News from the Fruit & Vege growers
For the last meeting of the year Elaine Alexander attended as the guest speaker. She demonstrated how to create some wonderful centre-pieces for the Christmas table, incorporating fruit and vegetables.
Summer Gardening
Monthly Tips & Tasks – December
December is the real start of Summer and after a very changeable Spring we look forward to a more settled and warmer time. Overall Spring has been a good growing season and as a result there has been a good set of both stone and pip. Because of this there is a need to thin out the developing fruit so that the size and quality of the crop is achieved.
The planting of Summer annuals needs to be completed and with the possibility of water restrictions mulching in as much of the garden areas as possible should be done to help retain soil moisture.
News from the Fruit & Vege growers
In October’s meeting Alan Jolliffe shared a new product which helps to prevent Codling Moth on apple trees. ‘Bird Proof’, is a non-toxic, tacky repellent gel which can be used to form a repellent band on the tree-trunk which lasts for several seasons.
Peter Saunders provided the third instalment of A Visual Guide to Gardening through the Year complete with a slide-show. His tomatoes in the tunnel house are now flowering. He uses trickle irrigation to ensure water gets to the roots and not the weeds. This also prevents an overly humid atmosphere which can encourage fungal diseases.
Monthly Tips & Tasks – December
Early Spring has arrived with the usual changeable weather typical for this time of the year. This year is no different with the challenge of wet ground from the wet Winter just finished and with the soil at field capacity we will need to be careful when working the ground so as not to damage the soil structure. READ MORE
Monthly Tips & Tasks – February
From Michael Coulter January has been a month of real challenges in the garden this Summer with winds, hot days followed by cool days and some rain. Despite this I have had plenty of good growth and fruit to harvest although some plants are running a little later than usual. Much of the work to … Read More
Monthly Tips & Tasks – December
From Michael Coulter December is the start of the Summer weather and plants are now well into their rapid growth with many of the Spring-planted crops ready for harvest. Many of the pest and diseases that attack our plants will also begin to appear so we will need to take action to mitigate the damage … Read More
Monthly Tips & Tasks – November
From Michael Coulter Spring weather has at last given us some rain so the top soil now has some good moisture but the sub soil is still dry, this means that we will still have to water our gardens to keep the moisture up where the plants are growing. The warmer temperatures plus humidity from … Read More
2016 Summer Garden Award Results
Congratulations to all our Summer Garden Award winners, especially Bronwyn & Peter McNicholl whose Northcote garden (pictured here) won 1st & Premier Garden Awards.
Water is Not Enough
So you think you don’t need to fertilise…? Think again. Independent growing trials* were recently carried out on Yates new range of Thrive fertilisers over an eight week period. One plant received just water and the other plant received Thrive Natural Fish and Seaweed. The pictures speak for themselves! Trial Results Fertilisers with nitrogen, phosphorus … Read More
February Plant of the Month – Geranium Rozanne
Geranium Rozanne is unlike other traditional geraniums. This excellent long season plant has a medium sized, mounded growth habit reaching 60cm and flowers from early in the summer with showy clusters of bright violet-purple flowers.