Our grounds team have a great deal of experience providing grounds maintenance and landscaping services. We share their January and February gardening tips here.
by Jeremy Mather
We are experiencing a very dry and warm summer. There has been very little rain for January and not much in the last half of December. We’ve also had some pretty consistent winds and extremely hot days, which our gardens and lawns don’t enjoy. There is no substitute for natural rainfall to water our gardens and lawns. Even some premier sporting arenas that have water pumped on them day and night don’t look their best.
With this in mind, we cannot expect private or commercial gardens to look their best either. Plants will go into survival mode or die. Watering can be time consuming and costly; both for the water itself, as well as the infrastructure required to move it about.
January and February Gardening Tips:
- Make the most of the water you use. If you can, apply some form of wetting agent on regular intervals as this will ensure water does not run off and get lost. It will also help it soak into the roots where it is needed. Water in the cool of the morning or evening so less evaporation occurs. You may consider a drip system for pots if budget and services allow. This will deliver water more directly to the soil and reduce drift from wind.
- Reduce other stresses on your plants – remove flowers and perhaps lightly prune to reduce the canopy size. Provide shade if possible by moving pots, covering with shade cloths or sheets on extreme heat days. Wind is a major contributor to evaporation. Mulch can reduce its effects as well as shading soils and roots from sunlight.
- Limit any new planting, transplanting or serious pruning.
