Spring Gardening Tips – Plants & Lawn

With the arrival of Spring we know the weather is heating up and only going to get hotter! We’ve laid off the watering during the cooler months so our irrigation systems are often in need of some care and maintenance.

Important Spring irrigation maintenance includes:

• Run your irrigation system, flush the drip systems, check all the sprinklers and sprays are working correctly and efficiently
• Check your timer settings and adjust to suit your lawn and gardens requirements for more water
• Monitor and adjust the amount of water as the weather continues to heat up

Spring days are warmer and as the air heats up so too does the earth under our feet and home to our plants and turf.

It’s the perfect time to apply a fresh layer of mulch to your garden which will help in numerous ways:

• It will help keep the ground temperature down
• The barrier will help the plants adjust and grow into the warmer conditions
• The mulch will preserve the moisture in the soil so the plants suffer less with the dry

This time of year you should also give your lawn some love in the form of fertiliser and a good water.

• Use a sulphate-based fertiliser (like Nitrophoska)
• Sulphur in the fertiliser helps to separate the clay particles in the soil (most of Townsville is clay-based)
• This helps to improve the water penetration into the soil and improve root structures in the soil

Warm weather means your grass will want to grow more actively so it’s a good time to top dress your lawn.

• A good top dressing is at least 50% organic (eg. compost) with the remainder sand
• The top dress layer helps to smooth out bumps and divits
• It will benefit the lawn through the organic component by improving nutrient levels and encouraging the grass to thrive.