Garden Care Advice
Spring doesn’t begin in September. In the garden, it begins in August — because everything you do in late winter determines what the garden gives you back when the weather warms.
Here’s the order of work we follow when preparing gardens across Melbourne’s inner South East and Bayside for spring:
Weed now, before the flush. Winter weeds are quietly setting seed right now, and spring warmth will germinate everything they drop. An hour of hand weeding in August saves a season of weeding from October.
Finish structural pruning. Roses, deciduous shrubs and fruit trees are best pruned while they’re still dormant. Once buds break, the window closes — pruning too late costs you flowers and stresses the plant.
Feed the soil, not just the plants. Work compost or soil conditioner through tired beds so the roots wake up to something worth growing into.
Top up the mulch. Spring rain plus bare soil equals weeds. A fresh 50–75mm layer suppresses the spring weed flush and holds soil moisture heading into the warmer months.
Wake the lawn up gently. As growth resumes, raise the mowing height rather than scalping, feed with a spring lawn fertiliser, and deal with compacted or patchy areas before the main growing season, not during it.
Check the irrigation before you need it. Run every zone, find the blocked drippers and broken heads now — not on the first 30-degree day.
Book the work early. Every gardener in Melbourne is flat out from September. The gardens that look best in spring are the ones whose owners planned in winter.
None of this is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a garden that stumbles into spring and one that arrives ready.
If you’d rather hand the list to someone who does it every winter, request a free quote — late winter is the perfect time for a garden clean-up, and it’s how many of our regular clients first found us.
Request a Free Quote“Nurture your garden, nurture your soul.”