Kafuffle in the garden - Feb 23, 2012

Dear gardening friends

I had to buy some Blueberries last week for a dinner party we were having. When I ate them they had no taste so I looked at the packaging to see where they came from. Hamilton in New Zealand! What are woolies doing to me? I have a Blueberry plant at home but it is only a couple of years old so the fruit I got this season have all been eaten. But we have a mature plant at work that has had at least 4kgs of fruit this season. Even now it has heaps of fruit on the plant. This is despite Russell and Ken spending most of their time camped around it. There is a joke here at the nursery if you want customer service just stand near the Blueberry bush!

We have the deciduous variety and it is either 'Biloxi' or 'Sharpe'. The label fell off about 5 years ago and all of us have Alzheimer's. Our grower thinks the deciduous varieties have the sweetest fruit. Anyway we are happy for you to come and try a couple of our Blueberries to see why home grown is so much better than the bought stuff.

We never spray this plant with pesticides and we simply mulch it with Tim's Cow manure every spring and autumn. If you are going to grow one get a big pot. It has to hold at least 2 bags of Tim's Best Potting mix. P.S Just done the maths and our plant has given us $166.00 worth of fruit this season. The plants only cost $14.99.

We have had so much rain this season some of the drought tolerant plants you may have planted are dropping dead. The plants are dieing because of a disease called Root Rot. The rain and heat creates humidity which causes many of the drought loving plants to get Root Rot. This Fungus disease rots the root system so your plants can't take up water. It's ironic because your plant dies from lack of water. A green healthy plant will turn yellow and then the leaves will start to wilt. Within a couple of days the plant will be dead.

Some of the plants that are more susceptible to root rot include Hebes, Pittosporum, Grevillea's, Proteas and Lavenders to name just a few. Plants that have grey foliage seem more susceptible. There is a product available called Yates Anti Rot which you can use as a preventative. Simply mix the product with some water and spray it onto your plants foliage and around the drip line. This will kill the fungus disease in the soil.

If you notice one of your plants turning yellow then you need to prune it back by at least 50% to try and save its life. The rotting root system is unable to supply water to the entire plant that's why the drastic pruning job is so important. Apply Yates Anti Rot over the foliage and root system immediately then water your sick plant weekly with Seasol. The plant still may die but this is the only solution. Bring a piece of your plant into the nursery before you give it the big prune. You could just have a deciduous plant that is starting to loose its leaves for autumn.

Went to Macarthur Square this morning and noticed these beautiful shade trees in the restaurant precinct. They are Chinese Elms and don't they provide great shade for people to sit under. These trees have been under pruned to expose the beautiful trunk. Chinese Elms are one of my favourite trees. We have some if you're looking for a fast growing shade tree.

Kenny turned 61 yesterday so we surprised him with a birthday cake. Noreen got those candles that keep relighting so poor Kenny nearly had a heart attack trying to blow it out. The cake was very moist! (Yes we are on a budget here so we only get one candle)

I noticed Simon hijacked my newsletter last week. You may have noticed there was no dispute about the holes in the boat. This week he has been using the word "Kafuffle" in many of his sentences. He has been causing a real kafuffle with the number of times he is using the word kafuffle.

While Karyn is away on holidays I have been doing some man pruning in her garden. She won't be happy. The Dianthus has been cut off at almost ground level. (Not with the lawn mower). These perennial plants just need a good haircut annually to keep them looking tidy. They will have beautiful perfumed flowers in autumn. At the moment they look a bit nude!

The Lavenders also got a light prune to keep them looking bushy. Prune yours now and you will get heaps of flowers throughout autumn.

Pig is up to mischief see photos for more details.

Happy gardening

Tim