Each week I will be giving you the reader, tips and ideas on how to make the most out of your gardens and lawns.

Being the second week of September, most of your plants will be already starting to grow and flower but because of the lack of rain in our local area there are a few things you will need to do to ensure they are healthy till the next good down pour.

Water your plants deeply and infrequently rather than little and often. When water is scarce young roots will search deep down into the soil, looking for reserves of moisture.

If they're only watered lightly and often, they will send out shallow, surface roots that suffer in drought times. Once your soil is moist, be sure to remove weeds, as they take up precious water and nutrients, then feed with the appropriate fertiliser and mulch to help the soil from drying out.

If you haven't already, make sure vegetable gardens have been well fertilised with compost and fertiliser, then mulch with sugar cane or hay mulch. Vegetables to grow now are; Beans, Capsicums, Carrots, Chilli's, Eggplant, Herbs, Leeks, Lettuce, Melons, Pumpkin, Silverbeet, Spring Onions, Sweet Corn, Sweet potato and Tomatoes to name a few.

Because of the drought, lawns in the area are suffering and watering them is an expensive job.

To give your lawns the best chance till the next lot of rain, firstly spray for weeds in your lawn as they are competing against your lawn for water and mow your lawn at a higher setting to thicken up and help stop moisture loss.