It's always springtime in BBC murders mysteries, unless they are city murders, all grime and dustbins and not a marigold or wisteria in sight.
This might be a deeply thought-out juxtaposition between the fragile transient beauty of spring and the permanent inevitability of death. It's more likely to be because if you film outside in Britain's winters you have perhaps four hours of usable daylight, most of which is drizzle.
But the movie makers have accidentally hit on one of the rules of good horticulture: spring is an excellent time for murder in the garden, as well as executions of other kinds - just limit your murderous impulses to pests and pruning.
I'm spending the next few days putting out poisonous lures for European wasps. We had a bee population crash about three years ago, and a corresponding number of sightings of European wasps. Even though our fruit trees bloomed wonderfully, we had very little fruit set. Lack of bees had meant poor pollination.
Thankfully, that's changed since I did my wasp baiting accreditation course and began putting out baits. The only European wasps we see now are by the traps, where the workers are attracted by the scent of the lure and can't get out, and the other bait stations that have a mix of pesticide as well as bait. The queen bees take the poison back to the nest, where hopefully all or part of it dies.
I've been carefully checking the contents of each trap. Thankfully there have been no bees, nor native wasps - the attractant really does only lure the feral invaders.
The more queens we can despatch in early spring, the fewer nests and wasps there'll be. This is the time to be out and at 'em, as the queens begin to establish their new nests in spring. You can buy European wasp traps and attractant at any good garden centre, including Bunnings. Just don't wear yellow when you put them out, European wasps are extremely attracted to yellow.
As European wasps are moving into more parks and bush remnants, it's a good idea not to buy yellow T-shirts or other yellow clothing or bicycle helmets for your kids. European wasps can kill kids, and not just from an allergic reaction. The scent of a wasp stinging someone attracts other wasps, and a large number of wasp stings is enough to be fatal for a child.
This is also the best weed eradication time to prepare garden beds for flowers and veg in a few weeks. Weed seedlings grow about three times as fast as vegies, which is one of the reasons they are weeds.
Our kitchen garden has just had all the gone-to-seed bok choi removed from it, as well as various kinds of sneaky weeds. The ground will be left bare for about a month, till the soil and air are both warm enough for spring plantings. In the meantime it will be raked over a couple of times to remove any newly germinated weeds. Gardeners of the past called this ''tickling the soil". Hopefully a bit of pre-planting garden tickling will mean the soil will be weed-free by the time we plant the kitchen basics like basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery and zucchini.
Back in the days when our vegie garden was enormous and fed us and any number of visiting agriculture students, I'd also cover the bare ground with clear plastic. Weed seeds germinate in the warmth and moisture under clear plastic, then rot. This doesn't work with black plastic - black plastic kills weeds, but weed seeds need the light from clear plastic to germinate.
This is also - finally - pruning time. Spring pruning is far better for your trees and shrubs than winter pruning. Cutting off part of a plant in early spring inhibits new growth for a few weeks, which means delaying the flowering time of anything from peaches to roses, so they are less likely to be damaged by frost.
Early spring pruning is also the best time to let pruned plants heal. We are just beginning to head into the "spring flush" - the time of year when many plants do at least two thirds of their annual growth.
Pruning is so complex that entire books have been written about how to prune just one kind of plant, be it roses or peach trees. But your backyard doesn't need that kind of expertise. Just remember many plants flower on old wood, so prune those as little as possible. Others, like some roses and many natives, bloom only once a year. Prune when their last blooms die. Others, like most roses or lavender, bloom on new wood, so chop them back to about a third of their height and width now.
It goes without saying that most of our flowers are the kind that don't need pruning, like banksia roses, that just bloom and get larger each year.
There's another reason just now to head out with secateurs for a bit of murder in the garden - the next month will have days of gentle sunlight, warm air, moist earth, and that indefinable scent of everything just beginning to grow. You needn't even bother with the secateurs. Just take a hat, a book, and find a chair, and enjoy the best weather Canberra will give you all year.
This week I am:
- Meeting the first leech of the season. In Britain the sound of the cuckoo heralds spring. In our garden it's leeches hunting for our blood.
- Wondering if the grandkids will still have a passion for cherry tomatoes next summer holidays. If their tastes have changed it doesn't matter - cherry tomatoes can be frozen whole, then tossed onto pizzas or on top of quiches, still frozen, to be cooked. They are also the first tomatoes to ripen.
- Delighting in the double yellow daffodils that were the ones that survived years of drought and heat when all the multicoloured ones died off.
- Hoping to feed the citrus trees just before a rainstorm - never fertilise dry ground or you may burn plant roots. Either wait till just before a good rain, or water it in yourself.
- Discovering that gone-to-seed bok choi give a surprising amount of juice from their stems and leaves, delicious mixed with a little apple and beetroot.
- Watching the chooks enjoy pecking through the remnants of carrots, apple, beetroot, celery and parsley that have also been through the juicer.
