Cultivating knowledge, friendship and good will through gardening
By Tamborine Mountain Garden Club Inc.
Winter is nearly here, the nights are getting cooler, and its soup and casserole weather!
If you’ve planned ahead, your garden will reward you with lots of fresh produce to make those soups and casseroles next level delicious and nutritious.
If like many of us, your garden planning needs some fine tuning, it’s not too late to put in some late winter /spring growing veggies.
It is also a good time also to start planning and planting for spring blooms.
What to plant and Jobs to do
In the veggie patch try your luck with asparagus crowns, broad beans, broccoli, cabbage, chives, English spinach, garlic, garlic chives, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, nasturtium, onions, parsley, parsnip, peas, potatoes, radish, rocket, sorrel, snow peas, spring onion, strawberries, swede and sweet potatoes.
For some colour June is ideal for sowing or planting seedlings of alyssum, calendula, carnation, dianthus, hollyhock, linaria, lobelia, marigold, nasturtium, nemesia, pansies, poppies, primulas, statice, stocks, and violas.
Winter is perfect for catching some sunshine while doing some jobs in the garden:
- Prune fruit trees to remove criss-crossing or dead branches, or to thin crowded growth, or reshape them
- Prune crepe myrtles if you want to reduce their size or reshape them
- Ensure garden beds under eves are kept watered
- Give lawns a dressing of lime and water in well
- Give hedges a light trim
Plant health – common nutrient deficiencies and organic remedies. Problem Deficiency Organic fix Yellow leaves, poor growth and premature flowering Nitrogen Add liquid fish fertiliser and compost Blue-green lower leaves on brassicas seedlings and poor growth Phosphorus Usually means they were in the container too long, so plant them quickly so they can utilise the phosphorus in the soil Yellow older leaves, leaf scorching and brown spots Potassium Add sulphate of potash or potash rich compost, or ash from the fire box. But remember, potash is alkaline, so check your pH first and use it sparingly or not at all if your soil pH is 7.5 or more. Yellow between the veins of older leaves Magnesium Water with Epsom salts and reduce potassium applications – check soil pH Cupping of new foliage, tip burn, blossom end rot of solanaceous vegetables, and internal browning of brussels sprouts Calcium Apply gypsum
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday June 9 at 9:30 in the Vonda Youngman Community Centre – visitors and new members are always welcome.
Happy gardening everyone!
