Garden Chores | August 21

Jobs to do in the garden this week

• Outdoor containers with permanent plantings that are too heavy to completely repot will benefit from the removal of as much of the old top soil as you can without disturbing the root system. Replace it with a premium  mix containing water crystals and slow release fertiliser.
• In a small vegetable garden one needs to think vertically as well as horizontally. By erecting a fence or trellis around a smallish plot you will have gained a few extra metres of growing space for climbers. Many gardeners also learn how to intercrop – planting small, quick maturing plants – radish and lettuce, between winter greens, and later on, beneath maturing summer crops like tomatoes and capsicum.
• Sow now seeds of turnips, beetroot, salad onions and leeks, summer cabbage, carrots, lettuce, peas (bush, climbing, snap and snow), silverbeet, spinach, radishes and seed potatoes. Cover with a light mulch of straw.