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MARCH
Make a new lawn or rejuvenate an old one with water, aeration and fertiliser.
Select suitable lawn seed for the region.
Prepare areas for bulbs and annuals - plenty of mulch, lime and blood and bone dug into the soil.
Enjoy the fragrance of pink honeysuckle, gardenias and cestrum.
Sow broad beans, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, onions, peas, rhubarb crowns and silver beet.
Strike carnation cuttings in light sandy soil.
Take semi hardwood cuttings of abelia, calliandra, eriostemon, feijoa, gardenia, pittosporum and westringia.
Plant spring flowering bulbs in warmer climates. Cooler climates should wait until next month.
Prepare soil for strawberries, well ridged and sprinkled with lime.
Collect native plant leaves and bark and chop in a mulch maker.
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APRIL
Establish permanent trees and shrubs before winter.
Choose autumn foliage plants when leaves are colouring.
Plant spring flowering bulbs.
Fertilise chrysanthemums.
Sow or plant annual flowers like livingstone daisy, primula, snapdragons, nemisia, lobelia, calendula, dianthus and stocks, and vegetables like broad beans, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, winter lettuce, onions, peas, radish and spinach.
Pinch off early buds on sweet peas, pansies, violas and poppies.
Rejuvenate indoor plants by repotting, renewing soil or pruning lanky stems.
Keep up water to plants if weather is dry.
Top-dress couch lawns and oversow with bent or rye grass for winter green.
Order bare rooted fruit trees and ornamentals, and soak roots in water before planting.
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MAY
Cut back herbacious perennials like leonotis, asters, chrysanthemums, perenial phlox, acanthus and all perennial aromatic herbs.
Disbud camelias and lightly prune gordonia after flowers.
Remove unwanted branches from deciduous trees and shrubs once leaves have dropped.
Reduce water on cactus plants.
Plant lilium bulbs, agapanthus, day lilies, crinum, hemerocallis, iris spp., montbretia, scilla, sparaxis and watsonia.
Dust all bulbs with fungicide before planting.
Reduce water on deciduous plants.
Rake fallen leaves and place in compost or heap around trees as mulch. Keep away from trunk.
Buy and plant virus-free strawberry runners.
Plant deciduous fruit trees - ornamental or fruiting. Apricots, nectarines and peaches can be planted as single specimens.
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