General Gardening Tips for April 1. Getting the soil back in shape Soil conditioning is top of the list for this time of the year. Digging organic compost and sheep pellets through the garden gets plenty of soil biology going and replenishes nutrients that have been used over the summer growing season. 2. Autumn is Nature’s best planting time The soil is warm, there’s moisture around so plants can establish ahead of winter. 3. Sowing lawns is easier now that there's some rain Grass seed varieties germinate quickly and lawns put on strong growth that can sustain them through winter. Fertilising ..read more

General Gardening Tips for March: Green Cover Crop and Brassicas: Sow a green cover crop like lupins or mustard seed in unused garden beds over winter. Plant seedlings of brassicas – cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli. Include silverbeet for added variety. Pumpkin and Melon Care: Place pea straw under pumpkins and melons to prevent contact with damp soil and rot. Radishes for Winter Salads: Grow radishes for quick winter salads with daily watering for optimal growth. Vegetable Garden: Sow a three-way blend of peas, oats, and mustard as a green cover crop for unused winter beds. Plan ..read more

Planning a garden design project can be a daunting task, but help is at hand! We talked to Kerry Speirs, the Lead Landscape Designer at DIY Designs, about the do’s and don'ts when planning a landscape project. What are the six most common landscape design requests from your clients?   Creating privacy and screening out the neighbours. Low maintenance layouts, finishes and planting schemes. Shade solutions for outdoor living spaces. Improved street appeal and a greater sense of arrival. A space to grow herbs, seasonal vegetables, and a few citrus trees. A place to put a trampo ..read more

A fresh layer of mulch can works wonders to rejuvenate tired looking garden beds. Adding mulch is more than just for looks though—mulch helps the underlying soil retain it's moisture, which allows plants to thrive, even in our current hot dry conditions. At Central Landscapes, we carry an impressive range of mulch, including natural Forest Floor Bark, stunning Black Decorative Mulch, aged Arborist Mulch and peastraw for raised garden beds.  Cracked soil? Got cracks showing in your garden? Add a layer of compost to help recondition the soil. A layer of mulch on top of the compo ..read more

Summer is here and it could be hot, dry, windy or wet!   Get your garden ready with our summer tips.   Water saving tip – washing the car, boat, golf clubs? Tip the bucket of soapy water around pots and the garden to keep the plants happy. More water saving – hose early in the morning or in the evening for best water absorption by plants. Use an organic pesticide such as Bugtrol to control whitefly and aphids on ripening vegetables. Spray early in the day before bees are active.   Vegetable and fruiting plants enjoy a dose of liquid fertiliser during their production ..read more

The fruit and vegetable garden   Assist eggplant flowers to pollinate – use a small paintbrush to transfer pollen between flowers. Eggplant flowers are pale mauve and droop downwards, so they’re uninteresting to the bees. A regular squirt of water over the bean plants is said to increase bean production. Picking regularly also encourages a bumper crop. It’s all in the staking – plant such as beans, tomatoes and cucumbers benefit from good climbing supports through the summer. Find out if your potatoes are ready by gently excavating from the edge of the mound. Early cropping potatoes ..read more

The fruit and vegetable garden Sow bean and basil seeds. For best results beans will need a climbing frame to grow up. Basil grows well near tomato plants.   Hang sticky traps in apple and pear trees to stop an infestation of codling moth in the young fruit. Or, Spray with Yates’ Success Ultra a maximum of four times during spring. Feed the fruit trees that are forming fruit as their flowers drop – feijoas, citrus, pip and stone fruit trees need nourishment at this time of the year. In raised vegetable beds, layer on pea straw work to protect young vegetable plants from drying out ..read more

We spent the morning with the amazing team from Second Nature, as they mulched and rejuvenated this stunning inner-city garden. The gardens got a dressing of Dave's Turbo Garden Blend (worm castings, humate and NPK with vital trace elements), followed by a fresh layer of bark mulch ..read more

You know you need it - that essential but unseen layer beneath the beautiful pebbles, JakMat and concrete - but what do GAPs, SAPs and even WAPs actually mean and what do we use them for? This year, post floods, it seems everyone needs aggregates, so here’s a useful guide to their functions. GAP Metals are the perfect base layer GAP actually stands for General All Passing through a screen. So GAP metal is screened and sorted into different sizes. Central Landscapes has GAP starting at GAP 7 (7mm) all the way up to GAP 65. Each grade of metal will contain a mixture of sizes - from very fine roc ..read more

The fruit and vegetable garden Great time to add the goodies in the vegetable bed for great summer harvest: we love our organic ‘Dave’s’ pelletised fertilisers, Aquaticus soil conditioner (mussel shells) and Revital Grow-all (compost and worm castings). Fancy an interesting tomato this season? Seek out heritage tomato seedlings with fabulous names like Mortgage Lifter, Aunt Ruby’s green and Mr Stripey.   Mound soil around potato tops as they grow. Potatoes continue to form up the stem as soil gets added. Keep watered. Eggplants can go in now – growing them in raised beds helps the b ..read more