4 Strawberry plants for $1.00! - Sep 27, 2012
Dear gardening friends,
We have an exclusive offer for all our gardening club members.
Mr Fothergills Seeds has chosen use to liquidate all their excess winter bare rooted stock.
We have bare rooted Strawberry plants 4 in a packet for just $1.00. This will be your best opportunity ever to start that strawberry patch. We only have 72 packets so you will have to hurry.
We also have Rhubarb Ever Red crowns for just $1.00. These are 2 year old plants so they will produce sweet tasting rhubarb stalks this summer.
We have Raspberry canes 3 in a packet for just $1.00.
Home grown Raspberries taste delicious!
If you would like to try something a little bit different we have Chinese Ground Orchids as a bulb for just $1.00.
This perennial plant with strap like leaves will have purple orchid like flowers all spring and summer.
If you have a wet spot in your garden (not likely just now) try planting a clump of Canna Lily Flamingo. These hardy perennials will flower non stop during the summer months. We have packets of these for just $1.00. These can be grown in pots and you can sit the pot in your outdoor pond. The frogs will lay their eggs amongst the leaves.
We haven't advertised this sale so it's exclusive to our garden club members. If you buy some of these they really need to be taken out of the packets and planted ASAP.
We could do will a bit of rain, just to green up the lawns. I was doing a delivery in Mt Annan yesterday and I noticed the Eucalyptus trees in Mt Annan drive are starting to drop their leaves.
Plants are much smarter than we think. They are dropping the leaves to conserve water. I noticed the Photinia hedges growing in this street were also starting to shrivel up.
The gardens could all be saved if the home owners got out the sprinkler. Most people don't realize that there are no restrictions on the use of sprinklers and irrigation systems. You are allowed to water before 10am and after 4pm everyday. A good soaking once a week is better than a daily sprinkle.
If you mulch your gardens this insulates the ground and helps prevent moisture loss through evaporation. Have you noticed that we nearly always forget to mulch our pot plants?
This is crazy because a layer of Sugar Cane around our pot plants will help stop them drying out. The mulch will also break down over time and add organics to the soil. This is what holds the water. Mulch your pot plants now and your plants will grow much better. We ran out of Sugar Cane mulch on the weekend because our supplier let us down. We have fixed that problem and we now have plenty in stock. Our boys can load it into your boot for you if you find the bags are too heavy.
We have so mulch colour in the nursery this week. A new range of Fuchsias have arrived from Melbourne called Shadow DANCER. These compact little plants are absolutely covered in flowers. They have been especially bred to be more sun tolerant than the old fashion varieties. They certainly get more flowers. Fuchsias grow beautifully in pots or hanging baskets.
They will grow in gardens too that are protected from the western sun. If you love Fuchsias come and see these new varieties. They cost $14.99.
Raspberry blast petunias arrived yesterday. These are one of our favourite plants. We grow them every year in the pots and hanging baskets at the front of our shop. They flower for 9 months!
They are not like ordinary petunias. These plants have woody thick stems. The plant grows flat along the ground and the flowers are spectacular. If you have a pot in a sunny position, try one of these.
African Daisies are flowering in gardens everywhere. These are so tough and they seem to thrive in the hottest positions. They have recently had a name change and they are now called Osteospermum. We are still calling them African Daisies because the new name sounds a bit weird. The newer varieties are far more compact in their growth habit and less likely to become weeds in your garden. If you want some colour without much work plant some of these.
We had a huge response to our tomato story last week. The tomatoes you buy in super markets really don't taste like tomatoes any more. If you want to taste sweet, juicy tomatoes then you have to grow them at home. If you don't have a garden, grow them in a pot. We have been testing our Organix herb and tomato potting mix here at the nursery and the plants are growing brilliantly. This mix is BFA certified so it really is totally organic. We have done tests before on Organic Potting mixes and nothing grows in them but this one works. Check out the photo.
To grow a tomato in a pot it has to be at least 400mms wide. Put the pot in a sunny position. Drive a 1.8 metre stake into the soil to support your tomato. Water every day and fertilise with some Blood and Bone. Pick your tomatoes before they ripen to avoid fruit fly or grow the Sweet Bite tomato because this cherry sized fruit is resistant to fruit fly.
Growing your own vegetables is very rewarding and good for your soul.
The Chronicle did a great story about Karyn in this week's newspaper. Her garden out the front of our nursery has never looked better so it was nice to see her recognized by the newspaper for making all our lives more colourful with flowers.
It is now too late to spray for bindii; I did warn you so if you didn't get around to spraying your lawn then you will be doing the Bindii Ballet all summer long.
You can still spray your lawn to kill the clover so do this or you will be getting stung by bees while you're doing the Bindii Ballet!
We have a great deal on a 5 litre sprayer at the moment that can be used to spray your lawn. They cost just $15.99!
Some people are buying two; One to use weed killers in and the other to spray insecticides. Use a texta and write PESTS on one and WEEDS on the other.
Our Blueberry plant is starting to produce fruit again here in the nursery. We've had this plant for about 6 years and it produces up to 5kgs of fresh blueberries every year. That's almost $400.00 worth of fruit! Blueberry plants are so easy to grow in pots. You need a pot that holds at least 2 bags of Tim's best potting mix. Now that our plant is established we mulch the surface with Tim's Cow Manure every spring and autumn. Blueberries love acid soil and cow manure makes the soil go acid. This is the only fertiliser we use and we never spray it with any chemicals.
How easy is that? You do need to water it twice a week with a bucket of water. Make sure your pot has a saucer. We have Blueberry plants for just $15.99. Kids love eating them.
So much is happening here today, come and see us if you need help in your garden.
Happy gardening
Tim