# When the soil dries out, continue to prune roses. Spray with a mix of spraying oil and Copper. This seals the cuts and smoothes scale and fungi.

# Plant new roses, trees and berries.

# Think about where you could plant some vegetables as we are approaching spring. Even if it’s only a couple of lettuce and silver beet plants. It always tastes better when you have grown it yourself.

# Fertilise roses, citrus and fruit trees. Take care to keep fertilizer away from the trunk, and water in well.

# Green tip or early bud movement, begins in stone fruits, soon. Spray with copper to protect from leaf curl and bladder plum.

# Wood ash can be sprinkle sparingly on gardens and raked in, but NOT near camellias, rhodos. and other acid loving plants.

# Summer bulbs like, dahlias, gladioli and tuberous begonias become available in August.

# Give your wild birds a treat…a seed bell, special seed cakes or sugar water for the Tui, [a cup of sugar dissolved in 1 litre of warm water], as their food supply is limited at this time of the year.Better still, plant plants that will feed them at this time, such as single flowered varieties of Camellia, Kowhai Dragons Gold, Prunus campanulata varieties, Grevilleas and Crap apple trees.