Gardening writer JACKIE WARBURTON can sense the start of summer. 

FLOWERING in my garden at the moment is a small plant called Justicia carnea. 

It grows well in the shade and is available in white as well. It dies down in the winter, but comes back up in the spring and is typically called a herbaceous perennial.

Growing aromatic flowers in the garden, focusing on fragrant night-scented blooms, is something to consider when planting around outdoor rooms or decks that we use in summer. 

Some night-scented, small-growing plants that grow well in Canberra are gardenias, tube roses or a larger shrub such as port wine magnolia, which can also create a good hedge if privacy is needed. 

AS the weather warms, make sure there is water for the birds and the bees in the garden. A wide water bowl is easier for birds to bathe in as well. Make sure there is a stick or rocks in the bottom that are not fully immersed so bees can walk to the water and won’t drown. Keep the water bowl out of direct sunlight and refresh regularly. 

THE familiar sounds of summer in the garden are the lawn mowers at dusk and on Sundays. Turf in the garden can be a cool place to sit on a hot summer’s day, but keeping your turf in good condition is the key and here are some tips.

• Keep mower height to a minimum of 50mm, the higher the better. 
• Water in non-direct sunlight. 
• Weed and feed – manually better than chemical application. 
• Whipper snip the edges for a neat-looking lawn. 

WHEN there’s an abundance of lawn clippings and nowhere to put them, it’s important to not place them on to the garden beds. This only spreads weed seeds into the garden beds, draws nitrogen from the ground and dries the soil out. 

LATE plantings of all summer vegetables and tomatoes can be done now, but it’s probably too late for seeds of pumpkins, capsicums, and tomatoes. Only short-cropping vegetables such as beetroot, carrots, silver beet and spinach can be sown, but get them growing quickly and, as the weather warms up, keep the water up to all vegetables remembering to water the ground not the leaves of the plants and not in the heat of the day. 

FRUIT trees need to be netted now with fruit beginning to ripen in the next month or so. Keep the water up to all fruiting plants and a fertiliser high in potash is particularly useful for flower and fruit formation. 

GUM trees lose their leaves in summer to preserve moisture in the heat coming up. Their leaf litter can be abundant and not good as a mulch in the garden beds. 

Rake as much off the beds and crush and lay as path bark in the gardens where you walk and don’t want weeds to grow. 

Some gum trees have their flowering season annually or biannually or even every four years or so. These flowering trees are important for birds and bees, but gum trees belong in the native corridors within the suburbs but not as street trees. 

MY roses are looking terrible with yellow fungal leaves. However, if picked early, the flowers won’t be affected. Planting insect attractant plants under roses goes a long way to attracting predatory insects to the garden to eat aphids and other insects as well. This increases the ecosystem in the garden. 

Roses also suffer from rose mosaic virus and are most visual this time of year. Mosaic virus is generally transported via secateurs or grafted rootstock. It shows up as angular, jagged-edged, yellow and green markings on the leaves but will fade as the weather warms. It is a virus that does not pose a problem for flowering and if seen, pick and dispose of the leaves in the green bin. 

Keep deadheading roses as cut flowers for the house and it will also encourage more blooms and give a surprising flush of flowers right through summer. 

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au