Preparing Your Garden for a Melbourne Summer
Written by John Gasiamis, Founder — John's Handyman Service
The main jobs before summer are mulching garden beds to hold moisture in, trimming back growth that competes with your plants for water, and clearing gutters and garden waste that turns into a fire risk once everything dries out.
A mulch layer of roughly 5 to 7cm, kept clear of plant stems, cuts down how often you need to water and keeps root systems cooler through the hot months. Overgrown hedges and long grass dry out fast and become fuel close to the house — worth getting on top of before the fire danger period starts, not during it. Spring is the right window to do this, while the soil still has some moisture in it from winter and spring rain.
The order these jobs should happen in
Weeding and clearing dead growth first, then mulching last, gets the best result — mulch spread over weeds just buries the problem temporarily rather than solving it. Hedge and tree trimming is worth doing before mulching too, since cutting back growth often drops debris straight onto the beds. Doing it in that order also means the mulch you lay stays clean and doesn't need reworking afterward.
One thing worth knowing: mulching too early, before the last of the spring rain, can trap excess moisture against root systems rather than protecting them. Timing it right matters more than getting it done early.
A backyard in Preston had healthy-looking garden beds that were mulched every year but still struggled through summer. The mulch had been piled up against the plant stems rather than kept clear of them — it was trapping moisture against the base of the plants and encouraging rot rather than protecting the roots. Pulling it back a few centimetres from each stem fixed it.
Common questions
Around 5 to 7cm is the general guide — thick enough to suppress weeds and hold moisture, without smothering the plants or piling against their stems.
It's better done before, but clearing fire-risk debris and getting a mulch layer down is still worthwhile any time — just water in well since summer heat dries new mulch out faster.
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