Walking on lemons - Oct 25, 2012

Dear gardening friends

My "Kevin the Lemon" tree is covered in sweet perfumed white flowers. This tree has had an amazing fruiting season with around 400 lemons picked so far.

This is a dwarf growing variety that only grows about 2 metres high. Some of the fruit are starting to drop on the ground so yesterday I picked a box of lemons off the tree and I have brought them in this morning to give to our Tim's Garden Club members. When you call in to see us this weekend grab a couple of lemons out of the box near the register.

Aussies only think you can use the juice of lemons on fish but Greeks love to use lemon juice as a salad dressing. They simply squeeze it over the salad and then drizzle olive oil over the top. So easy and so fresh!
A few years ago I went to L'aquila in Italy to visit my wife's family. One of the cousins invited us for lunch. I don't speak Italian but I got taken for a tour of the garden to see the fruit trees, they love apricots and the vegetable garden was huge. They had lovely pet rabbits in a shed up the back. I kept rabbits as pets as a child so I have always loved them.

Anyway later, back inside the house, lunch got served up and it smelt delicious. It looked like chicken but it turned out to be rabbit! I had never eaten rabbit before because you don't eat pets but it smelt so good and I couldn't offend the rellies. Well the dish was called Lemon Rabbit and it tasted delicious.

This dish has now become one of my favourites. I have changed the main ingredient to chicken. I thought that you might like to cook it too,

Come and get your free lemons.

Lemon Rabbit Chicken

Ingredients.

  • 10 chicken wings or legs.
  • 3 large sprigs of fresh rosemary. (Grow your own plant in a pot)
  • 3 lemons.
  • 3 onions peeled and cut in quarters.
  • 3 table spoons of Black Olives.
  • Table spoon of garlic.

Method.

  • Preheat oven at 180 degrees.
  • Place the chicken in a large bowl. Pour the juice from the lemons over the chicken. Drizzle with olive oil.
  • Sprinkle fresh cut rosemary over chicken. (Chopped Rosemary)
  • Add garlic, salt and fresh ground pepper.
  • Mix ingredients with your hands rubbing the juices into the chicken.
  • Pour chicken into baking tray and add one cup of water.
  • Place onion quarters in gaps.
  • Cook for 40 minutes then take out and add Black Olives. I also put in 3 table spoons of the Olive liquid. (You can also put whole mushrooms in at this stage.)
  • Place back in oven for another 10 minutes or until chicken has browned.
  • Serve with steamed Broccoli and a glass of wine.

It's getting hotter so you have probably noticed that when you drive into a car park you look for a shady spot under a tree. We do this because we don't want our car getting hot. A tree can keep your car so much cooler. A tree can also keep your house so much cooler too. Plant one on the western or northern side of your house and the shade will cool down your house. We have made a you tube clip called Nude Trees Are Better. You will get a laugh but it will also make you think.

Check it out.

We have been busy in the nursery this week. Karyn is pulling all the spring flowers out of the garden. The pansies are all going off in the hot weather so Karyn is replacing them with summer favourites like petunias. She prepares the soil first by digging in cow manure, planting compost and the old sugarcane. Then she sprinkles Tim's Fast Food over the soil and waters this in with Wettasoil. She then covers it with fresh sugar cane mulch ready for planting.

We have also replaced the pansies in the hanging baskets with Raspberry Blast Petunias at the front of the shop. We have planted the new Petunia called "Hot Lips" in the baskets hanging on the fence. We tipped out all the old potting mix and replaced it with Tim's Best Potting Mix. These petunias will flower non stop until at least the end of May. That's 7 months of non stop colour!
We only use Yates Tuscan self watering hanging baskets. These self watering hanging baskets are sensational. If you have killed plants in other types of baskets you must try these. The biggest size is the best because it holds more potting mix. Remember the bigger the pot, the more water it will hold, the better your plant will grow.

Yates Tuscan Self watering hanging baskets are available in 3 colours. When you water your plants, pour the water into the soil. It drips down through the potting mix into the water storage saucer. The plants roots grow into this saucer so they can water themselves. What a great idea. These baskets cost more but they are definitely worth it.
Lots of lawn problems at the moment. We have had heaps of people coming into the nursery with mysterious spider like webbing that can be seen on the grass in the morning. This is caused by a fungus disease and will quickly spread if you don't treat it. It causes the grass to die in these weird round patches. It's not a space ship landing on your lawn. Come and talk to our horticulturists.
Other people have noticed that the grass is turning grey in areas. This is called Dry Patch and it is caused by the hot dry weather. The soil in these areas has become hydrophobic. Simply apply Wettasoil over the effected areas with a watering can and water your lawn more often.

Dry Patch can occur in gardens too so it's a good idea to treat your gardens with Wettasoil every 6 months. Talk to Karyn she loves this product.
Kenny has been off for a week. I thought he may have been mourning the loss of our Blueberry bush at the nursery. I have moved the plant out the back, and it's not looking good. We have planted up another stock plant. Oasis was very kind to us last week. They have donated us a Nellie Kellie Blueberry Bush. This is an evergreen variety that only grows about one metre high making it perfect for pots. It has fruit on it now but you will have to race Kenny.
My Blueberry bush at home is looking sensational. I am growing it in a pot using our Tims Best Potting mix with a mulch of sugarcane. I did fertilise it with our cow manure and it is loving it. Should I bring this plant to work to keep Kenny happy?

Did you know Blueberries are high in antioxidants and a mature plant can produce 5kgs of fruit in a season?
Simon got heckled by a customer on the weekend claiming he didn't seem to know much. Wow!

Simon has got to be one of Australia's best horticulturists. The customer must have been having a bad hair day.

I have been working in nurseries for 30 years and the team of horticulturists we have here are the best.

That's why we get phone calls from people all over Sydney wanting our advice.
Don't forget to save a spot in your garden for a Tim's Delicious Tomato plant. This is the current world record holder for the biggest tomato in the world!

We have grown these from seed and they will be ready for sale in a couple of weeks.
If you love roses come and see us. The Macarthur Rose that is growing in our car park garden has been putting on a floral show this week. The Macarthur Rose has huge long stemmed roses that are perfect for picking. It flowers non stop for 9 months. We have potted plants available for $21.99 or buy 2 for $40.00.

Happy gardening

Tim