The start of a new gardening year

Australian based daughter had been home this week and burst out laughing when the TV weather here started talking about the lack of rain. “Oh no,” she cried, “no rain since February the sixth.” Where she lives in Canberra, there is no grass left, no lawns. Residents have given up even the pretence of a lawn and front yard after yard is being laid in bark chip. Unfortunately the bark chip comes in a wide palette of colours. Maybe the green dyed bark is meant to look like lush lawn from the air? But I am not sure about the red bark. We asked her if the dyes ran or were colour fast. She pointed out that it doesn’t rain so she doesn’t know the answer. Mature European trees and wattles are dying and even half grown eucalyptus have succumbed to the dry. Continue reading →

This week 23 February 2007

  • Spray lawns for flat weeds if you have not yet done so. If you object to the use of sprays, you can do it on your hands and knees with a sharp knife. Now is also the time to prepare areas which are to be sown in lawn when the autumn rains come. Getting it weed free before the grass seed goes down can save a lot of trouble later. Never feed your lawn in dry weather. The grass is more likely to be burned off by the fertiliser than to green up.

    • Continue reading →

This week 16 February 2007

  • Water container plants daily or at least every second day.
  • Spray now for thrips on rhododendrons. The damage will be showing up now and if you do nothing the foliage will go permanently silver and weaken the plant. A systemic insecticide such as Orthene or Confidor is usually required. If you don’t want to do this, mark the plant for replacement with a higher health variety. Some varieties are much more susceptible to thrips than others. Continue reading →

Of paris polyphylla and pedalling visitors

It would be fair to say this week that I am married to a disappointed man. Some ingrate of a garden visitor has stolen his paris seed. Probably ninety nine out of a hundred visitors wouldn’t even recognise his prized paris polyphylla as a rare delight, let alone think to help themselves to the seed which he had carefully pollinated and was watching ripen. Sadly the one in a hundred who was capable of recognising it was also the one in several thousand who would be mean enough to steal this treasure. Continue reading →

This week 9 February 2007

  • Now that summer finally seems to have made an appearance, there is not a huge amount you can do, or maybe want to do in the garden. Sitting under a large tree sipping a mint julep, perhaps? But do stay on top of watering container plants – most will need it every day now if there is no rain. Continue reading →