Spring starts on 1 September, right?

The calendar tells me it’s almost Spring. 1 September. However the plants are telling a slightly different story and the signs of Spring have been emerging for some weeks.

With the warmer winter weather buds have been swelling and in some cases, particularly with roses, bursting. Looking outside the daffodils and forget-me-nots are in full flower, the native Clematis is about to flower, the fruit trees have swollen buds and the plum is going to burst into spring flower too. I’ve got an Acer (maple) that started pushing out buds a month ago, at the same time it was still shedding leaves!

So the Spring signs are all around and the gardens (and gardeners) are gearing up for action. It’s been a challenge to get the roses and hydrangeas done in time. We do hundreds each winter and our new mechanical secateurs have been a godsend, keeping Pruners’ wrist (like tennis elbow) at bay. The problem has been that the weather has run hot and cold and pruning roses too early could’ve resulted in new growth which would then get hammered by a cold snap.

So what are we doing in the gardens? Principally feeding. Blood & bone and compost a few weeks ago which will be available to the plant roots as Spring growth comes on, sheep manure a couple of weeks later and then the liquid seaweed root applications with start soon. Then when the leaves are out and getting established we’ll start foliar feeding.

Next will be mulching. We used to mulch in early Spring but now delay the first application until October to avoid holding too much water from the spring rains against the roots of shrubs. We’ll then be applying 75cm of organic ramial wood mulch with a followup application in January.

So it’s busy and about to get busier! Loving it!