Summer gardening in different climates

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

• Summer vegies like beans and tomatoes can be attacked by small sap sucking whiteflies. You may have noticed clouds of whiteflies fly up from plants when disturbed, or sticky honeydew on leaves and stems (which the whiteflies excrete). Affected plants can become mottled and yellow. Control whiteflies with Yates Advanced Ready To Use. Spray plants thoroughly, including underneath leaves where whiteflies often congregate.
• Continue baiting for fruit fly on or around stone fruit trees and fruiting vegetables like tomatoes with weekly sprays of Yates Nature's Way Fruit Fly Control. It's important to protect fruit with this preventative baiting until all fruit are picked.
• Cockroaches are prolific and rapid reproducers and are attracted to areas where food and water are available. They will most commonly be noticed in warm, sheltered spots in the kitchen, pantry and garage. Banish cockroaches in the house with Yates Home Pest Cockroach Killer Gel Bait. Using the handy syringe applicator, apply small spots of gel in areas frequented by cockroaches. Cockroaches will eat the bait and transfer it to other colony members before dying.

• Powdery mildew is exacerbated by warm humid weather and can plague cucurbits like zucchinis, pumpkins and watermelons during summer. Infected leaves begin with a dusting of powdery white spots followed by leaves yellowing and dying. Spray Yates Mancozeb Plus Fungicide & Miticide over the leaves every 7-10 days to control and prevent powdery mildew.

• Continue to sow seeds of tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, lettuce and pumpkins so you'll have an ongoing supply of fresh home-grown produce.

• Take semi-hardwood cuttings of shrubs like buddlejas and hibiscus. Choose firm 10 - 15 cm pieces of leafy stems, remove all but the top few leaves and dip the stem ends into Yates Clonex Purple Rooting Hormone Gel before inserting into a pot of moist Yates Specialty Potting Mix Cuttings & Seeds. Keep the pot in a protected spot while roots develop.

• While the soil is still warm, fix weed- attracting bare patches in the lawn with Munns Professional Quick Fix Lawn Seed. It's a premium turf grade seed blend which has been specially developed to quickly repair lawn bare patches. It also contains slow release fertiliser to feed the newly establishing patch for up to three months and a wetting agent to improve moisture penetration down into the root zone.

• Keep feeding summer vegies to maximise plant health and the harvest. Feed fruiting vegies like tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchinis with potassium-rich Yates Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser every one to two weeks.

• As the weather cools down in late summer, rodents will start looking for warmth and shelter indoors. Stay one step ahead and minimise rat and mouse problems by placing Ratsak Fast Action Throw Packs in the roof void and Ratsak Fast Action Wax Blocks in damp areas such as laundries and garages.