Leaves are most definitely starting to fall! Plain, Oak, Poplar, Gum, Dombeya, Jacaranda and trees everywhere are shedding up a storm and carpeting everything with their golden hues. Leaves that fall are the most wonderful, natural mulch and compost and should definitely not be carted to landfill. If you don’t like the look of the leaves in the beds, then rake them up and add them to the compost, or turn them gently into the soil, but don’t dig too much around your plant’s roots as that will disturb the natural balance that exists there. Make a leaf-mould cage, by creating a circular ‘bin’ or ‘cage’ from chicken wire. Fill it with leaves every week, keep it moist with a plastic covering, and turn it regularly to make nutrient rich leaf-mould to use as mulch or as a natural soil fertilizer.
Now is the time to take hardwood cuttings if you want to multiply your garden plants. Shrubs like Viburnmum, Abelias, Solanum, Hydrangeas, Tecoma, Coprosma work well. Use well matured wooded cuttings and keep them to the thickness of a pencil. Snip them at an angle with clean garden secateurs, so you can tell the top from the bottom. They should be about 15cm long. Cut the base just below a node and remove the leaves from the lower 2/3rd of the cutting. Remove any flowers or berries as well. Dip the bottom in rooting hormone and plant around the edges of pots or in a seeding tray. Make sure the cuttings don’t dry out by watering every couple of days and pot on after the summer in about 9 months’ time. Semi-hardwoods like Plectranthus, Salvias, Hypoestes can be taken after they have finished flowering at the end of Autumn.