Get Free Oranges for 50 years - Aug 14, 2020
I think I can smell spring?
Dear gardening friends
We couldn't have asked for a better start for spring. Much needed rain has fallen around Macarthur, bringing us ideal growing conditions for spring planting.
It's only a couple of weeks away, so we are madly filling our nursery, with beautiful flowering plants, that will make your garden, look amazing.
Come for a walk through our nursery this weekend, and see what beautiful plants we've got for you.
We have been unloading trucks all week from the east coast of Australia.
We got plants from South Australia too.
We have a new grower of Native Tubes.
These are always popular, because they grow fast, and they are such good value.
You can buy 4 plants for $24.00
Now we have two native plant nurseries supplying us with these bargain priced plants.
This means we have a bigger selection than ever before. Yesterday Hayden was topping up the bench with exciting plants like Eremophila niveas, Kangaroo paws, Paper Daisies, Blueberry Ash, Ivory Curl Trees, Bottle brush and Grevilleas.
They are such a bargain at just $6.99.
Even cheaper when you buy 4 plants or more. Zoom zoom.
Elsie Evans came in last week all worried about her Orange tree.
"It's covered in fruit and flowers but the trunk looks terrible.
All the bark has pealed off, and borers have got in."
When fruit trees have a bumper crop, and flowers at the same time, it's often the last hurrah.
The tree tries to keep the species going, by producing seeds.
Elsie has been getting beautiful fruit off this tree for 50 years. She's 98 herself, and it made me smile to think she was going to plant a replacement tree.
She's a tough old rooster.
Her daughter rang me, and bought another tree over the phone.
I delivered it to Elsie for free.
She's been coming to Tim's for 35 years.
She often seeks me out.
She's a very good gardener.
When I arrived at her retro looking, green house, I noticed that many of her plants were in pots. They were a collection of pots bought over 35 years from us.
It was a step back in time for me.
I remember those pots.
All her plants were growing beautifully.
She had her lawn mower man there to help. He almost looked as old as her.
Warren has been mowing Elsie's lawn for 30 years.
He was going to pull out Elsies old tree on Thursday. But while I was there, Warren came up with a great idea, to plant the new Citrus tree in another spot, and let the old tree run it's course.
It could last 12 months, it might outlive us all. Trees have an amazing capacity to survive.
We chose the best spot in her Buffalo lawn, where the tree would get plenty of sun.
Warren is going to dig the grass out, in a circle, at least 1.2 metres wide.
He's going to dig IGC Planting Compost into the existing soil to make a mound. Then he will plant the tree. I told him not to fertilise the tree with Citrus food.
"That's how you kill them."
Elsie was so happy with the solution.
Her grandson loves eating the oranges, and so does Warren, he shyly admitted.
Lavenders are blooming in our nursery already. We've got African Daisy's, Geraniums, Fuchsias, Salvias, Polygala, Plum Gorgeous and Azaleas to name but a few.
As you walk through our nursery you will smell the sweet scent of Brown Boronias.
We've got other colours too.
Boronias make amazing potted gifts and they can be kept inside for a couple of weeks so everyone can enjoy the perfume.
When you plants trees and shrubs, in your garden, this spring, make sure you remove the plant labels.
If the label blows off in the wind, you forget about the green, plastic coated wire, that remains, to ring bark your plants.
It's so dangerous and cruel, and your plants will snap off, in the wind.
Keep your labels in a draw, so you can refer to them if you need to identify the plant.
Some people put their labels in a photo album. It's nice to know the names of the plants growing in your garden.
Pig's had a friend turn up this week.
Fish may have been washed up at high tide.
Fish has been telling Pig stories all week.
We are calling it "Fish Confessions".
Don't forget to pay your phone bill at the moment, if you're with Telstra.
They take days to reactivate your phone after paying and you can't ring them to complain. No wonder this company is going backwards.
I've had a shocker, with phones recently.
We are getting excited about spring coming. I hope you are too.
Start pruning any shrubs that have been effected by the frost or perhaps they just look untidy.
Prune plants back by 25%, then feed with Tim's Cow Manure, and watch them come back to life, with fresh new growth, and more flowers for spring.
It's an exciting time in the garden.
Happy gardening
Tim