What to do in your garden right now

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Save all the ash and charcoal left over in fireplaces as a source of nutrients for your garden. It contains many trace elements and is high in potassium, which helps flowering and fruiting, but it is also alkaline and so is best applied in small quantities to avoid overly raising the pH of soil. Sprinkle it in your compost heap, where it will improve fertility or dig it directly into your soil and water it in well (being sure to avoid areas around acid-loving plants.) Alternatively save it to dust the leaves of fruit trees infected by pear and cherry slugs – the larvae of the black sawfly (Caliroa cerasi) – in spring and summer.

Most Miscanthus grasses have stopped flowering for the season but even as the stems dry and blooms fade they can still add a welcome vertical element so no need to rush with the cut-back. They can be taken back to the ground any time between now and mid-winter, but make sure to do it before they start to put on new growth. It’s also worth dividing them every four or five years – just before they reshoot – both to maintain vigour and to reduce the size of a clump.

Make the most of growing food on sunny balconies now when the weather is cooler and pots are less at risk of drying out. Plant seeds of lettuce, rainbow chard, silverbeet and other fast-growing leafy greens, as well as root crops such as radish and beetroot in large containers with good drainage. Fill them with quality potting mix, sow seeds across the surface and lightly cover with more soil, then water well.

Tree of the Year

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The Avenue of Honour in Bacchus Marsh.Credit: Pat Scala

The 281 elms that comprise Bacchus Marsh’s avenue of honour were this month collectively named the Victorian Tree of the Year by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). Planted in 1918 as a living memorial to community members who fought in World War I, it is the second largest avenue of honour in Victoria (Ballarat has the longest.) The National Trust says the Bacchus Marsh planting has survived despite the continuing threat of road development. Eight other trees were shortlisted for the title; go to nationaltrust.org.au/treeoftheyear/ for photographs and descriptions.