What a great month to get into the vegie patch or potted vegie garden. It is usually warm enough now to plant chillies, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants and basil, (although so far this month its been freezing). It’s the only time of year you can grow these varieties, so give them priority over the year round stuff, and don’t even consider cauliflower or cabbage, leaving them for the cooler months.
Of course the biggest seller
at this time of year, are tomatoes and we have over 50 varieties of
seedlings and seeds. One of the new ones is TomatoBerry, which
is sort of shaped like a strawberry, but definitely tastes like a tomato.
There is also a big thumping tomato called ‘Mr Ugly’ which is has
really ugly fruit, but is full of flavour. Tomatoes can also be grown
in smaller pots by using a dwarf variety and you don’t even need to
prune out any side shoots with these ones. I recommend ‘tumbler’
or a ‘dwarf roma’, or ‘Pot Prize’. If you would prefer a big
yield, then go for a grafted tomato, which you can grow along a sunny
fence up to 3 metres in length! In a good year yields can get up to
300 tomatoes, more than enough for a few bottles of sauce. A good resource
for growing info can be found at tomato.com.au.
Strawberries are also available
now and are produced from seed or from runners. The runner varieties
are better yielders. These are produced by only a few growers, mainly
in the Toolangi region and are certified virus free. Every year over
20 million runners are produced with the majority going to commercial
strawberry growers. Fortunately for us the seedling growers also purchase
a few and pot them up for us to sell at around $4.25. With just a few
plants, you can also produce runners and multiply your crop. Varieties
include, Red Gauntlet, Hokawase, Alinta and my favourite Lowanna, which
fruits over a longer period and has a nice flavour.
At this time of year our spreading
petunias are starting to flower and we have a new one called ‘Raspberry
Blast’ which is a vivid raspberry and white. It is a show stopper.
Spreading petunias cost more than punnets of normal petunias, but they
can spread up to a metre, flower longer and usually live for a couple
of seasons. Plant them now and they will perform for months, with more
flowers than almost any other plant.
After last years hot summer,
people want tough plants. Waratahs, proteas and leucadendrons are certainly
worth considering. Most of them come from South Africa and prefer good
drainage, full sun and only native fertiliser. They are water wise,
bird attracting and have a very long vase life, being highly prized
in floristry work. Check the heights on the labels as they do vary greatly.
‘Little Prince’ stays under a metre which makes it perfect
for a pot or small garden and it can flower almost all year.
A smart task to do now is to
oil the timber furniture as it is the sun that can do the most damage
to the timber. It also removes a lot of the scratches. If it is metal
furniture or garden ornaments you own, then an application of ‘Penetrol’
will prevent the item from rusting and it will last for many years longer.
Both timber oil and Penetrol are available at the nursery.
Don’t forget the snailbait ! We recommend ‘Multiguard’ as it is dog friendly. It saves heartbreak from those freshly planted seedlings. Also, lightly cut back natives as flowering finishes as this will invigorate the plant and make them bushier.
Seedlings to plant this month:
Begonia, Coleus, Cornflower, Dahlias, Impatiens, Marigolds, Petunias,
Daisies, Snapdragons, Lobelia, Vincas. Mulch well to reduce evaporation.
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