You Will Love The Sweet Fragrance - Oct 20, 2023


Dear Gardening Friends,

I met Eli recently. She works at Green valley spices at Campbelltown Mall. I was topping up on Spices and she noticed I was wearing a Tim's Garden Centre shirt. She commented that my Butter chicken recipe was so successful, they still had people coming in to buy it.
Well that's nice I said.

It's been so cold this week I started dreaming about a Curry, so I'm making Curried Lamb today.
I use Green Valley Malaysian Curry for this recipe. It's quite mild so kids can eat it.

I've cooked this before and posted it. But here's the recipe again if you missed it. I use 6x Lamb grillers for this. I cut off the fat, then cut them up and dust them with flour. I know some of you fry this, but I just chuck it in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Then I add chopped up, 1x Onion, 2 x sticks of Celery, 1x Eggplant, 1x Leek, 1x Clove of Garlic, 2x Cans of Tomatoes, 3x Anchovies, handful of Sultanas, handful of dried Apricots, 2x table spoons of Malaysian Curry powder, Rosemary, Worcestershire sauce, cracked Pepper.

Cook all day on high. I stir in half a tub of sour cream before serving with rice. It's delicious.
Feeds 6 people, easy.

Eli was telling me "they make life easy for people", I thought that was such a nice thing to say. She talked me into a few other herbs and spices too.

An update to this story, my family scored it 10/10.
you really need to try this recipe. It's a winner.

When we did this potting mix trial using Australian Standards Premium Potting Mixes, we had no idea what the results would be.

Only three brands grew lettuce that you could actually harvest. In two bags, plants died within days.

In one of the most popular brands, which is sold all around Australia, the plants didn't grow a new leaf in 10 weeks. They simply turned yellow or died.

Every day gardeners are buying these mixes, without knowing their plants will never grow. When the plants don't grow, they blame themselves.

Some give up gardening, they tell their friends they are brown thumbs. They aren't brown thumbs, they just bought the wrong potting mix.

Tim's Best Potting Mix had the best results, the lettuces grew magnificently, we made Caesar Salad. It was 100% better than the next best potting mix.

It's worth the drive. Gardeners are travelling from all over NSW. We've become a pilgrimage.
Isn't that amazing.

Chinese Star Jasmine is bursting into bloom. It's a climbing plant which can also be used as a ground cover, or border plant. It grows in sun or shade.

Chinese Star Jasmine has beautiful glossy green leaves, and the most fragrant white flowers.
I love the fragrance.
Some don't.

We have them in the nursery.
We have a variegated variety too.
Follow your nose to our nursery.

Wow I'm loving the Silky Oaks, that are flowering everywhere. These native trees are probably flowering so well because it's just got so dry.

Nature is amazing, it responds to drought by producing more flowers and seeds just incase things turn ugly. These seeds will fall on the ground or get eaten by birds and when it rains again, they grow.

Silky Oaks are actually Grevilleas.
It's a variety called Grevillea robusta. It often pops up in gardens around Macarthur.

They look spectacular if they happen to grow near a Jacaranda or an Illawarra Flame tree. All three flower at the same time, and the colours seem to pop.

Silky Oaks are evergreen trees, but they drop leaves nearly all year round. When it rains, it grows leaves, when it gets dry, it drops leaves.
This constant leaf fall can drive gardeners crazy.

But they are beautiful trees.
Let's enjoy the flowers.
The birds love them too.

It really is getting dry, you've probably noticed that the trees in your garden are dropping leaves too. This is how they survive dry conditions.
They simply drop half their leaves.
Find your sprinkler and get it going. 20 minutes in each spot will be enough to wet the ground.
Handheld hoses are useless. Scratch the soil after hand watering and you'll discover it's still bone dry under the surface.

Our Rose Bushes are all in flower now. We are selling over 100 Potted Rose Bushes every week.
Come and see us now if you love perfumed Roses. You can sniff test them before you buy them. It really is the best time to buy Rose bushes. But hurry, the most popular varieties sell out first.

Happy gardening
Tim