Whilst pests and diseases may not be popular with some gardeners, keepers of garden lawns are always keen to know more about what’s damaging their turf. In this issue Cynthia Carson raises awareness regarding grey slime mould.

One morning you awake to find what looks like a scattering of ash from
a fire on your lawn. The lawn was healthy yesterday, but now it has a purple-grey pall. There is a substance on both the top and bottom of leaves, on the grass and on the broadleaved weeds. The patches range from a few centimetres in diameter to (in extreme cases) in excess of a metre in diameter.

This article addresses the following topics:

• Up close
• Cause
• Hosts
• An unusual organism with a strange lifecycle
• Damage
• Control

Whilst gardeners in cooler climates may be hanging up their tools
and spending more time inside, in our region this is one of the most pleasurable times to garden. You can spend a day in the garden without getting hot and sweaty and as growth slows down, it is a great time to do annual jobs such as pruning, weeding and turning compost.

This article addresses the following topics:

• The vegetable garden
• Annuals
• Perennials
• Ponds
• Shrubs
• Trees
• Shadehouse
• Lawns
• Fruit trees
• Orchids
• Future plantings
  

Special information is provided for:

• Planting warm season bulbs
• Vegetable planting schedule for May, June and July for subtropics
  and tropics
• Annual planting schedule for May, June and July