Five Spring Jobs Your Ballarat Garden Actually Needs (Plus What to Do With Old Pots)

Spring in Ballarat doesn’t ease in gently. One week you’re still getting frost overnight and the next everything is pushing new growth at once.

It’s highly likely quite a few jobs will need to be done all at the same time. To help you work out what you should tackle first, we have put together a list in the order of how we would do them here.

Prune out what the frost damaged

Winter can be hard on tender growth and by spring you’ll be able to see exactly what didn’t make it. You’re looking for blackened tips, dead wood and growth that never recovered.

I’d suggest cutting it back to healthy wood now before the plant wastes energy trying to repair damage that’s already done. Wait too long and you’ll risk cutting off fresh new growth along with the old.

Don’t prune spring-flowering natives too hard though. Many of them set next year’s flowers on this year’s growth so a light tidy is enough.

Mulch before the ground dries out

Right now the soil still has winter moisture in it. That's the best time to mulch, while there's something in the ground worth locking in.

My rule of thumb is a good 5 to 7cm layer of sugar cane mulch around the base of your trees. It keeps the moisture there longer and stops weeds getting a foothold. Just keep the mulch away from the trunk itself.

Spring weeds grow incredibly quickly, so it's worth removing them too while they're still small. Otherwise, before you know it they'll be competing for water and nutrients, and setting seed.

Give things a feed as growth kicks in

Trees coming out of dormancy are putting energy into new leaves and roots at the same time. This is when I reach for a slow release fertiliser rather than anything fast acting, something like a native blend or a general purpose granular feed.

A heavy hit of nitrogen now just pushes soft growth that frost can still knock back this early in the season.

Check your watering system

It’s worth testing irrigation lines, timers and drippers now, before the weather turns and you actually need them working.

A blocked line or leak is an easy fix now in September, and will save you the heartache of scrambling to fix things in the middle of a Ballarat summer heatwave, when your trees are relying on it.

Check for early pest and disease signs

New growth is soft and soft growth is what pests go for first. Aphids, scale and early fungal issues all show up fast once things warm up in a Ballarat spring.

Walk your garden every week or so through spring and look underneath leaves, not just on top. Catching it early is the difference between a quick fix and a real problem by summer.

Spring clean your garden shed and clear out your old pots

Spring cleaning isn’t just for inside the house. This is a great time to take stock of your garden tools and supplies. Allocate a few hours to clean your tools and tidy the garden shed, which will likely uncover a stack of black grower pots sitting in corners long forgotten or behind the shed from last season’s planting.

Instead of binning them, bring them in.

Through our Used Pot Buy Back Scheme, eligible pots earn $2 store credit each to put toward your next purchase.

They don’t need to be from trees you bought with us either, any standard black grower pot 300mm or larger is fine, as long as it’s in good condition and the labels are removed.

To qualify, pots need to be:

●       Standard black grower pots

●       300mm or larger

●       In good condition, not broken, faded, cracked or damaged

●       Free of labels and stickers

No appointment needed. Bring them in Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm and ring the bell at the pickup area so our team can take a look. The credit is recorded against your name and you just mention it next time you’re in.

It’s a small job but it clears space, keeps good pots out of landfill and puts a bit of credit toward whatever you’re planting next.

Need more advice?

If you want more advice or simply suggestions of what to plant this spring, be sure to book in a nursery tour with our qualified horticulturalists

They can discuss what is best suited to your area and talk you through options.  Come and talk to us. Book a nursery appointment at ballaratnursery.com.