Love your neighbours leaves - May 31, 2012
Dear gardening friends
As autumn leaves turn crimson red and begin to fall, neighbour relationships can be tested. While the shade from deciduous trees can bring relief from the heat of summer, this is all forgotten when the leaves from your neighbours tree fall in your pool.
Intelligent people will realize that the most expensive suburbs in Sydney are the ones with the most trees. A new study about to be released has found that people actually live longer in the suburbs that have the most trees.
So before you curse your neighbours leaves perhaps you should be thanking them. As the leaves fall the sun shines through to warm your house. As the leaves begin to compost they add organic matter to your soil which then breaks down the clay allowing your lawn and shrubs to thrive. The leaves also act as mulch which helps stop the weeds from growing.
Think about all these things when you’re using your blower vac on the weekend to blow the leaves out onto the street!
And another thing, if it wasn’t for deciduous trees the blower vac may never have been invented.
It is no secret that I am a tree lover, during the week I took a photo of a beautiful Chinese Tallow growing on Broughton St near the carpark at St Peters primary school. It was in the morning and the sun was shining through the leaves. Check out the attached photo, you may be a tree lover too?
Crepe myrtles are famous for having spectacular flowers throughout summer, but did you know that they also have brilliant autumn foliage?
The sun was shining through the leaves of our plants in the nursery this morning so I took a photo to share with you. Soon all the trees will be nude so my morning sun, leaf fetish will be over.
You may have noticed a spectacular flowering shrub poking above the fences throughout the Macarthur district. Tree Dahlias are coming into flower now! These herbaceous perennials have thick bamboo like stems, large bipinnate leaves and clusters of single lavender pink flowers with yellow centres. They are called tree Dahlias because they can grow 3 to 5 metres high. I love these plants and have tried to grow them at my place but it is just too frosty where I live. The great news is, they are easy to grow from a cutting. Select a piece of the stem that has one or 2 nodes. Plant the piece horizontally 20cms below the ground and then stand back quickly!
You won’t find Tree Dahlias in nurseries so when you see one growing in a garden make friends with the owner. I have attached a photo of a Tree Dahlia growing in the gardens at St Peters Primary School. Tree Dahlias should be cut back at almost ground level at the end of winter. They need protection from the wind or they get snapped off. That’s why they are almost always in backyards.
I visited my parents house on the weekend and as I climbed the stairs I smelt this beautiful ripe apricot perfume. My mum has an Osmanthus fragrans growing in the garden near the front door. Often called Sweet Osmanthus this is one shrub that you really must own. They are super tough in any sunny position. They grow up to 3 metres high but mum chops hers off at about 1.8 metres. They flower on and off during the year. We have one growing near the seedling area if you want to give it the “sniff test”. We have nice fresh plants for just $23.99. You will never kill this plant!
With winter arriving Daphne plants will be starting to flower too. These are traditionally hard to grow but there is a newish variety called Daphne “Eternal Fragrance”. We have two growing in the nursery garden and they are covered in white perfumed flowers now! This variety grows best in the full sun. Our plants are only about 60cms high by 90 cms wide. Eternal Fragrance is a great plant and easy to grow. We have nice plants coming into flower for $18.99.
I spoke to you about growing pansies in pots last week. Lisa has planted up a terracotta pot in the seedling area. Check out her colour selection in the attached photo. So simple but doesn’t it look good?
We often drop into Sam’s Warehouse to buy lollipops - we give these away to all the well behaved kids who come into the nursery. While I was standing at the check out recently, I noticed a lady buying potting mix up ahead. The brand was called Garden Pro and it only cost $3.29. I was thinking, surely she doesn’t think her plants are going to grow in potting mix that only costs $3.29. Anyway I bought a bag to see if it was any good. The front of the bag sounded encouraging, it read “ Garden Pro is a rich blend of composted organic matter suitable for indoor or outdoor plants”
Well I got Ryan to plant some lettuce seedlings in it on the 3/4/12. These seedlings haven’t grown a leaf in almost 8 weeks! See the attached photo and notice how much better the plants are doing in Tim’s best potting mix.
It’s time A Current Affair did a story on potting mixes because plants just don’t grow in so many of the brands being sold. Surely this is false advertising? The Coles home brand is one of the worst performing brands. Tim’s Best Potting Mix is more expensive but look at the results!
It’s time to prune your rose bushes. Cut them back to an outward facing bud then spray the plants with Lime Sulphur. This “Winter Spray” will help prevent fungus diseases from returning in spring. It also helps clean up many scale insects that attack the stems of roses. We have gloves, secateurs and lime sulphur in stock now. You can buy cheap made in china secateurs for $3.99 at the junk shops but we use a brand called “Kamaki”. These are made in Japan from the finest steel and they will last you a life time. They cost $43.99 less your club discount.
If pruning roses sounds “too hard” Tims Gardening Service guys can do the job for you. They are looking for more work over winter. See store for contact details.
Happy gardening
Tim