As spring begins, gardeners will have something to do in the garden every weekend for the next two months, at least, says gardening columnist JACKIE WARBURTON.

It’s open garden time and the quality of gardens presented by Open Gardens Canberra is getting better every year.

There are seasonal tickets available that offer entry into all the gardens through summer and into autumn. Some proceeds of ticket sales goes to provide local garden grants and community projects.

Past recipients include St Vincent’s Primary School for its Sustainability Garden Project and Barnardos Canberra Children Family Centre for its Community garden. More information at opengardenscanberra.org.au

WHILE September brings the sun, the soils are not warm. Which means it’s a little early to plant seeds for summer flowering and fruiting.

If planted too early, they’ll sulk until the weather warms or rot in the cold. 

So it’s best to plant out when just about all frosts are over, around mid-October. This will give seeds their best results and from there, stage seed sowing to extend the yield over the season and prevent a glut of produce in the kitchen.

The patch or area needs to be weed free, and all clumps of soil and clay broken up and raked or forked to a fine tilth. 

There are different methods of sowing. but generally the smaller the seed, the less soil covering is needed. 

Sowing carrots can be tricky with warmer days and various insects around. Placing shadecloth over the seed until germination will help keep the moisture in the soil and, once there is growth, it can be removed. 

Sprinkle diatomaceous earth around seedlings to keep slaters, pill bugs and earwigs at bay. 

Another alternative to keeping the bugs away is using kaolin clay on fruit trees and in the vegetable garden. Kaolin clay is a fine powder that protects plants from insects and birds attacking them. This powder’s protective film can be washed off at harvest or will wear off eventually.

As a crop protectant it’s suitable for stone fruit, grapes and vegetables. Kaolin clay can also be used on ornamentals such as viburnum for the pesky problem of thrips and it’s terrific for protecting plants from sunburn and heat stress.

FLOWERING now is the Arctotis Silver Dust series, which is a great plant for a dry space in the garden.

There’s my favourite, called Sunset, which is a beautiful pink, but there are many others such as Glow, a lovely orange, or yellow Sunshine. They can grow to a metre wide (no pruning is required) and have lovely grey foliage. They’re a cousin of the gazania, but do not self-seed.

Grown in the right spot, in a sunny area or rockery garden, they’ll thrive and flower for many months. And the more deadheading, the more flowers will come. 

They also grow well with Sea Lavender (Limonium perezii). Its everlasting, deep-purple flowers stand well above the foliage and fade to white with age. Its leaves are leathery and tough.

It is drought tolerant, once established, but can be fickle to grow in Canberra winters. However, in a sheltered spot, it will grow for many years though it doesn’t like root disturbance nor too much water. It would survive very well in dry shade. 

Jottings

• Feed all bulbs as they are growing and flowering. 

• Trim lemon verbena shrubs hard now the frost is nearly over.

• Keep winter grass, flick weeds and sticky weed from flowering.

• Sow seed for summer flowers and plant in a month’s time.