Why spring 2026 is shaping up hot and dry in Sydney
We have been flat out since the middle of August, and the reason is now official: the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed Sydney just had its warmest winter nights on record. The mean overnight minimum at Observatory Hill across June, July and August was 10.9 degrees, ahead of the previous record of 10.4 set in 2013. Your garden noticed before the BOM did. Soil never cooled properly, so everything is running two or three weeks ahead of the calendar.
Now the part nobody enjoys. It is going to be a dry one. The BOM declared El Nino in June and it is still running, and the spring outlook has rainfall leaning below average across the south and east of the country, with both daytime and overnight temperatures very likely above average. Winter rain across Greater Sydney came in at between a third and two thirds of normal, so the soil is already behind.
The BOM is careful to say a strong El Nino in the Pacific does not always mean a strong impact here, and that is fair. But you plan for the season you are likely to get. If you read the August garden prep guide and got compost into your beds, you are ahead. What decides your season this year is not warmth. It is water.
How to water a Sydney garden through a dry spring
Water deeply two or three times a week, not a little bit every day. The daily sprinkle feels responsible and is one of the more reliable ways to lose a plant in February. It wets the top 20 or 30mm, evaporates by lunchtime, and teaches roots to live in the layer that cooks first in a heatwave. A long soak sends them down, and root depth is what gets a plant through summer.
Knowing when to water is the hard part, and almost everyone gets it wrong the same way, by looking at the surface. The top of the soil tells you nothing about what is happening 100mm down where the roots are. A soil moisture meter ends the argument. Push it in, read it, water or walk away. It is one of the best things you can buy for your plants, and it costs less than the plant it saves.
Mulch goes on last, once the bed is fed and properly wet, 50 to 75mm deep and pulled back off the stems. If you skipped the compost step in August, do it now and mulch a week later. Sugar cane, lucerne, pea straw and hemp are all on the floor, and the bagged options are in the compost, mulch and soil conditioner range.
What to plant in a Sydney garden in September
Plant now. Tomatoes as seedlings, corn and beans sown direct, and the whole hardy herb group: parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary and mint. Coriander and rocket are in their last good window before the heat sends them to seed, so now rather than October. Salad greens, silverbeet and spring onions are all fine. Basil counts too, but it is about placement rather than patience. Overnight minimums this week are sitting around 9 to 12 degrees, so give it a north-facing wall or a sheltered corner instead of an open bed. The record-warm winter is why all of this is early.
Give it another fortnight. Cucumber, zucchini and pumpkin want soil a couple of degrees warmer than we have right now. Put them in today and they will not die, they will sit there sulking while the ones planted a fortnight later overtake them. Give it two to four weeks. Capsicum, chilli and eggplant are fussier again and are usually a mid October job in the Inner West. The better move for both groups is to buy the seed now and start it under cover on a warm windowsill, so you have hardened seedlings ready the moment the soil catches up. The seed range has the varieties that perform here, and I will let you know when it is time.
Herbs are back in force, including the big potted sizes you can cut from the day you get them home. One rule before you do: never take more than about a quarter of the foliage at once. Herbs regrow using the energy stored in the leaves you leave behind, so a hard scalp sets them back weeks. The herb and edible plant range is in store and online, and a productive herb pot is still the quickest way to shrink the supermarket shop.
What is on the benches at King Street this week
This is the part of the year I buy for. Four things came in over the last fortnight that people keep stopping in front of.
Proteas and Serruria. Both are South African members of the Proteaceae family, the same family as our banksias, grevilleas and waratahs, and both are in flower now. Serruria is the one you will not have seen before: the blushing bride of the cut flower trade, silvery fine foliage and a soft pink and white flower that looks far too delicate for a plant bred for poor, dry, sandy soil. If you plant one thing this spring that will not need nursing through February, make it something from this family. Water well through the first summer, and after that they ask for almost nothing. Two honest notes. They need drainage, so a raised bed or a pot with a free-draining mix, never a heavy clay hole. And Serruria resents humid, still air, so give it the open, breezy spot rather than a sheltered corner.
