June in a Melbourne garden - shallots, bare-root trees, camellias...

 

Winter wonders - a liriope intertwined with fallen leaves of a silver birch

We have just finished building a little herb garden in front of the café. Now the staff can simply walk out and pick some Italian parsley, mint, rosemary and dill. In a few weeks the thyme and oregano will also be big enough to harvest. Of course it is too cold for basil now, but coriander will grow well in the cooler weather and it is less likely to set seed. It is a great feeling to have built something so useful, and the food has never tasted so good.

Another food crop to plant at this time of year is shallots. These are not spring onions, but little fat  and sometimes longer onions that usually have a milder but delicate flavour. They are different to onions in that one bulb will form into 6 to 12 bulbs. Plant them into the soil so the tops are just visible and use a balanced fertiliser. Once harvested, they can keep for up to 12 months. 

Now is a great time to prepare your soil for planting bare-root trees, including fruit trees, roses and ornamentals. 'Humus Plus' compost and cow manure is fantastic for enriching your soil before planting. Bare-root tree expert Wes Fleming will be a special guest at Gardenworld on the Sunday 12^th July at 1.00 pm. This is one of our most entertaining talks of the year. Bare-root trees have been harvested during their dormant winter period and don’t come in pots or potting mix hence they are great value.

Feed your camellias, azaleas, daphnes, and rhododendrons now as they are hitting their peak flowering time. Use a specialised food for these plants as they are unique in that they prefer acid soils. If planting new plants, tease out the roots if the plants have a tight root ball. 

It is important at this time of year to check your watering systems and ensure you are backing off with how much you are watering. If we get lots of rain, make sure you empty the water sitting in saucers under pot plants. Cold and wet plants will be much more likely to get diseases like root rot, especially when there is no oxygen getting to the roots. 

If the pansies are still small plants, pick off any flowers until they bush up a bit. This might seem a sad thing to do, but you will get more flowers in the long run. Did you know pansies make excellent pressed flowers – perfect for home made cards. All you need is a phone book – now there’s something you can’t do on the internet ! 

Flowers to plant this month: Aquilegia, Calendula, Cineraria, Cyclamen, Delphinium, Foxglove, Nemesia, Pansy, Primula, Polyanthus, Poppy, Viola. 

Vegetables: Asparagus, Broad beans, Beetroot, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Coriander, Garlic, Lettuce, Leek, Parsnip, Red Onions, Rhubarb, Radish, Shallots, Turnip.