Gardening

October is the month that makes or breaks Bribie and surrounds gardens. 

Do these five unglamorous jobs now and the rest of spring and summer gets easier. 

By late September the coastal garden has stopped hesitating. Soil is warm, days are stretching and almost everything - couch lawn, citrus, hibiscus, bindii and aphids - has decided to grow at once. On Bribie Island and the nearby mainland, from Woorim and Bongaree across to Sandstone Point, Ningi, Beachmere and Caboolture, that surge is useful. It is also when sandy soil, salt wind and a blocked dripper start costing you through January. 

This spring is likely to run warmer and in places drier than average. Treat October as the last comfortable month to get the garden organised before heat, fruit fly and northerlies do the organising for you. 

Feed the sand, then lock the moisture in. 

Island and coastal soils drain fast and often turn hydrophobic after a dry spell. Water first, then give lawns, citrus, roses and mixed beds a quality slow-release fertiliser. Wallum natives - banksia, bottlebrush, grevillea, paperbark desire low-phosphorus native food, not a general garden mix. Follow with 7-10 centimetres of mulch, kept off trunks and stems. On sand, mulch is not decoration – it’s the difference between watering twice a week and watching the bed bake. 

Skip a heavy feed if a hot, windy day is forecast; soft new growth salt-burns easily. 

Prune, then give the wind something to hit first. 

Cut out wood that died or broke in winter. Tip prune grevilleas and bottlebrush once the last flowers drop. Deadhead roses and spent spring annuals. If your block faces the Passage or the surf, October is the month to thicken a porous windbreak - coastal banksia, lilly pilly, she-oak or a tough hedge - so tender plants sit in the lee, not on the front line. A filter of leaves works better than a solid fence that slams the wind down onto the beds. 

                                                                                                                                                     Plant that  like salt, heat and sand. 

Safe now: hibiscus, frangipani, ginger, croton, bougainvillea, petunia, salvia, vinca, pigface and pentas. In the vegie patch put in tomatoes (cherry types cope best), capsicum, chilli, beans, zucchini, sweet potato, pumpkin, basil and warrigal greens. Stake anything tall the day it goes in. Raised beds or plenty of compost will hold more water than raw Island sand. Lettuce and silverbeet still work with afternoon shade. Hold the broccoli, it has had its season. 

Stop pests while they are still few. 

New growth is aphid candy - check rose and citrus tips twice a week. Inspect citrus for leaf miner and bronze, orange bug. If you grow tomatoes, capsicums or fruit, hang Queensland fruit-fly traps now and have fine netting ready as flowers appear. Seal nets at the base and keep them off the fruit. Pick up fallen fruit; do not toss suspect pieces untreated into the compost. Pull bindis and seedlings before they seed into next summer's lawn. 

Fix the water before the first 30-degree northerly. 

Walk drippers and sprinklers, checking for blockages and breakages this weekend. Sandy soil wants a deep morning soak, not a daily sprinkle that never leaves the top three centimetres. Group pots so they share shade. A west-facing courtyard at Bongaree and a Woorim front yard are different climates; plant and water them that way. 

Lawns want the same logic. Mow a little higher than you will in midsummer, feed now, and water deeply rather than often. 

Leave a few things alone.  

Do not hard-prune spring flowerers still in bloom. Do not plant thirsty cottage annuals on the ocean-facing edge and hope. Do not assume a storm will reset a dry pot.  None of this is glamorous. That is the point. An hour on mulch, nets, a windbreak and a bag of the right fertiliser in October is worth a dozen salty evenings in January. The garden that looks effortless in summer is usually the one somebody quietly sorted while the weather was still on their side.