Spring has started - Aug 17, 2012
Dear gardening friends,
Plants have decided that spring is here! First it was the Magnolias that got spring started a couple of weeks ago, but this week the Wattles, Flowering plums and Manchurian pears kicked in to get spring officially cracking.
I drove up Lillian St in Campbelltown on Monday and found the most magnificent Magnolia soulangiana. Check out the photo. Magnolia soulangiana is the most common variety with beautiful tulip shaped pink flowers. This Magnolia is probably 30 years old and it has made this house famous in the area. There is probably only about 20 treees that can put on a floral show like this.
Trees are out of fashion at the moment but I don't know why? That is until you see what a difference they can make to the appearance of your house!
Flowering plums are flowering like crazy in suburban gardens. These small prolific flowering trees are usually grown on nature strips.The most spectacular type is the double pink flowering variety called Prunus x blireana. I have taken a photo of a beautiful looking one growing on Macarthur rd in Elderslie. These trees have beautiful flowers but they also have bronze coloured leaves in spring that also add colour to your garden. I have seen great specimens growing in gardens opposite the railway line at Glen Alpine. If you are looking for a small tree then come and get one of these.
With grafted trees you need to watch out that the under stock doesn't shoot out below the graft. If this happens simply cut off any shoots as they appear. If you don't, the under stock will take over and the top of the tree stops growing. This often happens to people with little horticultural knowledge (see photo for proof).
We had a good response to our "pot dressing" story in last weeks newsletter. Heaps of people came in to get a bag of Greengold Planting Compost. We have had great success with this product when we use it to topdress our pot plants here in Tim's Garden Centre. We simply spread 20mm of the compost over the existing potting mix. It feeds your plants because it contains an organic fertiliser. It also has an added wetting agent so it makes the potting mix accept water again. The compost absorbs the water and the plants roots grow into this.
You may not realise this but gardening is all about maths. The Greengold planting Compost makes your plants get 20% more of the water that you are already giving them. It just helps stop it from running out the bottom. 20% more water makes your plants grow at least 50% better.
I am often asked by people who are planting hedges how they can make their plants grow faster?
Well this is all about maths too. Soils in Macarthur have little organic matter and this is what holds the water. If you just dig a hole and plant your shrubs without adding organic matter then they will probably die.
Whenever I am planting shrubs I mix Greengold Planting Compost in with the soil that I dig out of the ground. I then fill the hole back up with this mixture. Now all the soil won't fit back in the hole so it forms a mound. Dig your hole in this mound to plant your shrub. Form a dish in the soil so it catches the water. Now you need to mulch around the base with woodchip or sugarcane.
The mulch keeps the sun off your soil so this helps stop evaporation. This means your plants get more water and when plants get more water they grow faster.
You also need to tip prune your hedging plants because this makes plants grow faster too. For every tip you remove at least two tips grow back so your plant will grow at least 200% faster. I told you it was all about maths.
Tomato seedling have arrived but these are only for experienced gardeners. If you plant these out in your garden without covering them every night they will die. You can cover them at night with a bucket or plastic pot and take it off in the morning. You can pot them into larger pots and bring them in at night.
It is best to wait until the frosts have finished. Use the time now to prepare your vegetable garden. Pull everyting out and dig Tim's Cow Manure into the soil. Add a handful of garden lime per square metre of garden. Mulch the soil with sugar cane, water well and let it settle for a couple of weeks.
I fertilised most of the nursery with Tim's Fast Food this week. I didn't use it on the native plants because some of these are a bit fussy. I did use it on the Lillypillies because these love it. Fast Food is a complete fertiliser which means it contains all the trace elements that plants need. It works brilliantly on Gardenia plants that always seem to get yellow leaves in spring.
Come and have a look at the plants we have used it on. It looks like a white powder.
Poor Russell came back to work on Tuesday after 3 weeks holiday. He got greener and greener as the day went by. I was wondering if he may have had some "Fast Food". He did, but in the form of a pizza the night before. Poor Russell had to go home early. Hope he remembers to bring back that bucket!
Congratulations to our 5 lucky winners of the 5L capitol sprayer: John, Jennifer, Gai, Melinda, and Sheryl.
Happy gardening
Tim