"evan" wrote in message
...
gday,
ive resently inherited my mothers garden in melbourne and am new to this
whole gardening thing. im at a loss as to how she kept it all alive!
anyway, i think ill be seeking a fair bit of advice over the next few
months! firsty, if the group has an FAQ, could someone please point me
to it,

No faq that I know of, though someone may have some good websites to point
you to. I'll check my favourites list to see if I have any on it. Failing
that, come here and ask away. Go for it. If anyone uses any terms in replies
that you don't know then just ask too.

and second, since the weather is cooling off and the ground has
some moisture in it, i was thinking that the plants that survived the
summer might need a boost to help them recover. to that end was
wondering if it is a good & right time to fertailze and with what?

It may be getting a little late to do it now. In general a plant has to be
actively growing to take up any fertiliser. Certainly any deciduous plants
and trees don't even bother now.
We are still experiencing out of season warm weather, after some rain last
week. No doubt things will have a final burst of growth, but not a great
deal.
If any evergreens are looking like they are lacking in nutrients you could
give them a feed with a foliage fertiliser. This is any fertliliser that is
mixed with water and applied to the foliage of the plant, and soil too. They
usually only last for 2-4 weeks as they don't stay in the soil. Some of
these are Thrive, Aquasol, Miracle Gro, Maxicrop, Nitrofert etc. Many are a
fish or seaweed extract. They are good for annuals too. Just follow the
instructions when using them. Sometimes feeding them to plants under
drought, in the sun can harm them. Also for natives it is sometimes a
different rate.

there are a million different types in the hardware shops! what do people
recomend? i have access to a large ammount of cow poo, but i thaught
something extra might be needed and easyer.
any thaughts?

Cow poo is good, but not heading into winter as it won't do much. In spring
it will.
Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are ones that will last longer.
Blood and bone, Dynamic lifter (very good, the pellets too), the list goes
on. There are complete ones, that are good all rounders, with Trace
elements. Some are specific to encouage good flowering (high in Potassium).
There are ones specific to Roses, Camellias, Azaleas, Citrus.
Probably one of the best all rounders is Dynamic lifter long life.
Rotate your fertilisers, don't just use one all the time. Perhaps 3
different ones a year is a good number.
So don't worry too much about it now, just get on top of any weeds coming up
and mulching is good to do heading into Winter.
But again, any questions, I'm sure you will get some help here.

Good luck

cheers,evan.