CityLife GARDENING with Limberlost Nursery & Garden Centre | Keep Planting Your Kitchen Garden
HomeLife
CityLife GARDENING
with Limberlost Nursery & Garden Centre
Keep Planting Your Kitchen Garden
It is an exciting time of year in the garden as we watch our edible gardens thrive, and begin to enjoy fresh harvests. It is also a great time to continue to prepare and plant for the coming seasons.
Kitchen Garden
Keep on planting! The weather is perfect for some of our cooler climate favourites, and there’s still plenty more of the season to enjoy fresh produce from your garden.
Plant seasonal veg such as Kale, Cabbage, Spinach, Broccoli, Radish, Zucchini, Capsicum, Tomatoes and Carrots to ensure plenty of variety in your kitchen.
A handy garden tip – Protect your newly planted seedlings from pests with a trusty toilet roll. Pests such as grubs and cutworms will often chew on young seedlings, chopping them at the base of the plant and destroying newly planted crops. Placing a toilet roll over your seedling and pressing it gently into the surface of the soil creates a barrier to protect tender stems, while still letting your seedling access sun and water, and will decompose as your plant grows and no longer needs protection.
**Keep an eye out for caterpillars who may like to nibble on your fresh leaves. Treat by removing them by hand, or choose an organic treatment such as Dipel to keep them from destroying your crops.
Prepare your patch for a crop of sweetcorn!
Choose a 1m x 1m sunny patch in your garden, with room for at least 20 plants. Sowing corn in a block allows plants to cross-pollinate between themselves, producing larger, fuller cobs of delicious, juicy corn.
Corn is a hungry plant, so boost your soil with a combination of ActivGrow and Searles 5 in 1, and allow to settle for one week. Sow seeds directly into your garden, 20-30cm apart and about 5cm deep. Plant two per hole and water in well. Seeds should germinate in 5-7 days, and once they have reached about 5cm in height, thin out the weaker seedling from each hole, taking care not to disturb the remaining seedling.
Water 2-3 times per week until the plants are established, then ease off to a good weekly soak. As the plants grow, build up their growing area with compost and add a layer of mulch to encourage stronger roots and growth.
As the plants come into flower, give them a gentle shake to help with pollination. Cobs are ready for harvest when the silks begin to turn brown.
Fruit Trees
Add to your backyard orchard with some great lunchbox fruits. Planting a Mandarin, Orange or Banana will give you plenty of choice for a tasty addition to your school or work lunches. Now is a good time to prepare and plant your tree, and allow it to acclimatise to its new home before our hot season begins.
Roses
Roses are beginning to feature in our store and now is the time to get them established. Here in the tropics, roses are a great plant grown in pots as a sunny patio or garden feature, and will also perform well in a sunny, well drained position in your garden.
For best growing:
• Prepare your garden soil by digging ActivGrow into the top 20cm. One bag per 2-3m2 will help boost your soil and get your roses off to a great start.
• Ensure there is plenty of air flow around your roses to allow them to thrive and minimise fungal problems.
• Fertilise monthly, and prune after flowering to keep your rose looking best. Keep on top of pests and fungal problems with Trifend.
