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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
pasteurised, 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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