How To Grow Blueberries?

Dear gardening friends
Hydrangea season has arrived, they don’t look like this yet, but they will have huge flowers in November. They are such beautiful old world shrubs, and they are incredibly hardy if you get one thing right. They only like morning sun, so they have to be planted on the eastern side of your house.

When you get up early, the eastern side of your house, is where the sun shines in the morning. This is where they love to grow, you can try and bend the rules if you live closer to the city, where it’s cooler and shadier.

But here in the Western Suburbs, where it’s hotter and drier, it’s best to follow the rules, or you’ll have sad, burnt looking Hydrangeas.

Now they can be grown in pots, they are growing in pots now. But these pots would get watered every day at the nursery.

If you’re going to grow them in pots, you need big, big pots that hold lots of Tim’s Best Potting mix. The potting mix holds the water, Hydrangeas love water.

They are tough once established in your garden, where they get morning sun, and then shade. They will be covered in blue or pink flowers depending on the acidity in your soil. The White Flowering varieties always stay white.

They make amazing gifts and they are such great value at $39.99. Cheaper than a bunch of flowers, and you get the plant, to grow in your garden.

The plants we have are in bud now, they will look like these in a couple of weeks. Zoom zoom for the best colours.

I’ve been watching my home grown Garlic, the window to harvest it, closes so quickly. I noticed the leaves had began to turn yellow this week which is a sign that harvest time is coming. But I checked it an hour ago and noticed a rotting smell in the crop.

I started lifting them out with a garden trowel. If you pull them out they can often snap off at ground level. The first one I lifted out had a horrible smell, like when you find a rotten Onion in your cupboard.

Luckily only a couple had began rotting, the rest were firm. But please check yours, recent rain and heat makes them turn bad so quickly.

Now I do cut off the roots, this could be controversial, I also quickly rinse the soil off the bulb, I don’t use a cleaning brush as this will cause infection and more rotting.

It’s a quick rinse then I stand them up in a Milk crate. Yes my mate makes Milk crates for a living and he’s going to hate me telling you that I’ve found another use for Milk crates. They are brilliant for storing Garlic. The open sides and bottom allows the air in to dry the bulbs, they will last like this for 6 months.

I put the crate outside, under cover, in the shade. I leave it here for a week until the bulbs dry, then I move it inside in a cool dry place.

Home grown Garlic has a fragrance you’ve never smelt before. It’s full of juice and flavour, it’s a delight to cook with. It’s great to give away as Christmas gifts.

You plant in late March/April and harvest in late October. I’m sure the heat and rain has brought harvest time forward. Check yours out today, don’t delay!

New batch of Blueberry plants have arrived. Most are covered in fruit already so you won’t have to do much.

Blueberries are one of the most popular fruiting plants to grow because the Blueberries are delicious but they are also easy to grow in a pot.

Yes I get asked all the time “Can I grow that plant in a pot?”. Well Blueberries grow beautifully in pots, using Tim’s Best Potting mix. You don’t need to add anything else.

Blueberries grow about 1.5ms high eventually, so grow your Blueberry in a large pot, one that holds at least 2x bags of Tim’s Best Potting Mix.

They grow beautifully in the sun, they will grow even better if they if they get protection from the late afternoon sun.

If you read the label there will be all sorts of nonsense about adding pine bark etc etc to the potting mix. We just use Tim’s Best Potting mix here when we pot them up and they grow beautifully. We’ve got a couple here that are 20 years old.

Blueberries are in short supply, I’ve had to search Australia to find these. We have two varieties, nice plants from $21.99.

I planted this tree when my boys were going to St Peter’s Anglican School in Campbelltown. I’ve planted at least 10 trees in this precinct, mainly natives.

But I was driving down Broughton street just now and I saw a flash of red across the Cemetery and I started to smile. My tree has come into bloom, it’s an absolute picture. It goes so beautifully with the new sign.

Illawarra Flame trees are famous for these red flowers. They flower at the same time as Jacarandas. We grew these Illawarra Flame trees from seeds, you might remember we gave seeds away here at the counter, you might have grown one too.

This one’s taken about 7 years to flower. I love how it’s hardly got any leaves, it shows off the flowers even more.

There’s an Ivory Curl tree nearby and a Tree Waratah, they look a picture when they come into bloom too.

Happy gardening
Tim