Pig can Fly! - Oct 30, 2014


Dear Gardening Friends,

The weather has been so hot this week but our rose bushes seem to love it. Our Macarthur Rose bushes are covered in red flowers and the perfume is amazing.

If hubby has forgotten to buy you roses for a while then it might be time to plant your own rose bush. The Macarthur Rose has long stems making it perfect for picking and the petals stay attached for up to 10 days in a vase. Very hard to beat this variety for picking.

With the hotter weather coming you will need to start to spray your roses more often to prevent fungus diseases and two spotted mite damage. Ryan has been spraying our roses with Yates Rose Shield. This spray seems to control all the pests and diseases that attack roses.

As the weather gets hotter certain plants just seem to thrive. Geraniums are one of those plants and we have noticed that even our younger gardeners are starting to buy them.

Geraniums were once grown only by grannies, but they are so easy to grow in pots or gardens everybody has fallen in love with them. The newer varieties are much more compact than grannies favourites and they get heaps more flowers. There are also exciting new colours like this one called “Raspberry Twizzle”.

The flowers look like they have been hand painted.  Geraniums love full sun. We have heaps of new colours so come and see us. Always repot your Geraniums into bigger pots using Tims Best Potting mix. They will grow well in sunny gardens too.

Remove spent flowers to allow new buds and flowers to come through. Try not to water the foliage because they hate wet leaves. If they ever get fungus or caterpillar damage simply spray them with Yates Rose Shield.

Another great plant that seems to thrive during the warmer months is Limonium perezii or Perennial Statice. This grey leaf plant has beautiful purple blue flowers throughout the year!

I spotted this one growing outside St Peters Church in a garden that is full of tree roots. The flowers can be picked and brought inside. They can also be dried. You have to have at least one of these hardy shrubs in your garden.

Thank you to all our friends who bought one of Arthur’s Big Greek Tomatoes.

Mandy from The Macarthur Chronicle wrote a lovely story in the paper for us and we raised $396.00 for The African Aids Foundation in Camden.

If you love this tomato make sure you tell Arthur from Kings Charcoal Chicken in Queen St Campbelltown. We have sold out of Arthur’s Big Greek Tomato.

You can still plant tomatoes so don’t think you have missed out. The tomatoes in the super markets have no taste so you must grow your own. Try one of our Tim’s Fruit Fly Resistant tomatoes the taste is sensational.

I am having great success growing Garlic in my garden at home. It is so easy to grow!

I hope you took my advice in winter and bought some of our Organic Australian Grown Garlic. I will be harvesting this garlic at Christmas time when the leaves start to turn yellow.

Please don’t call me “Garlic Breath” when I am giving you gardening advice after Christmas. It’s too late to plant Garlic now. We have heaps of spring vegetables in the seedling area.

Hydrangeas have started to flower in some of the older gardens around Macarthur.

Hydrangeas have the most amazing flowers! The plants grow best in gardens that get protection from the late afternoon sun. The hot sun makes the leaves and flowers droop and they always look like they are thirsty!

Plant them on the eastern side of your house and they will look sensational. They can be grown in big pots too.

We have a new release here called “White Knight”. This stunning Hydrangea has black stems and pure white flowers. It looks great.

These flowers stay white no matter what PH your soil is. We have all your favourite colours here in the nursery. Big plants cost just $24.99 and they are covered in buds and flowers now.

Potted Hydrangeas make great gifts and they are cheaper than a bunch of flowers from the florist. We can gift one for you for free.

Yesterday Today and Tomorrow shrubs have been flowering this week.

These spectacular glossy leafed shrubs have purple, blue and white flowers. They have an amazing perfume too.

This shrub grows in most positions but the best ones seem to have protection from the late afternoon sun too. Yes it can be grown in a big pot and it is easy to grow, It is getting dry again and the strong winds we got this week haven’t helped.

Poor Pig got blown off the milkcrate! Pigs do fly but not very far!

You will need to start watering all your pot plants more often now and it is a good idea to treat them with “Wetasoil”.

This fantastic product doesn’t mean you wont need to water your plants but it will make the water you are using to be absorbed by the potting mix.

Karyn has been busy Wettasoiling all our garden beds too. Wettasoil your lawns too.

With summer fast approaching it is a great time to freshen up all the mulches on your gardens.

Mulch insulates the soil and prevents up to 80% of the ground water from evaporating.

If you don’t have mulch you are wasting so much water and your plants will never grow as well.

Sugar cane is the best mulch because it breaks down quickly and adds organic matter to the soil.

Organic matter is what holds the water. More organic matter = More water= Happier plants.

Happy Gardening
Tim