Use drippers in summer rather than misters on your irrigation system. Use a foliar spray of potassium sulphate so that the cell walls are thick and able to withstand infection from the black spot spores. If you have to resort to chemical control, use the systemic fungicide Triforine or the contacts Mancozeb or Baycor.

Triforine, Mancozeb and Baycor will also control powdery mildew and rusts too, which seems to follow black spot infestations. However they will not control downy mildew that appears on roses and grape vines as things warm up. Downy mildew is controlled by using Fongarid, plus the copper compounds like Kocide or Fungus Fighter, as Yates brand cupric hydroxide.

Fighting fungus is not straight forward, since fungal spores have an amazing ability to mutate into resistant forms if you use the same product all the time. That’s why commercial growers use a rotation of at least three fungicides and make sure that at least one is ‘systemic’ and that word will appear on the label if it is systemic. That means that the active agent is taken into the plant tissues and spreads within the plant offering protection from the inside, outwards. Makes your selection of planting resistant plants look attractive eh?

Hippeastrum are starting to flower and unlike many other bulbous plants they appreciate feeding as they flower. If growing them in containers, don’t be in a hurry to divide them once they get to fill the pot, as they flower well when constricted.

Some annuals are showing a general yellowing of their leaves at present. Its just a short term nitrogen deficiency caused by wet and saturated soil, that can’t provide enough nitrogen, even though air temperatures are telling the plants to get on a grow. One easy solution is to apply a foliar spray of a water-soluble nitrogen rich fertilizer, like Aquasol, Thrive, Cultisol, Grow, etc.

If you have a water feature, then your will have noticed that the water plants are starting to make growth. This is the time to fertilize them. Yes they need nutrient too. Lift the pots and make some clay balls the size of golf balls and cut them open and fill with half a teaspoon (5 grams) of a slow release fertilizer, like Osmocote, then make it back into a ball by rolling and bury it in the root zone of your water plants. Your waterlilies will never be the same again.

My oregano has grown as tall as my kneecaps in the past few weeks and it’s also quite soft and relatively tasteless, so I’m going to cut it back hard and encourage plenty of basal growths. With is a sound option for the Mediterranean herbs when they get too much winter rain.

Bedding plants to go in as seedlings now are Impatiens for that partly shaded aspect, marigolds for the hottest spot in your garden and bedding begonias for that spot where they will get watered best. Usually alongside of the lawn is best, as at least that will get watered in summer and they appreciate the extra humidity that the lawn generates.

If you want to grow petunias in the cooller foothills select the spot that gets the most sun and preferable the afternoon sun. That’s when petunias have their best fragrance. The tiny millifolia cultivars of ‘Lullaby™’ are practically prostrate and make ideal trailing plants over rocky outcrops or retaining walls in a sunny aspect.