Big tomato breaks drought! - Oct 05, 2018
It’s big, it’s black, it’s back!!!!
Dear gardening friends
Rain is falling across the Macarthur region and across the state. I knew we would break the drought when we decided to sell Arthur’s Big Greek Tomato seedlings to raise money for The Dilly Drought Drive.
You can’t beat real rain like this. It soaks into the soil and restores the balance.
Just watch as your lawn and Garden comes back to life almost overnight.
If you haven’t fertilised your lawn and garden yet, don’t waste this golden opportunity. Use our Tim’s Rapid Results Lawn Food now, and your grass will turn bright green, and it will quickly spread to cover up all those bare patches.
To fertilise your garden, use our Tim’s Fast Food. It’s safe for all your pot plants, indoor and out. Use it on your flower and vegetable gardens. Use it around your roses and Gardenias. It stops the older leaves on your Gardenias from going yellow.
A couple of weeks ago you may have watched a segment on Better homes and gardens where they transformed a garden using cottage garden plants. They used Daisies in that garden and it has created a “Daisy storm”. Everyone wants to grow Daisies!!!!!!
The best varieties are these Osteospermums. What a terrible name.
They used to be called African Daisies, but they had a nasty habit of self seeding, and popping up every where. Plant breeders, bred new varieties, that were more compact, with more flowers and more manners. They don’t self seed.
They thrive in those hot dry gardens and they flower for at least 6 months of the year. The new colours are amazing.
Come check them out.
Talking about weeds, we still get customers, who are having a horrible time with their Nellie Kellie Passionfruit vines. These Grafted plants have a nasty habit of shooting out below the graft and the understock takes over. This never produces fruit and it starts to pop up from below the ground and it’s almost impossible to control.
We decided to go back to the beginning, and grow a big black Passionfruit vine from seed. It’s called Tim’s Big Black Passionfruit. This variety won’t become a weed. It will produce huge black Passionfruit, that are as sweet as honey.
We have them in the nursery now.
They are half the price of Nellie Kellie.
For best results plant yours on a mound of IGC Planting Compost Improved soil.
This amazing product contains an organic fertiliser, seaweed, Wetting Agent and rich black Compost. It will make your Passionfruit vine grow faster.
Mulch around the base with Sugar Cane.
You will be eating home grown fruit within 12 months. They grow so fast!
Our potted roses are blooming this week.
We are selling 100 a week so we will sell out sooner than later. One of this weeks surprises was this heirloom variety called “Cecile Brunner”. This tiny flowering form is called a Button Hole Rose. If you got married in the 50s this rose may have been used in your bridal bouquet.
Cecile Brunner is one of the easiest roses to grow. It has beautiful healthy foliage and it will grow with little attention from you.
It comes in a bush rose form or a climber.
We have both. The perfumed flowers are perfect for picking. Come see.
Marjorie Massey came back this week.
I met her in the car park.
Nice to see you again Marjorie.
“What do you mean? I’ve been back lots of times, but I haven’t seen you!”.
Did you get all your gardening done last time?
“Yes but I’ve got a Rose in a pot that died while I was in hospital, so I need a new rose, a bag of your best Potting mix and some Citrus food. I haven’t got much time before I run out of energy, so let’s go”
Why don’t you have any energy?
“I have a liver problem so I have to go to Campbelltown Hospital every couple of months to get new blood. It gives me energy.
It lasts a couple of months”
You’re beautifully dressed again.
“Yes it’s a new outfit, I got it from Millers.”
When she gets into the nursery it’s all business. It’s rush rush. The energy clock must be ticking fast today.
She buys a Betty Cuthbert Rose for her big pot. It’s a new rose to celebrate the life of one of our favourite athletes.
Marjorie knows her of course. Betty was from her era. “I want Potting Mix and a bag of cow Manure, I’ll meet you at the register.”
When I get there she is chatting up Annette at the register. “We’ve been waiting for you” she quips.
Her car is so old it doesn’t have central locking. “It’s old” she says. “But it’s a manual, I don’t like driving those automatics”
It’s like they just got invented.
We have a few laughs.
She is going home to do some gardening.
It has to all be done by mid day.
“That’s when I conk out”
If you’re going to garden this weekend take a leaf out of Marjorie’s book. Start early.
We don’t want you conking out!
Happy gardening
Tim