That’s Beautiful, I Love It!! - May 03, 2024
Dear gardening friends
It's time to plant Garlic and it's so easy to grow you won't believe it. We've got Spanish Garlic cloves here. These have been grown in Australia so they are fresh and ready to plant.
Simply break it up into scales. Plant each scale just below the soil blunt end down. It will pop up and start growing within 10 days. It's magical.
Each scale will grow into a Clove of Garlic this size by November. Harvest when the leaves turn yellow. Hang to dry. It lasts 12 months in a dry dark place.
It tastes amazing of course. It's full of juice, it's dripping. You won't believe the fragrance when you start cooking. Your house will smell like Italy.
Oops, or Spain.
Prepare your garden by digging in Tim's Cow Manure. Or grow it in a big pot using Tim's Best Potting mix. Growing Garlic is an amazing investment.
Zoom zoom.
I've just done a delivery to Elizabeth's place. She's a mad gardener, and so is her one legged husband. She gardens in the front yard and her husband rules the back.
I got a chance to interview Elizabeth today, so I could find out some of her secrets. She has amazing potted plants growing in big pots, and they were all in flower this afternoon.
Her pride and joy are these giant Dipladenias. She has a red and this white flowering beauty. These tropical plants are fabulous pot plants. They actually grow better in pots, than they do in the ground. Isn't that interesting.
They have had a name change to Mandevilla, but I'm still calling them Dipladenia. They love growing in pots because they must have good drainage. If you grow them in the ground, in clay soils, they often drop dead during winter, when it's cold and wet.
Elizabeth grows them in these huge pots using Tim's Best Potting mix. She tops up the pots as the soil level drops with more Tim's Best. This gives them more fertiliser and makes the pots hold more water.
She also told me that she uses Sudden Impact for Roses. This organic based fertiliser is suitable for flowering and fruiting plants. It's certainly made these Dipladenias thrive and flower.
The plants are supported with stakes and wire. This helps show them off and it also keeps them tidy. She lightly prunes them to make them grow bushy.
Elizabeth has other beautiful flowering plants that are flowering now. A Tree Begonia was covered in pink flowers. It was as tall as Elizabeth.
Her dog came out to see me, a black Labrador who just loves a scratch. I could have still been there.
I just fell in love with this guy. His name is Anthony.
He couldn't believe that I was a Tim, and that this is Tim's Garden Centre. That made me laugh.
He came in with his wife looking for a tree. He showed me a photo of his yard and I started showing them trees that would give them privacy.
He has a big back yard in St Andrew's, they have just moved here from Fairfield, where they lived in a unit.
Every tree I showed them Anthony got so enthusiastic "I love this tree, it's beautiful". He had this amazing French accent, so beautiful, sounded just so beautiful.
We got on like a house on fire.
Anthony's wife is from Ukraine, she was a lot tougher to get excited. I worked hard. I found out she loves growing things you can eat. She's got a vegetable garden and she's just planted Garlic.
She really wanted a fruit tree to grow in her backyard to provide privacy. I showed her Lychee and Avocado trees. She loved our Eureka Lemon tree, that's growing here in the nursery because it's covered in fruit right now. Everyone loves this tree.
But we thought that a fruit tree would just take too long to create privacy. I showed them a Lemon Myrtle tree and let them smell the fragrant foliage. The white flowers are amazing too. I even showed them a clip of one growing in the city. Anthony thought it was beautiful!!!!!!
He had me smiling so much. I showed them an "Ivory Curl Tree", yes I was bringing out the big guns now.
Everyone knows that Ivory Curl trees are one of my favourites. It has huge staminate flowers that are full of nectar!!!!!
It gets covered in flowers and the nectar filled flowers attract nature into your garden. The Lorikeets sound drunk with excitement when you hear them screeching with joy.
Anthony told me it was beautiful. I told him he was beautiful too. His wife was less excited. I wanted to know more about Anthony's accent, he must be French? Turns out he's Lebanese!!!! But his mother was a French teacher.
I started telling Anthony that he has to go to Yasmin Bakery but he hits back about a Lebanese bakery at Minto station. I have to get The Meat Lovers Pizza.
You guessed it, "it's beautiful."
They buy the tree, I'm exhausted.
I cooked something amazing. It's called "Sinkonta", it's Turkish in origin. I couldn't sleep last night so I got out of bed and watched Rick Stein's Venice to Istanbul.
I don't think he was wearing his pink shirt, it must have been in the wash. But he stopped in the backstreets and went to a restaurant that was basically a tent and this lovely lady made him this dish.
It only contained three ingredients, Pumpkin and Onions and Sun-dried Tomato paste. I've just cooked it tonight, but I've added Chicken Legs. I absolutely love a one dish meal. It was delicious, so now I'm sharing it with you.
In a bowl add 4x Onions cut up in slices. Add salt and lots of Pepper. I added the juice of half a lemon and Garlic. Then I added 4 big tablespoons of Tomato paste and 2 tablespoons of plain flour. Mix this through, with your hands.
Then I cut my Queensland Blue Pumpkin into slices. I cut these slices up into squares and put them in a non stick baking dish. I used 1/4 of a Pumpkin. I didn't remove the skin. I covered the dish with this.
Tip the marinated onions over the Pumpkin.
Then sit your chicken legs or wings on top.
Salt and Pepper the chicken then drizzle Olive oil over the entire dish. Cook in a preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken goes brown. Serve it with a dollop of Greek Yoghurt.
It was amazing. It was so creamy but there was no cream or dairy. The flour must be the secret.
I'd probably add Anchovies next time and possibly Chick peas and Cappers too.
But seriously it was so delicious and it's another way of eating Pumpkins. Did I tell you I have around 25 to eat? It's so cheap to make.
It's crazy. I've got lunches for 3 people.
Each dish must cost about $3.00?
Are you looking for a pretty border plant that will thrive in sun or shade? Well I've found the perfect plant, and once it's established, it grows without much love.
It's called "Tricolour Jasmine". It has pink white and green leaves. It's so tough and easy to grow, you will be amazed. It grows as a ground cover. It stays flat like this. One plant will cover 1m2, but you can shape it to any width.
Bugs and pests don't worry it. It's long lived and so easy to grow. Landscape architects use it all the time for its colourful foliage. It can get highly perfumed white flowers if conditions suit.
It's just a brilliant plant.
We have them from just $6.99.
Happy gardening
Tim