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South Australia - July 2002 |
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Select
the date from the list shown below for this months tip |
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1st
July |
This
is a good time to check your potted plants. The deciduous plants can be
repotted using at least 50% new potting mixture and don’t be timid about
severing at least 30% of the old roots, but I stress this is recommended
for deciduous plants, but citrus! Try that on citrus and they drop all
their leaves! They will however recover, but it’s a pointless exercise. |
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8th July
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If you have some garlic, shallots or chives coming along,
right now is a good time to feed them with superphosphate. They need it for
their root and bulb development and it does not leach from the soil in
winter, so just sprinkle it over the plants and no need to dig it in. The
closer to the stems the better as those members of the onion tribe, don’t
have a very broad root run.
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15th
July |
‘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.
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22nd July
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Most
plants that you’d grow in a water feature are pretty dormant at present
and it’s the ideal time to drain some of the water and re-pot your
waterlilies and other plants that you may have growing in water. If yours
have rooted into the soil at the bottom of your pond then remove any fish
and lift and divide your most rampant plants. The fish are removed so the
disturbed muddy water does not affect them.
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29th July
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If
you have spotted the fan like fungus on a fruit tree lately, it’s
probably the bracket fungi that colonises dead wood. While the whole tree
may not be dead parts of it can be. Dead wood in a tree can be due to
sunburn on a limb, exposed after some summer pruning, or dieback caused by
borers or even Eutypa.
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