A quick run down of tasks you need to focus on in the garden for mid autumn (April in the Southern Hemisphere).
As the seasons shift, autumn offers a perfect window to get your garden in shape for the cooler months. Here’s a quick summary of essential gardening tasks to tackle now —
Plant
It’s a great time to plant shrubs, trees and veggie seedlings.
Plant — Beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, leeks, mizuna, pak choi and bok choy, spinach, silverbeet, onions, spring onions
Feed
Feed any plants that will flower or fruit in winter.
Citrus is a heavy feeder, so use sheep pellets, blood & bone, chook manure. Spread around within drip line (area under a plant’s branches) and water in well.
Sow
Beetroot, bok choy, broccoli, Brussel’s sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, chives, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnip, peas, radish, rocket, silverbeet, snow peas and spinach.
For more information, read our Autumn Seed Sowing Guide.
Harvest
Pumpkin and squash, figs, feijoas, apples, pears, quince, NZ cranberries, and the last of your tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers.
Save seeds
Harvest dry seeds from your favourite plants (veges and other annuals are a good place to start) and pop them into labelled envelopes or paper bags (with names and dates), ready for sowing in spring.
For more information, read — How to harvest & save seeds | Autumn seed saving
Trim
Now’s the time to trim your hedges and shrubs (before the winter sets in which might frost off any new growth underneath). This is a good one for visual satisfaction!
Take cuttings
Take cuttings of frost sensitive plants to overwinter.
For more information, find our propagation articles here.
Mulch
Weed first, then enrich soil and discourage weeds by adding seaweed, compost, rotted manure, sheep pellets — covering with pea hay, autumn leaves or wood chips around your garden and fruit trees.
