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With the tomato surplus upon us, if you are amongst the successful growers, it’s
worth remembering that you can preserve tomatoes without processing. Simply put three or
four in a freezer bag, seal and into the deep freeze. My wife Annie chops them roughly and
adds some diced spring onions, also abundant in our garden at present and we’re two
thirds on the way to a pasta sauce in mid winter.
Looking over Annies’ cottage garden on the weekend (just ‘looking’ Annie)
I noticed the enormous mass of gypsophila in flower and admired how useful it is dress up
a posy of flowers indoors. The tiny white booms go on all summer and it all resulted from
a six cell seedling punnet for $2.50!
This long ‘second spring’ with heavy dew at night that we have been having
over the past ten days has caused wisteria and brachychiton (Flame tree) to come back into
flower. It should be ringing bells in the ears of all gardeners to get out and feed
things. Sunny days and mild nights are good growth indicators.
All the hardy ‘rosa-sinensis’ hibiscus cultivars that thrive locally are
mostly in need of a feed at present. Use the high potassium water soluble fertilizers with
a measure of organic pellets, but do not rely on only using blood and bone or the pellets
as that causes soft growth that gets infested with aphids all too easily.
You can dead head marigolds progressively and they will never be out of bloom, but
petunias need a pretty heavy clip, unless you have the ‘Lullaby™’
milliflora cultivar. After the prune, feed them with a water soluble fertilizer and within
two weeks they will be back in a full flush of bloom again and best not to water the
taller floribunda cultivars like ‘Flamingo’™, ‘Bobby
Dazzler™’F1, ‘Polo’ F1 and ‘Stereo’ F1 types overhead when
in bloom.
Keen vegetable seed-sowers will be busy this month sowing cauliflower, cabbage, kohl
rabi and broccoli.
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