December Checklist

• As the weather warms up, your soil will start to dry out quickly; mulching it is a great way to conserve water and suppress weeds. Pea straw and compost make great mulches when applied a couple of centimetres thick.
• Always water and fertilise your plants before you mulch.
• Tomatoes will be very busy growing. Keep pinching out the side shoots and watch for heavy trusses of fruit, as they can break the branches; support these by tying them to the stake.
• Protect your strawberries and grapes from the birds by covering them with bird netting.
• Harvest strawberries in the morning when the fruit is dry and remove any fruit that has gone mouldy to reduce the spread of disease.
• Watch for any pests and diseases that can develop at this time and remove any fruit that shows signs of pest and disease to stop the spread.
• Give everything a good feed and choose a fertiliser with a low nitrogen rate but higher potash rating (see fertiliser article in this issue).
• Plant peas and dwarf bean seeds for a late crop.
• Plant lettuce, parsley and radish seedlings for successive crops.
• Sow cabbage, carrot, celery, broccoli and cauliflower seeds now for autumn crops.
• Harvest early potatoes and beans.
• Don’t let your rhubarb plants produce seed heads; remove them to preserve the following season’s crop.
• White butterfly will be active around now; remove the caterpillars by hand or apply NO Caterpillars or McGregor’s Derris Dust to keep them under control.

Fruit trees 

• Check over your fruit trees.
• Remove any fruit that has fallen to the ground, as bugs will complete their life cycle in the fallen fruit and continue breeding.
• Fruit trees often produce a very heavy crop on one branch and the weight will often snap it. Thinning out the fruit will reduce the weight and improve the quality of the remaining fruit.
• Grape vines can also suffer from heavy crops; remove any poorly developed or diseased trusses.
• Keep the water on your citrus trees; they need plenty of water for the production of juicy fruit.

Flower garden – summer care for roses

• Roses will need some protection from the sun and will benefit from mulching to conserve water. Make sure you keep the mulch away from the trunk, as disease and bugs will burrow into the soft wood.
• Summer pruning will improve the quality of the autumn flowers and the development of new shoots. New shoots start to form and it is these that need to be dealt with.
• Pruning is best done as the first crop of flowers fades.
• Cut new shoots that have formed near the top of the plant by a third and if they are lower on the branch, cut to the highest point of those shoots.
• Remove fallen leaves from your roses, especially if they are diseased; this will help to reduce the risk of re-infection.
• Check for pests and disease; if they are caught early, it will make their control easier.
• Keep plants well watered as those under stress are more likely to become infected.
• Roses will benefit from a liquid feed to help them through drier weather.

Lawn care

• Cut your grass higher in the summer; it will help to shade it from the heat.
• Cut the grass dry without the catcher and let the clippings fall on the lawn; the clippings will act as mulch to the roots, helping to conserving water.