"Sue McDougall is an acclaimed Garden TV presenter and qualified horticulturist. Sue has been involved in the horticultural industry all her life. She has owned her own garden centre until recently and has been a gardening copresenter on 6PR radio since 1995. She was part of the ‘Garden Gurus’ team for many years, the popular TV gardening show on Channel 9."

September

As it warms up apply a wetting agent to ensure the water being applied is soaking into the soil. It's time to prune summer flowering shrubs such as Hibiscus, Bougainvilleas and Plumbago. Prune spring flowering blossom trees after they have finished flowering. It's summer vegie gardening time. Wait until the danger of frost has past before you plant tomatoes, eggplant, chillies and capsicums.

Feed the spring flowering bulbs after they have finished flowering with a complete bulb fertiliser. After flowering these plants tend to be forgotten about, but they are busy developing the embryo for next years flowering before they go dormant. As the weather warms up give the passionfruit vine a prune. One third of the growth can be trimmed off to keep them contained a little for the following growing season. Passionfruit fruit on their new growth.

Tip:

When planting a Grafted Tomato, bury the graft and the main stem in the soil about 10cm. The plant will develop roots along the main stem, resulting in a strong plant that will bear hundreds of fruit.