The other thing that catches people out with this whole family, natives included, is feeding. Proteaceae are phosphorus sensitive, and a standard high-phosphorus garden fertiliser can damage or kill a grevillea rather than feed it. Use a native-specific low-phosphorus plant food from the fertiliser and plant food range, at a lighter rate than you would use on a vegetable bed, and do not feed a banksia the same thing you feed a tomato.
Jasmine. Spring jasmine, Jasminum polyanthum, is the one flowering now, and it is the fastest way to cover an ugly fence or a rental balcony rail before summer. The scent at dusk is the reason people buy it. Star jasmine is hot on its heels, due in and flowering within the next couple of weeks, and it holds its leaves all year. The honest part: both are vigorous. Give it something to climb and keep it trimmed after flowering or it will find your gutters. In a balcony pot that vigour is exactly what you want.
Blossoming nectarine trees. I bought two because I wanted something on the floor no one expected to see on King Street, and one has already gone. A nectarine in full blossom is about the prettiest thing you can put in a sunny Inner West backyard, and it will fruit. It needs full sun, a deep water once a week through summer, and, the bit no one tells you, fruit fly netting from about December, because Queensland fruit fly is in every suburb between here and Parramatta. Come and see the last one before someone else does.
All four are in store only for now. Kangaroo paws are on the bench next to them, in flower and in three colours, and they want the same treatment: full sun, sharp drainage and the low-phosphorus food. The rest of the native and outdoor plant range is online.
Spring pests in September: aphids first, caterpillars second
I covered the cabbage white butterfly and the Dipel routine in the August guide, and if you are growing brassicas that still stands: Dipel on before you see a caterpillar, reapplied roughly every ten days. What changes in September is that the soft new growth arrives, and with it the aphids. They cluster on the tips of roses, citrus and herbs, and a week of warm still weather is all they need.
Dipel will not touch an aphid. Pyrethrum is the bottle for this job, and it is the one you want in the shed before you need it rather than the afternoon you find them. A fast contact knockdown from the pyrethrum daisy, it handles aphids, thrips, whitefly and caterpillars within hours, and it leaves almost no residual, which is why it is a response rather than a plan. It is broad spectrum, so spray where the problem actually is rather than across the whole bed, and in the evening once the bees have gone home. Do that and the ladybirds keep working for you between sprays. Run the two together, Dipel on the schedule for brassicas and pyrethrum for the flare-ups everywhere else, and spring is covered. Always read and follow the label directions on any pest product.
Spring planting in Sydney: frequently asked questions
What should I plant in a Sydney garden in September?
Plant tomatoes as seedlings now, sow corn and beans direct, and get the hardy herbs, salad greens and silverbeet in. Hold cucumber, zucchini and pumpkin another fortnight, and capsicum, chilli and eggplant two to four weeks, because they want warmer soil. Basil will grow now but needs a warm sheltered spot while overnight minimums sit around 9 to 12 degrees.
How often should I water a Sydney garden in a dry spring?
Deeply, two or three times a week, rather than lightly every day. Short daily watering wets only the top 20 to 30mm and trains roots to sit near the surface, which is exactly where they suffer in a heatwave. Check with a soil moisture meter at around 100mm depth rather than judging by the surface, which tells you very little.
Do proteas, grevilleas and other Proteaceae need a special fertiliser?
Yes. Plants in the Proteaceae family, including grevilleas, banksias, waratahs, proteas and Serruria, are phosphorus sensitive. A standard high-phosphorus garden fertiliser can damage or kill them rather than feed them. Use a native-specific low-phosphorus plant food instead, and apply it at a lighter rate than you would use on a vegetable bed.
Come in and see what is flowering
The benches change every week from here to Christmas, and the things I am most excited about are usually the ones I only got a handful of. If something in your garden is not doing what it should, photograph it and bring it in to 538 King Street. Our terrarium workshops run fortnightly on Saturday mornings through to the end of November, and the full garden supplies range is online if you would rather it came to you.
Ri x
