Winter is almost upon us but the late May garden is still an absolute delight with the spectacular show of autumn leaves and colourful displays of chrysanthemums and sasanqua camellias, but there is always plenty of work to do.
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Clean up all dead or dying leaf material in the herbaceous border, such as the flower stems of hollyhocks, foxgloves, delphiniums, phlox and kniphofia.
Sow broad beans, plant winter lettuce, kale, silver beet, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and spinach and keep vegetables growing strongly with regular applications of a liquid fertiliser.
Cover, or move, frost-sensitive plants to a sheltered position and plant green manure crops.
MANY HANDS
An unusual citrus tree is the fingered citron with fruit shaped like fingers on a hand.
This ornamental curiosity is a small shrub that looks very attractive when grown in pots and placed around the outdoor entertaining area where its exquisite aroma of tangerines, cumquats and lemons can fill the air.
The fruit which ripens in late autumn to winter has no juice or pulp but the zest is used to flavour desserts, teas and alcoholic beverages.
MUST-HAVE BLOOMS
The essentials of the winter garden are the pansies and violas who love a moist soil rich in organic matter.
They will grow in dappled shade but need sunshine to produce their show-stopping flowers. Deadhead regularly.
PERFECT PUMPKINS
Pumpkins usually develop their best flavour when fully matured and when picked at this stage should keep much longer.
It's important to leave at least five to seven centimetres of stalk attached to the pumpkin otherwise organisms that can cause them to rot gain access to the pumpkin where the stalk has broken away.
Store in a dry, airy spot.
NATIVE BEAUTY
Banksia spinulosa 'Birthday Candles' is a small, compact Australian native shrub with golden yellow or orange, bottle brush-shaped flowers that adorn the branches like candles.
A frost- and drought-tolerant plant once established, it looks great in rockeries, mass planted as a ground cover or in coastal gardens.
LOVING LAVENDER
Lavenders are evergreen aromatic shrubs that originate from the Mediterranean, western Asia, India and the Canary and Cape Verde islands.
Although their natural habitat is dry, sunny and exposed rocky areas, lavender plants are quite at home in our gardens where their distinctive spikes of fragrant flowers and grey-green foliage provide colour for much of the year.
The dwarf varieties make ideal hedges around herb gardens or along pathways.
