By Craig Turner from Shepparton/Echuca Moama Plant Farm
Planting roses, fruit trees and ornamental trees when supplied as bare root is a great way to save money, plus you get bigger trees for less. This is only available during winter, and the season comes around and goes so fast – don’t miss this opportunity.
Mulching during winter is a great way to lock in the moisture of the soil and help protect the roots of the plants. It’s a great way to add organic matter to feed your soil and enrich the microbes. Consider lucerne straw and sugar cane mulches as a softer, more organic way of enrichening your soil.
Protecting your plants from frost can be important over winter. With drier than normal conditions we see colder and more damaging frosts. Although you can use frost cloths for protection, we prefer to use spray applications of Envy. It’s a trade secret product that we supply to homeowners and will save your plants.
Pruning roses and fruit trees is a must in winter, but don’t start cutting until late in the season. Remember, we don’t want to encourage the plants to re-shoot too early, so we make the new growth pop into life to early just to be damaged by those late frosts.
Planning for spring, prepare garden beds with compost and fertiliser to improve soil structure ready for spring planting.
An extra tip – don’t forget the winter veggies, it’s the perfect time to plant carrots, radish, leafy greens and get your seed potatoes and asparagus in the ground now. Shepparton Plant Farm is located at 535 Archer Road, Shepparton.
Happy winter gardening!
Craig
