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- This really is the month to plant your sweet peas. We have some of the
very best Gawler cultivars that have been raised locally and even the Yates’
Dr Hammett strains from New Zealand do so well here.
- The most important aspect is to find a site in your garden that gets the
most sun in winter and spring. Dig it over and lightly lime it, with garden
lime. Yes even on our alkaline soil, they love it. Water the patch
thoroughly and then the next day, plant your seed, but don’t water the
seed for a week. That way they don’t damp off as they germinate and so
they will grow strong and disease free.
- Do not use complete fertilizers on sweet peas, as the minor traces of
copper will kill them. They resent all forms of copper compounds; even tying
them with coper wires is terminal. For nutrient, use only super phosphate or
complete ‘D’. Don’t even use organic pellets! Sweet Peas are legumes
and they are able to create and use the nitrogen they need, from the
rhizobium on their own roots.
- It’s time to plant those slow growing winter vegetables and if you haven’t
already sown seed of broccoli, cabbages or cauliflower, then resort to
seedlings over the next few weeks. The F1 ‘Green Dragon’ broccoli is a
classic and goes on producing all winter into spring, before they bolt to
seed.
- If you have children that you want to enthuse with a winter crop, give
them a few packets of kohl rabi. A packet of the purple kohl rabi and a
packet of the white cultivar. It really is the easiest seed to grow and the
way it grows fascinates anyone remotely interested in gardening. They are
very tasty in stews, used as you might turnips or Swedes.
- Calendula or "English Pot Marigold" is another very easy bedding
flower for children to grow, especially in a large pot somewhere that gets
lots of winter sun. The yellow petals can be used to flavour and colour rice
or used in fresh salads for colour. The cultivars ‘Honey Babe’, ‘Bronzed
Aussie’ and ‘Princess’ are some of the hardiest from seedlings or try
some seed, but the seed must be covered with dark paper until it germinates!
- A keen Murray Bridge Lisianthus grower, John Daly, gave me a lesson on how
to grow these spectacular plants last week. They are an ideal plant for the
northern Adelaide plains and need to be grown more widely around here. They
come from Texas, where they are known as "Prairie Gentians".
- Lisianthus are a grey leaf perennial that lives about three to five years
on well-drained loamy soil of an alkaline reaction, in full sun! Available
in a wide range of colours from blue, violet, pink, white, yellow to
apricot, with stripes and solid colours, they have been propagated by
meristem or vegetative material, so the colours are assured. A rooted
cutting in a deep tube sells for about $3.50 and planted 20cm (8")
apart they will give you up to 20 stems per plant, loaded with 4-8 large
blooms fro cutting.
- As soon as you plant one, nip the leading shoot out to encourage side
shoots and more flowers. They thrive when watered with water-soluble
fertilizers, such as Phostrogen or Aquasol and need water rather sparingly.
I have planted five for Annie into a part of her cottage garden that is rich
with compost, but John Daly advised me to cover the surface with sharp sand,
to lower the humidity and that seems to be working a treat.
- Have you noticed that the days are starting to get shorter already? Your
roses may not be in full sun all day and if that is the case, rake the mulch
away from under them. That will diminish their likelihood of getting fungal
diseases over the next few months. It also provides fewer habitats for that
chewing little fellow with the long snout, the hungry "Fuller’s Rose
Weevil".
- Roses can be fed right now with one of those water-soluble fertilizers
especially formulated for roses or tomatoes (either will do) or the rose
prills (the small round controlled release fertilizers) or your favourite
organic pellets to which you might add some potassium sulphate. Because even
the enriched formulas, don’t seem to have enough potassium for roses.
- Keep the old dried and spent blooms removed, just by plucking them from
the bush at this time of year. That brings them back into flower rapidly and
by removing the old blooms, reduces fungal risk and the need to spray.
- This really is the month to plant your sweet peas. We have some of the
very best Gawler cultivars that have been raised locally and even the Yates’
Dr Hammett strains from New Zealand do so well here.
- The most important aspect is to find a site in your garden that gets the
most sun in winter and spring. Dig it over and lightly lime it, with garden
lime. Yes even on our alkaline soil, they love it. Water the patch
thoroughly and then the next day, plant your seed, but don’t water the
seed for a week. That way they don’t damp off as they germinate and so
they will grow strong and disease free.
- Do not use complete fertilizers on sweet peas, as the minor traces of
copper will kill them. They resent all forms of copper compounds; even tying
them with coper wires is terminal. For nutrient, use only super phosphate or
complete ‘D’. Don’t even use organic pellets! Sweet Peas are legumes
and they are able to create and use the nitrogen they need, from the
rhizobium on their own roots.
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