Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato arrives! - Aug 21, 2014
Dear Gardening Friends,
We were all singing in the rain here last week. I spotted a spectacular rainbow over Grassmere on Sunday. No pot of gold unfortunately but that beautiful soaking rain has meant that spring has been brought forward by a couple of weeks.
We rarely get frosts when the soil is full of water so Lisa has started to fill the seedling area up with new season seedlings.
Our Tim’s Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato has arrived. This was a huge success for all our gardening friends last year because finally they could grow tomatoes without having to use any nasty chemicals.
The fruit are the size of an apricot and they are so sweet and tasty. This is an heirloom variety that just happened to have a natural resistance to fruit fly. It’s also easy to grow and disease resistant.
It can be grown in a large pot using Tims Best Potting mix. Or grow it in your garden. It’s a good idea to make a tee pee out of 1.8 metre tomato stakes. Tie these at the top. Now wrap this in string or wire to support the branches of the tomato as it grows.
Tims Fruit Fly Resistant tomato produces hundreds of tomatoes. If you grow it in a pot you will need to water it daily. Less often if you grow it in your garden. Prepare your garden soil prior to planting by digging in cow manure. Mulch around the base with Sugar cane.
If you live in a frosty area it is a good idea to cover your tomatoes at night. Old pots make great easy to remove covers.
We have other exciting tomatoes varieties arriving soon. Don’t plant basil, cucumbers or zucchinis just yet.
Dianthus Memories has arrived. This new release highly perfumed cottage garden plant has been released to help raise some money for The Alzheimer’s Association of Australia.
Ryan is not happy that only $1.00 from the sale is being donated to the cause (he really has been banging on) so we have decided to donate an extra $5.00 for every plant we sell.
We have 100 plants so this will mean an extra $500 goes to The Alzheimer’s Association. They do have a beautiful perfume so why not make your nose happy. Plants cost $18.99 less your garden club discount.
Petunias have arrived in potted colour. These are more frost sensitive than tomatoes so hold off for a couple of weeks if you don’t live on a hill.
Petunias will flower for at least 6 months so they are great value. Petunia seedlings will become available in the next couple of weeks.
Our seedlings are not glass house grown so they transplant easily into your garden. Please remember the snail bait.
Snails and slugs come out at night and eat your seedlings. If you are worried about your dogs and cats use Multi Guard Snail Pellets. These are non poisonous to animals.
If you are looking for an Azalea the best variety is one called “Red Wings”. We have this growing in our garden and it flowers in spring and autumn.
Many Azaleas only flower in spring so Red Wings is a beauty. It only grows one meter high by one metre high. It’s perfect for pots or gardens.
If you are worried about getting Lacebug place a Confidor tablet at the base of each plant for up to 6 months protection.
Red Wings looks pink in this photo but it actually is red. Check out ours flowering now just outside the shop.
Blake mowed our lawn yesterday and then fertilised it using Tim’s Rapid Results lawn food. The rain will water it in over the weekend and our grass will go bright green.
Rapid Results is a granular fertiliser that is coated so it can’t burn your lawn. This coating also helps prevent the fertiliser from being washed into our rivers.
The small 4kg bag will fertilise 260 square metres of grass. It costs $23.99 or buy 2 bags for $40.00. Mow your lawn before fertilising. If you have weeds then the fertiliser will make these grow too. It’s a good idea to spray the weeds 10 days before fertilising.
We really do have caring staff here at Tims.
See if you can spot Lisa on page 5 of this weeks Macarthur Chronicle protesting about Campbelltown dog pound.
It’s a where’s Wally moment.
Look for a purple arm.
Poor pig doubts his piggy ness after discovering he is mud phobic!
Happy Gardening
Tim