The 10-minute gardener

In getting the routine back after the holidays, one doesn’t always have a lot of time to get stuck in.

But if you have a few minutes. here some quick tasks that make all the difference to your garden.

Fertilise the garden

Fertilising over the next few weeks is important to keep the garden green and in flower. The rains and regular watering would have leached out most of the nutrients and even though the garden is lush, the greens will soon start to lose their luster and you definitely want to keep the colour and promote more flowers.

Vitaliser 713 Lawn and Leaf is a quick-release fertiliser to boost leaf growth, perfect for getting the shrubs healthy and bright green again and the best lawn fertiliser for use on lawns that are well irrigated. One of the most economical fertilisers with 10kg feeding around 200m2

BounceBack is our best selling organic fertiliser. Feed at a rate of one handful per square meter or per shrub. This fertiliser will boost growth on application and feed over a longer period as a slow release fertiliser.

Say “Goodbye” to weeds

Quick and fast weed killer for paving Roundup.

Besides the garden plants growing at a rate of knots this time of the year so to do the weeds. By the end of February the effectiveness of herbicides (weed killers) will go down considerably as they work best when weeds are growing fast. With that in mind now is the time for a quick spray to bring them under control.

The weeds in the paving which just seem to come from nowhere must go to help tidy the garden and if you have a weed problem on the lawn this is the time of year that they seed so get a head start on next summer by spraying now.

For paving we have two options. Roundup is available as a ready to use or as a concentrate which is more economical and ideal if you are doing large areas. Diluted 20ml into 1lt of water Roundup will work within three to four days if it has a sunny five hours after application.

On lawns Hormoban is the only effective option especially for the hardy clover weed that just seems to dominate in our local area. Banweed is a softer broadleaved weed killer for annual weeds in lawns. Here too the effectiveness is best if there is at least five hours of sun and no watering after application.

Snip and Tuck

This is the time of the year that you should find some time to get out into the garden with your secateur and trimmers. With all the lush growth form the summer rain shrubs and climbers get a bit unruly and if you shape them now they will keep the look for the next few months. The added benefit of cutting back this time of the year is that it lets more light in as well as better air circulation in the garden so smaller plants around them perk up and add some growth before winter.