Plant seeds of carrot, broccoli, cabbage, leek, parsnip, radish, silverbeet, spinach, onions, swede and turnip.

Continue to dead head perennials as their flowering season comes to an end and prepare beds for sweet pea sowings next month. 

For an early spring display of vibrant colours plant annuals such as poppies, pansies, violas, stocks, primulas and cinerarias.  

If the following day is likely to be hot, soak the ground the night before planting.   

These plants, except primulas and cinerarias, need areas that afford as much winter sun as possible.  

Primulas and cinerarias will grow successfully in shady spots or under trees.  

Lawns can be looking a little tired by this time of the summer and may require a feed of a lawn fertiliser.  

Water penetration is often a problem too and can be improved by spiking the lawn with a square, pronged fork every 30cms or so.  

For large areas, a machine is used which takes out plugs of soil to a depth of about 10cms.

Sand is then swept into these holes.

Coring machines can be hired to do this task.

The grevilleas are a very large family of native plants that come in a vast range of types of foliage, colour and form.  

Some are very prostrate and make excellent groundcovers while others grow into shrubs or large trees.

The flowers vary in size and colour from white through cream and apricot to scarlet.  

This diverse variety in grevilleas covers the requirements of most gardens.  

If you haven’t done so, wisterias can be summer pruned by having all long, wispy side-shoots cut back to half length.  

These stunning plants with their gently flowing tendrils and fragrant blooms tend to flower more freely if they are summer and winter pruned.

Distinguish between side growths and leader growths – the latter must only be nipped at the tips.

Leader growths come from the end of the main leaders which lengthen them.  

Any weak shoots in the forks of branches can be cut out.  

When the metallic blue ichneumon flies are seen hovering over grassed areas and brown patches are showing, these are signs you have some unwelcome visitors potentially causing havoc in your lawn.

It is almost certain that lawn grubs are present and may be causing damage.   

Spray the area with a proprietary grub-killer available from nurseries.