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- If you have a backdrop of Cannas somewhere in the garden, they are
probably starting to grow again, but resist leaving them. Cut them all down
to 10cm stalks, to cause new shoots to sprout from the rhizomes. If you have
lots of them get the slasher or whipper snipper onto them.
- If you are not a Canna grower there are some stunning foliage colours,
like maroon and yellow stripes around at present and they are worth planting
for summer accent at the rear of your bedding plants. They need
superphosphate after planting, spread over their shoots, to get a rapid root
development.
- Now that bedding plants are starting to make rapid growth, I’ve had to
move a few to make room for some that have grown too large already. This is
an easy operation and saves unsightly patches that bring into question your
gardening ability! (Well at least mine). Just take enough soil to keep the
root ball intact. You’ll loose a few lower leaves after the first week,
but it keeps the display uniform and more importantly it creates enough room
for them to grow and flower unhindered.
- The self sown Salvia seedlings have erupted like wildfire in Annie’s
cottage garden this past week. That signals action for me, but it also means
that soil temperatures are rising to the point where I can spot seed
Cornflowers, Scarlet Flax or Linum and Nasturtiums. These have got to be the
novice gardeners’ trifecta for success. Easily established from seed en
situ in the sun. Perfect.
- You see a lot of plants with red tinted leaves on them at present and it’s
not autumn colouring. It’s caused by a potassium deficiency, often due to
cold soil and waterlogged conditions. I used to see a lot of it on native
tubestock, when I managed a nursery in the Hills, but leave them alone and
they recover naturally as the temperatures rise in spring.
- If you have tried to grow watercress or as some call it around town, ‘landcress’
without success, I grew mine last year in a waterwell container (you know
the sort that have a water cavity underneath) and it had thrived and self
seeded. Now is the ideal time to plant seed and give it a summer location to
start with, but come late spring to summer it can get some shade. Harvest
the 5cm stout tips in your Laksa!
- A reader spotted me in a local nursery last week buying a punnet of four
Cyclamen for $4.50 and asked, "What’s up?" I had to apologise
that at $4.50 for four healthy young miniature Cyclamen I wouldn’t bother
trying to raise my own from seed, knowing how fickle they are and prone to
damp-off from fungal diseases.
- If you do acquire a punnet of Cyclamen, make sure their first potting-on
is only into a 10cm (4") pot. If their first pot is too large they are
likely to rot off and use a standard potting mix with no nutrients and
excellent drainage. You can always add water-soluble nutrient, but the
residues can be a bit excessive in the premium mixture at first, especially
for Cyclamen.
- You see a lot of plants with red tinted leaves on them at present and it’s
not autumn colouring. It’s caused by a potassium deficiency, often due to
cold soil and waterlogged conditions. I used to see a lot of it on native
tubestock, when I managed a nursery in the Hills, but leave them alone and
they recover naturally as the temperatures rise in spring.
- Now that bedding plants are starting to make rapid growth, I’ve had to
move a few to make room for some that have grown too large already. This is
an easy operation and saves unsightly patches that bring into question your
gardening ability! (Well at least mine). Just take enough soil to keep the
root ball intact. You’ll loose a few lower leaves after the first week,
but it keeps the display uniform and more importantly it creates enough room
for them to grow and flower unhindered.
- If you are troubled by laying snail and slug baits because you fear for
your pets, try using a section of PVC pipe, peg it down with some bent wire
and place your baits in the middle section. That keeps it from your sniffing
dog and the snails and slugs get at it easily and your young plants are
protected.
- Keen vegetable growers in the hills can start now with planting seedlings
or sowing seed of the brassicas; Kohl Rabi, Cabbage, Cauliflower and
Broccoli. Most hills folk will need to lime the soil for these calcicoles or
lime-loving plants. They also thrive on heavy loam rather than light friable
soil, so they can usually be planted where little else thrives.
- This is probably about as early as you can plant Spring Onions in the
hills too. The best variety is ‘Lisbon White’, but it is by far the
cultivar of choice amongst nurseryfolk, so if it’s not named, you can bet
it’s ‘Lisbon White’ anyhow. Interstate seedlings on the other hand
would not be such a sure choice, since in Victoria on colder sites they tend
to use a bunching onion as their spring onion.
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