$6.00 for a Tomato - Jul 19, 2013
Dear gardening friends,
It's great to be back after having a lovely holiday in Noosa. While I was away we had our gardens vandalised but Karyn has quickly returned them to their former glory. We are not going to let a few drunken hoodlums spoil our beautiful gardens. Thankyou to everyone who showed us support through our Facebook page.
If you are not on Facebook, then you would have missed out on seeing the giant tomato I paid $6.00 for at the Noosa Farmers Produce market. The tomato was an heirloom variety known as Mortgage Lifter and it was absolutely huge! I have kept the seeds from this tomato and I am going to grow them so all of our garden club members can have the chance to grow a giant tomato too!
I will be planting the seeds in the next couple of weeks. We will sell the plants for $4.50 in spring and all money raised will be donated to The African Aids Foundation in Camden. We will see who can grow the biggest tomato.
I was speaking to our seedling grower during the week and he is already sowing his tomato seeds getting ready for spring. If you like to grow your tomatoes from seed then you will find plenty of varieties on our Mr Fothergill's seed stand. They have all your favourites plus Heirloom varieties that are so much nicer to eat than the modern rock hard varieties you find at the super market.
Tomato seeds are easy to grow. Grab a pot out of our pot recycling bin in the car park and fill it with seed raising mix ( we sell this in the shop). Plant at least 10 seeds per pot and just cover them lightly with seed raising mix. Place the pots in a sunny position during the day and bring the pots in at night. If you leave them outside the first frost will kill them.
As spring arrives you can transplant your seedlings into the garden.
It is way to early to plant tomato seedlings in the garden so don't get tricked by the chain stores. They will have tomato seedlings in stock because unlike us, they are not gardeners.
Some exciting news! We have a new Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato being released in late August. This new tomato has a thicker skin that makes it fruit fly resistant. The fruit are the size of apricots and they are the sweetest tasting tomato you have ever eaten. Tim's Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato is exclusive to Tim's Garden Centre.
If your veggie garden has been dormant over winter then prepare the soil now so you are ready to plant when spring arrives. Pull out all the weeds then cover the soil with a bag of Tim's Cow Manure for every 2 square metres of ground. Add a handful of garden lime per square metre. This sweetens the soil. Turn the soil over breaking up the clay with the back of your shovel. Rake the soil level then cover it with sugar cane. Leave this to rest until spring arrives.
I was picking home grown broccoli this week and noticed there were small green caterpillars. I will need to spray with Yates Success again this week. This is a non poisonous award winning spray that is safe to use on plants you are going to eat.
Wattles and Magnolias are starting to flower in gardens around the Macarthur area so spring is not far away.
If you haven't pruned you roses yet, then do it this weekend - It's dead simple! Cut them off at knee height. Prune back the stems to an outward facing bud. Remove most of the internal branches to let the sunshine in to the centre. This helps air flow and your plants will get less black spot. Once the plants are pruned spray the bare stems with Lime Sulphur. This cleans up any scale insects and fungus spores. Remember a bad prune is better than no prune!
Kenny is back from his holiday in Bali. If you love Bali come and talk to Kenny. Karyn is back from her holiday in Hervey Bay so she has stories too. Karyn went to the Nambour Garden Show while on holidays too. I missed her by a day. I have attached the Ute Fountain that was on display at the show. It looked fantastic!
Thanks Simon for writing the newsletter. He does a great job. Loved the crocodile story.
Lots of jobs to do in the garden, we have a spray to kill Winter Grass in your lawn come and see us if you need help.
Happy gardening,
Tim