Your Questions Answered
Presenter: Sue McDougall
Episode: 20 (8 September 2007)
Sue has read many gardening books looking for ideas and inspiration for her garden and a book that stood out many years ago was very inspirational when it comes to vegetable gardening. It was an English book called Creative Vegetable gardening and while much of the information was not suited to our climate it focussed on many unique ways to grow an edible and ornamental garden. It started Sue on the journey of having a gorgeous garden that was both functional and beautiful.
Many homeowners state that they would love to have a vegetable garden, but do not have the room. Luckily you do not need very much room. Where ever you may have some spare space, it can be filled up with vegetables and look gorgeous at the same time. Things like broccoli grow beautifully and do not generally need to be planted too long before hand to create such a gorgeous effect, 8 weeks a so.
All you do is prepare the soil in the immediate area where you are wanting to plant the vegies, in fact anywhere where there is a bare space and add a little dynamic lifter and soil improver and then plant the seedlings it is as simple as that. Most quick growing vegies are shallow rooted and if you grow them close together they will shade the soil as they grow up reducing the moisture that is lost through evaporation.
Another group of plants which provoke many questions at this time of the year is Boronia. The perfume is so distinctive that its worth having one in a pot or in a garden bed where you can enjoy the gorgeous perfume.
Gardeners sometimes have problems with Boronias and one of the reasons is that they have the most incredible root systems. Young plants will often have a mass of small roots and this can be sometimes confused with the plants being pot bound. These plants are usually a fresh young plant ready to go into the ground or be planted in a pot. It is because of this shallow root system that Boronias can dry out so quickly.
If you are looking for perfume the Brown Boronia’s are the strongest and a little tip is to prune some of the branches while its in flower and take inside, you will need to prune it after flowering anyway and this way you get to enjoy the perfume day and night.
The yellow flowering variety is a little hardier than the brown varieties, but the perfume is not as distinctive. The new release Just Margaret is another variety again, tough and fantastic as a cut flower.
Having fresh flowers to bring inside always brightens the place up; there is a good range of Hybrid waxes that are grown for their long stems, long lasting flowers and compact growth rate.
Tina’s Delight is a good one to look at getting, with beautiful soft pink flowers, maturing to a peachy colour or maybe try Stefan’s Delight if you are in areas of frost.
If you come across a plant looking tired and sick. It is easy to get it growing bushy again. All you do is trim it back by about 2/3rds. It seems like a lot and for a few weeks the plant will look like a pile of sticks, but very soon full of bushy new growth. And you can take these flowers inside and enjoy them for many weeks to come.
Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food
Organic Based Fertiliser
Use to gently feed all types of garden and potted plants, including Australian native plants.
Yates Dynamic Lifter is your natural solution to fertilising your garden. Dynamic Lifter plant food products are based on natural, organic ingredients, and offer a range of convenient application types that will enrich and improve your garden soil for both planting and potting.
Episode: 20 (8 September 2007)
Sue has read many gardening books looking for ideas and inspiration for her garden and a book that stood out many years ago was very inspirational when it comes to vegetable gardening. It was an English book called Creative Vegetable gardening and while much of the information was not suited to our climate it focussed on many unique ways to grow an edible and ornamental garden. It started Sue on the journey of having a gorgeous garden that was both functional and beautiful.
Many homeowners state that they would love to have a vegetable garden, but do not have the room. Luckily you do not need very much room. Where ever you may have some spare space, it can be filled up with vegetables and look gorgeous at the same time. Things like broccoli grow beautifully and do not generally need to be planted too long before hand to create such a gorgeous effect, 8 weeks a so.
All you do is prepare the soil in the immediate area where you are wanting to plant the vegies, in fact anywhere where there is a bare space and add a little dynamic lifter and soil improver and then plant the seedlings it is as simple as that. Most quick growing vegies are shallow rooted and if you grow them close together they will shade the soil as they grow up reducing the moisture that is lost through evaporation.
Another group of plants which provoke many questions at this time of the year is Boronia. The perfume is so distinctive that its worth having one in a pot or in a garden bed where you can enjoy the gorgeous perfume.
Gardeners sometimes have problems with Boronias and one of the reasons is that they have the most incredible root systems. Young plants will often have a mass of small roots and this can be sometimes confused with the plants being pot bound. These plants are usually a fresh young plant ready to go into the ground or be planted in a pot. It is because of this shallow root system that Boronias can dry out so quickly.
If you are looking for perfume the Brown Boronia’s are the strongest and a little tip is to prune some of the branches while its in flower and take inside, you will need to prune it after flowering anyway and this way you get to enjoy the perfume day and night.
The yellow flowering variety is a little hardier than the brown varieties, but the perfume is not as distinctive. The new release Just Margaret is another variety again, tough and fantastic as a cut flower.
Having fresh flowers to bring inside always brightens the place up; there is a good range of Hybrid waxes that are grown for their long stems, long lasting flowers and compact growth rate.
Tina’s Delight is a good one to look at getting, with beautiful soft pink flowers, maturing to a peachy colour or maybe try Stefan’s Delight if you are in areas of frost.
If you come across a plant looking tired and sick. It is easy to get it growing bushy again. All you do is trim it back by about 2/3rds. It seems like a lot and for a few weeks the plant will look like a pile of sticks, but very soon full of bushy new growth. And you can take these flowers inside and enjoy them for many weeks to come.
Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food
Organic Based Fertiliser
Use to gently feed all types of garden and potted plants, including Australian native plants.
Yates Dynamic Lifter is your natural solution to fertilising your garden. Dynamic Lifter plant food products are based on natural, organic ingredients, and offer a range of convenient application types that will enrich and improve your garden soil for both planting and potting.
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