Sometimes gardening can be really enjoyable … who has been loving all this rain? Do your gardens look lush and vibrant?
Sometimes gardening can be really annoying… who has been cursing all this humidity? Do you some of your plants look a little wilted, yellowing off, die back, dropping dead, getting rust, inundated with caterpillars, snails, slugs, grubs in lawns……. The list goes on
Humid summers and deluges of rain can lead to any all or more
death or near death of many western Australian natives like Adenanthos sericeus (Woolly Bush).
Lavenders looking a little yellow on the inside
Daisy’s almost rotting away
Black spot on roses becoming so bad that it’s easier to just take off every leaf!
Fungus on gerberas, begonias and cucurbits
Having lush green lawn one day and nothing the next, due to lawn grubs
Having beautiful plants that were taking off due to the rain disappearing overnight due to large amounts of snails, caterpillars, slugs, mites, aphids or really any chewing, sucking insect.
Plants that were thick lush and green, now starting to yellow off
Weeds everywhere
leaf burn because its overcast and rainy one day and 40 degrees the next
the list goes on really
What to do
While there is so much rain around I tend not to granular feed with granular fertilisers like my Organic Link and Five in One. Most of my garden is on a slight slope. If I granular feed and we get 100mls or rain most of it ends up down on the kerb… So I am saving the granular feed until the deluges of rain are over.
But I know my plants are struggling and need some get up and go.
So I have given everything a slight trim, added compost and organic mulch where possible and I have upped my Liquid Fertilising Game.
What’s Upping my Liquid Fertilising Game look like?
While there is so much rain about I am liquid fertilising weekly and alternating my products. So for instance one week I may use Triple Boost and Neem oil, the next I may use Plant Care and Neem Oil, the next I will use Potash and Silica. As I am fertilising weekly I have reduced the ratio of liquid fertiliser. For example if a brand says to use 10mls per lt I am using 5ml per lt. Once the rain becomes regular or slows down a little I will go back to liquid fertilising fortnightly. I find adding the neem helps with my insect infestation.
Everything gets liquid fertilised my gardens, my lawns, my indoor plants and my potted plants.
You can imagine my Birchy is getting a real workout at the moment; I’d be lost without it.
It seems kind of simple - no chemical sprays to kill bugs, no sprays to stop fungus and accepting what plants don’t like deluges of rain and high humidity.
With the weather the way it is I can not stop the force of Mother Nature. Plants will get grubs, plants will get fungus, and plants will and won’t survive. My job as caretaker is to keep my plants as healthy as I possibly can and reduce the chance of large infestations of fungus and insects.
Over the years I have tried to stay away from a lot of the dry land natives and most of my natives are dry rainforest plants. Some of my plants are thriving and some are just getting by. Some days lately I feel the same! The ones just getting by I am making decisions about Economic Thresholds and whether I could choose something better or if I accepted it will look ugly for a little while.
With weeds I use my hands, Slasher (an organic weed spray) and boiling hot water. The trick is to keep on top of it. Every week I am out there looking for more weeds to kill. Once they go to flower I have to start the whole process again, so I stay on top of it as much as I can.
With my lawn I try to stay on top of it too. Crazily enough mowing once or twice a week takes me less time than mowing once every fortnight. I mow with a catcher to stop the spread of weed seeds. For more help with Lawns check out my Lawn Challenge
We don’t often experience a weather event like we have this year. What we experience this year, will probably be different to what we experience next year. Gardening is a learning curve and our gardens should be constantly evolving.
How do you garden in weather like this?