Latest news with #fruittrees
ABC News
21 hours ago
- Climate
- ABC News
Five winter jobs to do in the garden
Do you think there's not much to do in the edible garden over winter? I used to feel the same, but I've come to love this quieter season. As growth in my veggie patch slows to a crawl, it's the perfect time to tackle slower, behind-the-scenes jobs that make a big difference come spring. Here are five jobs I'm prioritising this season for my backyard permaculture patch, within the temperate climate zone of Tarntanya/Adelaide. You can check your zone using Gardening Australia's online map, which also provides month-by-month planting guides for your area. Weeds inevitably pop up after winter rains, but instead of waging war on them, I work with them. Many common weeds are nutrient-rich and can be pulled up to feed my compost, or even myself. Stinging nettle, for example, is my favourite winter weed. I love to: I also use strategies to help naturally suppress weeds. I've created natural barriers on garden paths using thick layers of overlapping cardboard (sourced free from local businesses), topped with about 4cm of bark mulch. This blocks sunlight and smothers weeds. In other spots, I grow edible groundcovers such as marjoram, thyme, nasturtiums and warrigal greens for a living mulch barrier. Winter is prime pruning time in my garden. Within my mini food forest, deciduous fruit trees such as an apple, pear, nectarine and cherry drop their leaves, so it's easy to see their structure and give them a good clip-back. Pruning now encourages better fruiting come summer and makes harvesting easier too. It's a great time to try grafting, where you join different plant varieties onto the same rootstock. In my small garden, I'm hoping to add more pear varieties to my existing tree this winter. I also keep an eye out for self-seeded herb, flower or veggie seedlings that pop up in paths or garden beds. Rather than tossing them all in the compost, I'll pot a few up to share with friends and neighbours via my urban honesty stall — a lovely way to spread the winter abundance around. After all that pruning, I have plenty of material to feed my compost system. A quick spin through my small mulcher turns bulky branches into small pieces that break down more quickly. Then, to help build the heap more quickly, I do a bit of urban foraging. I collect spent coffee grounds from a local cafe for nitrogen and gather the last of any fallen autumn leaves from nearby deciduous street trees for carbon. Layered together, the two help keep my compost balanced. As the weather cools, compost can slow down, so I give mine a turn once or twice in winter to keep it active. I use a spiral compost turner rather than a shovel — it's quicker and easier on my back. All this helps ensure plentiful homemade compost to use when spring planting rolls around. The cooler months are ideal for recharging soil, ready for the big warm-season harvests ahead. I refresh the no-dig layers in my veggie beds with alternating additions of carbon and nitrogen, such as compost, straw, activated biochar, manure and organic fertiliser. From mid-winter onwards, I start thinking about warm-weather plantings and start seeds indoors to get a jump on spring planting, especially heat-loving plants such as tomatoes and capsicums. I don't have any fancy seed-raising gear, so I start seeds in pots indoors where it's warmer. Once they sprout, I shift them to a sunny north-facing kitchen windowsill. After a few weeks, once they've formed their true leaves, I move the pots outside daily to help them adjust — a process called "hardening off". The slower pace of winter gardening offers a chance to step back and consider what worked, what didn't and what might need tweaking for next season — a great way to practically apply the permaculture principle "apply self-regulation and accept feedback". I pay particular attention to anything I grew but didn't eat much of, or any giant harvests that overwhelmed me, meaning food went to waste. This helps me understand what I should plant less of or simply stop growing. Continually tweaking my plant list to prioritise food I actually like helps me to eat from my garden more consistently. By focusing on these simple winter jobs, I set myself up for a garden that gradually grows healthier and more abundant next season. Koren Helbig is a sustainable city living educator who practices permaculture and grows organic food in the backyard of her small urban Tarntanya (Adelaide) home.
Telegraph
09-05-2025
- Climate
- Telegraph
Ask the head gardener: My fruit trees have leaf curl – what can I do?
Dear Tom, We have two apple trees and a pear tree, but over the last few years we have been plagued with leaf curl, which has restricted our crop of fruit. Each winter we have pruned them and we've also given them a thorough winter wash, soaking the trees. They are pruned into a goblet shape and are well mulched, but to no avail. Is there anything we can do now to stop this happening again in the future? – Suzanne Dear Suzanne, It sounds as if you're doing everything humanly possible, Suzanne, to make these fruit trees grow successfully, but the fact that you've been experiencing leaf curl over several years and across both your apple trees and your pear tree is quite the conundrum. It's very difficult to say definitively why your fruit trees have curling leaves over successive years, but there are several reasons that we can explore. Probably the easiest answer, but equally the most frustrating, is to blame the weather. Stress caused by temperature, drought or even wind can cause leaves to curl on fruit trees. We've obviously experienced a very warm and dry spell, which may have caused some stress to your trees. You are training them into a goblet shape, so they are regularly pruned, and therefore you're creating lots of wounds all over the tree, adding to that stress level through water loss. However, the damage has been reoccurring over a number of years, which makes me think that this reason isn't in fact valid, because we had a particularly wet summer last year, so if the trees experienced the same level of leaf curl, there must be something else going on. A plant's response to an insect attack will be a curling of the foliage, especially the young leaves. Although there might not be any aphids present on the young shoots, if they have visited the tree previously and caused some damage, that will still cause those leaves to curl. Aphids and leaf-curling midges are two common pests that will attack fruit trees. When it comes to dealing with these pests, an oil-based spray such as SB Plant Invigorator applied on the shoot tips on a weekly basis throughout the growing season can keep their numbers at bay. As fruit trees become larger, this isn't always the most practical option, and it can be a costly one too. Encouraging lots of predators into your garden – for example, by introducing bird boxes to encourage nesting blue tits, as well as lots of habitats for predatory insects – may help to create more of a diverse ecosystem where predators can help control some of these pest numbers, if indeed that is the issue. Similarly, fungal attacks such as apple scab and powdery mildew can cause leaf curl on fruit trees. Powdery mildew will present itself as a white powder-like substance on the surface of the leaves, while apple scab tends to produce dark patches on the foliage. Fungicides are available from garden centres, but the practicalities of spraying on a larger tree can be very difficult. Targeting the very shoot tips on a weekly basis may help to control the issue if this response is due to a fungal attack. A final piece of advice that I can offer is that it may be down to a nutrient deficiency, which may explain the reason why all of the fruit trees are suffering, if they are planted in a similar area in the garden. If this damage is caused by a lack of nutrients, then the fact that you're mulching on an annual basis is certainly helping and probably reducing the severity of the problem. One of the most practical solutions would be to apply a handful of Vitax Q4 (a general fertiliser) once a month, around the base of your tree, concentrating on where the feeder roots are growing, rather than at the base of the trunk. Apply this fertiliser at a rate of a handful per square metre from March through until June. Switch to sulphate of potash from June through to September. Good plant health and a diverse ecosystem in the garden, including lots of predators, is what we should strive for. Plants aren't so different from us: if we're feeling a little rundown, we're more susceptible to colds and flu. Keep your plants in good health so that their immune system is buoyant, and they too can help fight off any pests or fungal diseases, as both insects and fungal issues tend to be more prevalent on weaker plants.
