Bringing the bees to a new vegetable garden | In Fiona's Garden

Time to reset my gardening routine from winter mode to summer: gardening in the morning before the heat kicks in, rather than late afternoon when the wind drops.

Early morning is a good time to check seedlings and ensure no greedy slug or snail is having an unwelcome feast. Gritty wood ash is a good deterrent.

My snow pea seedlings are growing nicely so I can start snipping the tips. This encourages the plants to bush out and the tips add a lovely pea flavour to soups and salads.

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Warmer weather means we can start sowing vegetables. Radish seed is a great test for warm soil - if it germinates within a few days, other vegies will too, though highland gardeners still need to beware of frost.

This year I'm sowing Phacelia (P. tanacetifolia) aka blue tansy, in my new vegie garden, to attract bees and other beneficial insects.

A flowering annual, phacelia grows to about 50 to 70 centimetres and has whiskery, lavender coloured flowers and lacey, intricately cut leaves, hence its specific name.

It comes from north-west Mexico and California and is often seen in their deserts below 1500 metres. I have also seen it flourishing in rain-sodden Ireland, so I'm hoping it will handle a well-watered vegie patch.

Phacelia seeds are technically 'negatively photoblastic' and only germinate in darkness.

October is a good time to clean up evergreen ornamental grasses. Deciduous grasses can be chopped to the ground in spring but an evergreen like Stipa gigantea only needs the occasional removal of dead foliage that accumulates round its base.

I pull out last year's dead flower stalks while I'm doing this, they come away easily at this time of year.

Half an hour's effort rewards you with 10 months of beauty.

This stipa's knee-high mounds of blue green leaves carry a spreading fan of oat-coloured flowers from early summer through to the depths of winter, when they look lovely covered in sparkling frost (see The Land, August 26, 2021)

Spring is the time to mulch the garden.

Don't depend on La Nina conditions continuing. Farmers know how rain has a funny way of vanishing overnight and gardens are all the better for mulch.

A thick layer of lucerne hay seals in subsoil moisture and benefits both soil and plants.

Remove weeds before mulching. Seasol Earthcare Organic Weedkiller works within a few hours but is non-selective, so only spray if there's no wind.

I recently came across a tremendous whinge from a British gardening columnist about 2022's dry summer.

Tell me about it, I felt like saying.

He evidently hadn't thought to read up on dry climate gardening, a subject that's becoming increasingly relevant as the planet warms. For once I felt rather superior.

Phacelia seed is available from seedstreet.com.au

Sculptures in the Garden, Mudgee, includes work from local, regional, metropolitan and interstate artists from October 8 to 23, 10am to 4pm at Rosby Wines, 122 Strikes Lane, Eurunderee, 2850.

There will be food, coffee, a wine bar, live music. Entry is by pre-purchased ticket only. Visit, www.sculpturesinthegarden.com.au