I dug a big hole, I’ve done everything right! - Aug 09, 2019
Grow a tree from a seed!!!!!!!
Dear gardening friends
Our staff have all fallen in love with these new Eden Planter Pots.
You just sit your indoor plants in them.
It’s so easy.
Smaller pot $7.99.
Bigger pot $10.99.
Do you like them?
Hayden has bought some amazing new pots from a supplier in Victoria.
You won’t have seen pots like this before.
Such beautiful pots, and beautiful colours.
Come see.
Dave Preston is a regular at Tim’s.
I’ve often driven past his garden in Leumeah, but this week it looked so amazing, I
decided to stop.
Some of you will already know Dave, he worked at Cobbitty Wines for 20 years.
Some of you will know him very well.
The winery closed down last year, so Dave decided to retire. He’s 66.
He’s a mad gardener!!!!!
Dave was an accountant, he worked for O’Brien’s Glass and a Plumbing supplier in
Liverpool for most of his working life.
Dave’s garden is a menagerie.
He has collector plants, like these giant flowering Aloes. He has Crassula/Money
Trees and huge cactii too.
Closer to the house he has meticulously pruned rose bushes and bedding plants like
Livingstone Daisies, Snapdragons, Ranunculus and Liliums.
Out the back he has a Giant Pony Tail Palm and it’s about to blow up its pot. Dave
says it’s grown through the bottom, and it can’t be moved. Plants always grow better
when the roots escape into the ground.
He has an enormous Callistemon Dawson River Weeper. This weeping bottle brush, was
sold in nurseries 20 years ago, as a large shrub. It’s a huge weeping tree now, with
beautiful bark. It’s covered in red flowers, which the birds love.
He has Zygo Cactus growing in huge hanging baskets. They are still covered in flowers.
He has a veggie garden, and more flowers planted, in the sunniest spot in the yard.
He has a shady corner, that is dominated by a huge Lillypilly Tree.
I also notice a glossy green tree, that has brown seed pods, that look like giant
peanuts!!!!!!!
When I look on the ground I notice these large brown nuts are scattered everywhere.
They are the nuts from a Queensland Black Bean Tree.
This tree is native to Queensland and in the early days it’s timber was used to make
high quality furniture.
The dark timber has amazing wood grain.
I have a vintage Don Rex lounge at home, made from this timber, and it’s much prized.
Dave can see that I’m excited about this tree. He offers the seeds to me.
Castanospermum australe or Queensland Black Bean trees were sold as indoor plants in
the 70s.
Dave’s tree would have started out, inside the house. His mother probably put it
outside for a rest, where it grew through the pot and turned into this beautiful
glossy green tree.
We are going to give these seeds away at the nursery. If you’ve got kids they will
love growing one of these giant seeds.
They can sit them on top of the soil or simply plant them like a normal seed.
Queensland Black Bean trees have the most spectacular orange and yellow, bird
attracting flowers, in the warmer months.
Don’t grow this tree in the ground if you have a tin roof. The falling nuts will
drive you crazy!!!!!
We have about 60 seeds.
Come get one.
Mark Smith turned up in his 57 Chevy this week. He got a bit of a surprise when I
asked him to park it in front of our shop.
We’ve just had our roof repainted the same colour as Mark’s car.
I asked him if he turned up today, because of our beautiful purple roof?
“No” he replied.
“I came here to buy some plants”
Mark admitted that he hadn’t gardened for at least 5 years. When he dug up the soil
“It was like dust”.
He loves Pig.
He wanted to know who writes all the signs. “They make me laugh.”
He always checks out the sign as he drives past.
He bought the 57 Chevy about 6 years ago. His wife wanted a Pontiac.
He spray painted his bike purple first, to make sure the colour looked OK.
It needed a wash today.
Car buffs don’t like getting their cars photographed when they’re not sparkling.
Mark didn’t like getting in the photo either.
I didn’t believe him when he said his name was Mark Smith!!!!!
I think his parents could have been a bit more creative.
I gave him a bag of IGC Planting Compost. “What’s that for?”
That’s for your dry soil mate.
“I did everything right, I dug a big hole,
I water it all the time, the leaves just turn yellow and drop off”
People come to me when they’ve done everything right, but their plants are still
dying.
My job is to bring plants back from the dead.
A guy came in last Sunday.
“I’ve done everything right” was his opening line.
“Yes I know” I replied, “but it’s still dying”.
I was going to ask him to tell me his story but then I noticed he’d already started.
Just so you can get the tone.
They make it sound like it’s my fault their plant is dying. Well if you’ve done
everything right, it’s obviously not your fault.
This guy decided to plant a Lemon tree.
(He didn’t buy it from us)
He dug a huge hole 700mms deep.
He was pointing at his belly button.
He must have got in the hole at one stage.
He dug the hole 700mms deep and one metre wide, because he had clay soil, he told me.
He took the clay away.
He filled the hole with great soil.
He planted his Lemon tree 2 years ago.
He waters it all the time.
He has put 50kgs of Citrus food on it too.
And just about everything else his mates have told him to use.
I bet he’s wee’d on it too.
“I’ve done everything right”
I bet when you put your hands in the soil it stinks?
“Yes it smells terrible”
You’ve dug a dam mate.
That’s how you make a dam.
You dig a hole in clay.
“But I filled it with good soil”
Yes you made a dam, then filled it with good soil, it’s still a dam.
You should have been a farmer!
I hear this story all the time.
Growing Citrus is easy.
Dig a hole, put the clay to the side.
Tip a bag of IGC Planting Compost onto the clay and mix the two soils together.
Put all the soil back in the hole.
It won’t fit. Make a mound of soil.
Dig a hole in this and plant your Citrus tree.
Mulch around the base with Tim’s Termite Resistant Woodchip. Don’t
Fertilise!!!!!!!!!
Water twice weekly with a bucket of water.
He didn’t listen. He wondered off.
I could hear “I’ve done everything right” in the distance.
This story applies to other plants too.
What about roses someone asked.
“Roses love clay soil”.
Roses don’t love clay soil.
If they did, we’d be using it instead of Potting Mix.
Come and see us.
This really is our last week for 25% off Rose Bushes. They are starting to get
flower buds forming. You’ll have perfumed roses for October. How good is that?
Happy gardening
Tim