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- ‘Bruce the possum watcher’ at Hawthorn is at it again, he reminded me
recently that the local possum population can be fed without becoming
resident in your roof. A feeding tray up in a tree or at some rat proof
location that is topped up with sliced apples regularly, will see them fed
and move back to their own territory.
- I’ve had to take the hedge trimmers to my Potato Vine recently and
couldn’t believe how quickly it burst back into flower. It seems the short
laterals are eager to flower at present, in spite of a long cold period. The
dense flowering on compact stems also fulfils the reason it was planted, to
create a dense screen.
- Bedding plants are looking a little stunted at present, but do be patient.
It only takes a few days of sunshine and all that changes. No amount of
feeding or tillage will alter the fact that the soil is cold (11-12°C in my
garden at present) and apart from a few Poppies and the odd hardy anemone
not much is making growth.
- I had question on radio last week from Fran at Kings Park about the
supplier of a lattice that I featured on TV recently and had to be coy about
naming the supplier, opting to mention that they advertised in the yellow
pages and that they had their workshop at Camden Park. Only trouble when I
looked, there were two suppliers in Camden Park, so for readers of this
column, let’s set the record straight, Hopkins Construction Services 8350
9300 made my trellis. I can’t say that on ABC radio.
- Have you got one of those corners in your garden, where nothing much seems
to grow? Probably dense shade, down the side of the house, compacted clay
soil or the spot where the dog hides its bone? Well that’s the ideal spot
for Clivea miniata (pronounced as in Clive of India) a reddish flowering
bulb or the Acanthus mollis, also known as oyster plant. Both are as tough
as… well violets, but not everyone wants wall-to-wall violets.
- With so much leaf litter available at present, there is a temptation to go
spread it under all your plants, however keep it away from your native
plants. High humidity, caused by soft leaf litter under hardy native plants
of most sorts, only increases the incidence of fungal diseases in spring.
Compost it and use it in your vegetable garden or to mulch your bedding
plants in a few months time.
- If your passion vine is looking a little yellow on its lower leaves at
present, that’s no cause to worry. It’s just the cold winter soil.
Things will improve as the soil temperature starts to rise in a few weeks.
If you have mulched it though, it’s worth removing the mulch for the next
2 months to get the soil to warm up them put it back as the soil starts to
dry out. You will also need another lamb’s liver buried under it then!
- A foliar spray of water-soluble fertilizer dissolved in lukewarm water and
sprayed onto your lemon or orange tree at present will reward you
handsomely. The same nutrient added to the soil will just sit there, even
though the citrus need feeding now, their rootstocks cannot handle the
nutrient load in cold soil. Sprayed onto the foliage it’s dead easy though
and taken up readily.
- If you grow cannas and haven’t lifted them fro three years, that’s
something that needs to be done over the next four weeks. Discard the inner
old woody roots and select the spear shaped outer shoots, where the vigour
lies. There are also some lovely new colours (flowers and foliage forms)
available too, so if you haven’t grown them before they are worth looking
for at present.
- It’s amazing as the garden grows, the slower subjects get overtaken, by
the rampant, so if that’s happening to your garden, get to move a few of
the over crowded plants in the next four weeks. Maples, Crepe Myrtles,
Birch, Hydrangeas, Fuchsia, Philadelphus and Weigela up to about 2 metres
are pretty easy. Any larger and you may need a backhoe or resort to using a
few levers.
- Hills-grown conifers of all sorts need good drainage and over the next few
weeks those that haven’t got that will start to lag and die back.
Improving drainage around conifers is critical and in a year when we’ve
had such high rainfall. So if you have some young conifers and your soil is
draining poorly, spread some gypsum at the rate of 300 grams per square
metre around them. No need to dig it in.
- One of the best herbs to sow in the hills right now is coriander. It grows
slowly from seed in winter and makes good leaf pickings, but when sown in
spring, frequently bolts to seed in less than four weeks.
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