got this frame because most of the cucumbers I grow are climbing varieties, and I grow a whole lot of different types, because many of the most productive hybrids are gynoecious, which means that they produce only female flowers. Without some male flowers from their neighbours, they won’t produce fruit.

Along the edges of the bed, I’m planting one of my favourite companions, bush beans. You just soak the seed overnight in water and then push them into the ground a couple of knuckles deep. Next, some mulch. And last but not least, water. I’m being a bit careful.

I’m trying not to wet the leaves, but it’s quite hard when they’re this small. But as they grow up, it’s good to avoid it because it can encourage fungal disease. I’ll give them a hand as they start to grow just to get a grip

On the frame, but they should cover it in no time, and hopefully I’ll have a cacophony of cucumbers before I know it. Fresh days ahead. One thing summer does better than anyone is colour. And whenever I’m planting food, I’m also planting flowers.

I have a rule that for every 10 vegies that go in the ground, I should also plant at least one flowering plant. Edible. Ornamental. Native. Exotic. They all get a place in my patch. I’ve already got some corn flower seedlings which are butting up nicely,

But today I want to plant out the big guns, and that is the dahlias. At the end of autumn, I lift the tubers and store them in the sheds. Then early spring they get potted up and now they’re absolutely itching to get back in the patch.

This is such a beautiful time to be in the garden. Those long summer days give you enough time to get all the jobs done, and then enjoy it. Who’s a good girl?