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Time to get out in the garden!

gardening

Time to get out in the garden!

words by
kristee semmler // the barossa nursery

The world has faced some uncertain and frightening times in the past months with the global coronavirus crisis. Who knows how long this will last?

Certainly international travel and even domestic travel will be kept to a minimum in the coming months, meaning most of us will be bunkering down at home, hoping and waiting for this crisis to pass.

It can be quite frightening not knowing what is to come, but that is no reason to stop living or growing, and by ‘growing’, I mean plants!

Getting outside in the garden, amongst nature, amongst plants and getting your hands into the earth is a known mood booster and guaranteed to help keep those anxious feelings at bay.

The health benefits of gardening are well documented and in particular the importance gardening can play in
mental health.

Gardening is a great way to reduce stress and boost your mood.

Vigorous gardening such as turning over soil, weeding, raking or digging holes for plants is a great workout and helps to release those feel good endorphins, not to mention the act of achieving something, whether that be planting up a new garden bed, weeding and tidying up an overgrown patch of garden or starting a veggie garden can give great satisfaction.

Since many of us will be hanging around at home over the coming months, waiting for the storm to pass, now is a great time to get outside in your garden and feel good about life again!

Spring is such a beautiful time of year. There are plenty of jobs to do in the garden which make the most of the beautiful weather we can get in spring.

Weeding

There’s always plenty of weeds around.

Like many plants, they enjoy the spring weather conditions and can grow almost too well, so it’s a great time to get weeding (or spraying) to keep these pesky weeds at bay (and a great workout to boot)!

Mulching

After weeding, applying a thick layer of mulch over the garden will help inhibit weed growth while also keeping moisture in the soil.

I always think a layer of fresh mulch instantly improves the look of a garden bed.

Preparing your summer vegetable garden

As spring continues, we harvest the last of our winter vegetables and move onto preparing and planting our summer vegetable gardens.

Vegetables are gross feeders so it is vital to improve the soil with plenty of manure and or compost after removing last season’s harvest.

Forking compost into your garden beds is another great workout and satisfying mood booster (or a great way to work off frustration!) once your soil is prepared its time to plant.

Be aware there are many summer vegetable seedlings that can’t be planted out too early in spring as they can be cold sensitive and we can still receive some nasty frosts in early spring.

Wait until October or until it warms up a bit more to plant cold sensitive vegetables.

However, if you just can’t wait, covering cold sensitive seedlings at night and on cold days with plastic bottles or cloches will help create a mini glass house situation and keep the worst of the cold off baby plants.

Fertilising

As the weather warms up, plants are waking up from their winter dormancy and they are hungry!

Spring is a great time to feed the whole garden to ensure optimum growth, health and flowers in the coming months.

There is much enjoyment one can take out of a garden in spring, many plants, trees and bulbs are in full flower, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll know that flowers make people happy!

Actually just being outside helps make people happy.

So while there’s little we can do about current world issues, we can at least get out into our gardens, enjoy the sunshine and feel good about life.

Happy gardening!

Kristee Semmler

THE BAROSSA NURSERY

If you have any good gardening old wive’s tales, feel free to share them by leaving a comment online on the Barossa Mag’s website.

I do love hearing a good tale! 

In the meantime, happy gardening!

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