The winter gardening guide
Winter is one of the most magical times in the garden. The garden is laid bare and you can actually see the structure of your entire garden.
Deciduous trees and shrubs allow you to see through the garden and discover the skeleton of the landscape. It will give you a different perspective on the layout and perhaps lead you to ponder some exciting changes.
Gardens are constantly evolving; you should never see them as static and constant. Gardens are far more responsive to climate than we are and your plants will let you know if they are not coping with the long, arduous summers. If you need to do a plant makeover, this is the perfect time to replant and get them established before the hot weather.
Perhaps your garden needs restructuring: a new pathway, new furniture, a sculpture, ornamentations or something as simple as potting up succulents in a bowl. It’s easy to make a focal point in the garden to give it your personal touch and make it more interesting.
There’s lots of colour in the garden in winter. Many native plants, perennials and annuals are in flower to brighten up beds and vegie patches. It’s important to have flowering plants all year round to keep the pollinators happy.
All in all it’s a happening time in the winter garden and no excuse for being dull and uninteresting.
Salvias. Picture: Sabrina Hahn
Winter bloomers
One of the most exotic of winter-flowering perennials is the hellebores or winter rose. They need to be grown in the shade under trees and after a couple of years they are quite hardy. The foliage is beautiful even without the flowers, but the when the flowers come out they are showstoppers.
Other big bloomers are the plectranthus and salvias. Plectranthus used to be nanna plants but over the years they have made a big comeback because of their versatility, hardiness and long flowering. There are so many salvias to choose from it’s hard to stop at a few. Both plectranthus and salvia have those lovely tubular flowers that the little honey eaters and other nectar-feeding birds just love.
Geraldton wax. Picture: Sabrina Hahn
If it’s natives you are looking for in the winter garden, all the waxes are a great choice. Chamelaucium (known as Geraldton wax) has come a long way over the years and careful breeding programs have increased the range dramatically. Wax plants now come in a huge array of sizes and colours to suit the smaller garden and a variety of soil types.
Banksia ashbyi, giant candles, coccinea and praemorsa are in full bloom and will attract many birds and insects. Brilliant red-flowering hakeas and kunzias will also be strutting their stuff. Smaller plants such as boronia crenulata and chorizema cordatum'''''' will fill shady places with splashes of colour.
Chorizema cordatum. Picture: Ross Hooper of Zanthorrea Nursery
Cold-season crops
The vegie garden should be bursting at the seams with broad beans, broccoli, onions, lettuce, cabbages, kale, beetroot and silverbeet.
Root crops such as carrots, parsnips and turnips will be developing their ferny tops to feed the taproot.
Broccoli. Picture: Michael Wilson
Winter pruning
One of the biggest chores over winter is pruning. There are lots of plants that will need a good trim so sharpen up the tools, have your cleaning kit next to you and get ready to increase your fitness levels.
Traditionally all deciduous fruit trees were pruned in June/July, but we now know that for much of the stone fruit the most important heavy pruning is done at the end of summer after fruiting has finished. While summer pruning is about containing the growth of the tree and shaping it to a manageable size, winter pruning on dormant wood instigates new growth that will develop fruiting stems, and allows you to select out the fruiting buds and cut off vegetative buds.
Fruiting buds will be round and fat, usually opposite each other in groups of 2-5. Vegetative buds will have a pointy tip, are thinner and alternate on the stem.
Grape vines, kiwifruit, peaches and nectarines should be pruned each year, apricots and plums every second year and apples, pear, cherry and quince trees every 4-5 years. Always strip any remaining leaves off your deciduous fruit trees by the end of June.
Roses are best pruned from late June/July. Picture: Gerald Moscarda
Ornamental trees and shrubs can be pruned to shape. Trees may need reshaping or thinning out. Do not ruin the shape of the tree however; it’s best to select certain branches and remove them back to the trunk and top prune to control the height.
Deciduous shrubs should have the oldest stems or canes removed entirely at the base of the shrub, leaving the 2-4-year-old stems. This encourages healthier new wood emerging from the base, preventing the shrub from becoming woody and dead-looking at ground level.
Roses are best pruned from the end of June/July if you live in the metropolitan area, or August if you experience really cold mornings or frosts. Many frosts occur in September just as the rose is putting out new growth that will be highly susceptible to frost burn.
Pests and diseases
Another big winter task is spraying to control diseases in fruit trees and vines.
Once your fruit trees and vines have had their winter prune, it’s a good idea to spray for fungal diseases and scale. This can be done from the end of June right through to before bud burst. You can attack both problems at the one time by adding cupric hydroxide (Kocide) with Eco-oil or Pest oil. The oil will kill off the scale and the cupric hydroxide fungal problems.
Many people have problems with powdery mildew on their grape vines and I have found lime sulphur sprayed just before bud burst more effective than copper sprays. You can’t use lime sulphur once the vine sprouts leaves because it will burn the foliage and flowers. Switch to wettable sulphur or Ecocarb once leaves emerge.
Spraying fruit trees and vines is important in winter. Picture: Astrid Volzke
