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- That slow soaking rain last week was great to see at last, wasn’t it? Right now
would be an excellent time to add some organic pellets to perennial sections of your
garden. They will break down quickly and provide a little nutrient before things really
slow up down-under, in the soil zone.
- By ‘perennial’ I mean the rhubarb, plus the lemon and orange trees and that
patch of mint and parsley that never gets any attention, not just the flowering perennials
in the bedding schemes.
- A reader wrote asking why she can no longer buy cheap seedlings lifted while you watch
them dug and wrapped in wet newspaper? Well as fresh as they might have been, they did
transfer soil borne diseases and certainly a few weed seeds too.
- Today’s punnet stock seedlings are grown in a media (not soil) that is
pasteurized,
at 60°C so it contains no plant pathogens (fungal and bacterial spores that cause
diseases) or weed seeds. Not as much fun to watch the nurseryfolk prepare, but a lot
healthier for your garden.
- If you have cut all your Chrysanthemums for Mother’s Day and now have the
remainders waving in the wind, it’s time to cut them to the ground and they make the
basal growths that you can divide as rooted runners and share with friends or plant more
in spring. That way the snails get less to eat too.
- In the flower garden plant seedlings of Cineraria ‘5th Avenue’,
Linaria ‘Fairy Bouquet’, Lobelia ‘Blue Eyes’, Antirrhinum
‘Camelot’, Aquilegia ‘McKennas’, Poppies, Stock ‘Apple
Blossom’, Alyssum ‘Tiny Tim’, Pansy ‘Tiger Silk’, ‘Au Go
Go’, ‘Autumn Jewels’ and Calendula ‘Bronze Aussie’. Sow seed of
Cornflowers
- In the vegetable garden seedlings of Cauliflower*, Cabbage* ‘Lionheart’,
Celery ‘American Stringless’, Lettuce* ‘Combo’ pack of Mignonettes,
Cos, Butterheads and heading types, Onion ‘Cream Gold’ (mild flavour) and
‘Californian Red’ (real onion taste) and Snow Peas* either from punnets or seed
sown along with all those marked *. Sow seed also of White Mustard for nematode control,
Broad Beans for green manure and Turnips to eat while small.
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