The typically hot, dry and often harsh summer conditions can create many challenges for the garden enthusiast, so it makes sense to be prepared if you want to see your garden withstand the season ahead.
Dividing your time and maintenance efforts between your lawn and garden beds is critical. For healthy, resilient lawns during the warmer months and particularly when water is scarce, it is best to mow as high as your mower permits. Contrary to popular belief, cutting lawns on a low setting does not reduce the frequency of mowing, and can actually do more damage to lawns.
Maintaining a longer length will help to protect lawns from unattractive and often hard to repair scalping.
You can also help keep your lawn lush by foliar feeding with seaweed tonic once a month and applying one handful of poultry manure per square metre pre-season, before rainfall or irrigation.
In garden beds, try adding a layer of mulch to reduce moisture loss from soil; this will also save you time on weeding. Generally, you need a layer around 50-75mm deep, however 50mm in native gardens will suffice, just be mindful that if the mulch is too thick, rain won’t always make it down to the soil.
In addition to mulching, try watering less frequently and more deeply once or twice a week.
