Autumn Gardening in Different Climates

All around Australia there are lots of things to keep you wonderfully busy in the garden during autumn.

• For a delicious winter harvest of beans, sow seeds now. Next to a two metre tall trellis or support grow Yates Climbing Beans 'Stringless Blue Lake' and for pots or a vegie bed grow compact Yates Dwarf Beans 'Gourmet's Delight'.
• You'll be picking your very own beans in just 10 - 12 weeks.
• After a wet summer, monitor the lawn for discoloured patches that could be a sign of diseases like brown patch and dollar spot. To help protect the lawn from further disease damage, apply Yates Mancozeb Plus Garden Fungicide & Miticide over the lawn.
• Plant warm-loving spring flowering bulbs like ixias, gladioli and rain lillies (Zephryanthes) in a sunny well-drained spot in the garden. Compact baby gladioli and babiana create a wonderful display when mass planted in pots.
• Add vibrant colour into shady areas around the garden and outdoor living areas with New Guinea impatiens. Available in a beautiful range of flower colours, they need the soil or potting mix to be kept consistently moist and perform best when fed every one to two weeks with Yates Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser.

• Rake up fallen autumn leaves and use them to make your own compost. Blend the leaves with kitchen scraps, shredded newspaper, garden prunings and lawn clippings plus handfuls of Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser to feed the hard-working composting microorganisms.

• Prune back perennials like Easter daisies, phlox, salvia and lavender that have finished flowering. This will help keep the garden looking tidy and promote fresh new growth.

• Help protect vulnerable plants from early frosts by moving potted plants to a protected spot, draping frost cloth oversensitive plants and spraying foliage with Yates Waterwise DroughtShield before frosts are predicted.

• Create a mini field of Flander's poppies to commemorate Anzac Day by sowing Yates 'Flanders Red' Poppy seed. Seed can be scattered over bare soil in a sunny spot and covered very lightly with Yates Specialty Potting Mix Cuttings & Seeds. These poppies produce beautiful rich red blooms over a long period.
• Many spring flowering bulbs flower best when chilled before planting. Put tulip, hyacinth, daffodil, iris and crocus bulbs in a paper bag in the fridge crisper for four to six weeks to trick them into thinking they've been through a cold winter.
•  Keep your kitchen stocked with healthy greens and sow seed now of Yates Spinach 'Baby Leaf' or Yates Spinach 'Winter Queen'.
• To promote lots of lush growth, feed the spinach plants every one to two weeks with Yates Thrive Vegie & Herb Liquid Plant Food. You can pick the tender nutty flavoured leaves individually as you need them. Snails and slugs can rapidly devour newly planted seedlings. Protect seedlings from snails and slugs by lightly sprinkling Yates Snail & Slug Bait over the soil or potting mix around the plants.