Garden Clinic Blog

Plant of the Year Lavender Pack

Our plant of the year is the new range of lavenders from Plant Management Australia called Lavinnova. This week when you join the club you will receive one of these new lavenders “The Queen” ready to plant into your garden.

In the Vegetable Patch: keep a close watch on broad beans.

Broad beans are so tasty, and so nutritious! It’s one vegetable you should try. Watch them closely at this time as the flowers are setting pods, for aphid attack. We sprayed our crop with Yates Nature’s Way (ready to use) garlic and pyrethrum spray.

What to do in the Garden: time to plant avocado

Plant an avocado; better still plant two for better pollination rates and more fruit. Given the correct growing conditions these trees will bear heavy crops in three years. Mature trees can be affected by excessive rain and by hot and dry wind, especially at flowering and fruit set.

Spotlight : Ranunculus

There has been a revolution in the breeding of ranunculus. ‘Renaissance’ Ranunculus is a triumph with high quality, long lasting, consistent doubles in a range of colours. Up to ten flowers will open from a single tuber (bulb), and they are double from start to the finish. ‘Picasso’ is another fully double variety with a black centre and producing up to 10 blooms from each tuber.

Star of the Season : Light and Lacy… Japanese Maples

Alan Jackson is crazy about maples! His nursery, Maple Springs is in Little Hartley where he propagates, grafts and grows 250 species of maple. Over the last 25 years he has designed and created Gory’u Japanese garden (which featured in the spring issue of the Garden Clinic Magazine). Alan is jumping out his skin with excitement as his maples burst into fresh new leaf. Click here to read our story.

What to do this week: Feed the Flowers

Hibiscus bring a glorious taste of the tropics to a warm frost-free garden. This week is your last chance to prune them. As they flower on new wood, the harder you prune, the more new growth is produced and the more flowers. Hibiscus are hungry so feed them every six weeks with either Sudden Impact for Roses (Neutrog) or Black Marvel Rose Food (Richgro) and water it in with a seaweed solution.

In the Vegetable Patch: It’s time to plant passionfruit

The passionfruit vine is a vigorous, climbing plant with deep green leaves and fragrant, delicate, purple to white flowers with a distinctive corona. The vines are sensitive to frost and the fruit matures to a deep red colour and contains a sweet, juicy, orange edible pulp.

Happy Hippies!

We have been growing this exotic-looking bulb for three years. Hippeastrum is also known as Amaryllis. We started with one and now we have approximately 10 bulbs in five clumps. It comes from the tropical forests of Brazil and grows easily in a frost-free climate.

Star of the Season: Clivia

The classic burnished orange-red clivia has been overtaken by new lemon, lime and peach colours. Peter Hey is mad about the new clivia colours he is now producing – lime-green, bronze, peach, scarlet and apricot!

Tim’s Fruit Fly Resistant Tomato + Fertiliser pack

Have you tried growing tomatoes only to lose your crop to fruit fly. Then we have the solution –Tim’s fruit fly resistant tomato and you’ll have genetic protection against fruit fly.

What To Do This Week

With the arrival of spring there is much to do in the garden. Plants are hungry! And in some areas the garden is dry and we need to keep the moisture level high for good root growth. Here is our weekly checklist.

In the Vegetable Patch: It’s time to plant tomatoes

The structures are built! The soil is powered up! The agricultural pipes are in place. Now the temperature is right to plant tomatoes.

Know Your Grevilleas

There are 365 species and 100 subspecies of grevillea, making grevillea the third largest genus in Australia. Many species attract birds into the garden as they produce huge quantities of nectar. They are so many different colours, shapes and sizes and they flower for such an extended period of time, there's so many reasons to grow them.

Tomato Tragic's 3 Golden Rules

I want to inspire you to grow tomatoes, but I’d be fibbing if I told you it was going to be easy. But it’s definitely worth the effort! Here are the tomato-tragic’s three golden rules.

What to do this week

Get ready, spring will be here before we know it. It's time to feed flowering bulbs, replenish moisture and give the Crepe myrtle a prune. Get those ‘last chance’ winter jobs done this week before spring has sprung!

Spring Inspiration

A new range and an old favourite garden this spring will be just what we need. Mr Fothergills summer bulbs and Nooroo, Mt Wilson

What to do this week

Get ready, spring will be here before we know it. As we come to the end of winter here is a list of ‘last chance’ jobs:

In the Vegie Patch: It’s time to feed strawberries.

We are feeding our potted strawberries with Rocket Fuel (Neutrog) and watering with Harvest seaweed (Amgrow). Remember to water the soil, not the leaves, with a seaweed solution every two weeks.

The Magnolia

In flower now with huge goblet-shaped blooms that burst from furry grey buds on bare branches. This is their charm; no leaves, just grey bubs and branches and glowing flowers. There are some incredibly beautiful hybrids available in your local nursery. Choose one now while they are flowering.

Spotlight: on Mistral Anemone

It’s a masterwork in plant breeding! Depth of colour and incredible vigour makes this anemone outstanding. Deep purple and bleeding into a blue centre with black stamens, its dramatic as a cut flower and no wonder the florists love it.

Fathers Day Swagman Pack

This week we have a great special to get your Dad his hands on a Swagman battery operated sprayer. It comes with Wet and Forget to get your house looking great this Spring.

What to do this week:

After heavy rain last week it’s timely to attend to our pots, check the drainage, make sure they are sitting on pot feet and draining freely. You can use a chopstick to open the potting mix and help with drainage.

Early Flowery Spring

You might remember we planted spring flowering bulbs in pots around Mother’s Day; tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, ranunculus and anemones. The first of these tulips and hyacinths are flowering!

In the Veggie Patch: It’s time to harvest cauliflower

Many vegetable gardeners believe that the date to start planting cool season crops is on the first day of winter. Big mistake.

Camellias in Pots

Camellias make fine potted plants but you need to choose wide pots, not too deep, to accommodate their shallow root systems. Choose the varieties suited to pot culture with compact root systems. Bring them centre stage while they flower then tuck them away somewhere cool for the summer.

What's in the love My Lilies Pack?

This week we have a huge pack of 25 lilies to plant in the garden and in pots. Lily bulbs are one of the most rewarding bulbs to grow with a scent, scale and drama that’s hard to beat in the flower world. Lilies will flower and look gorgeous year after year after year. The pack includes 25 Lily bulbs, Seasol’s Powerfeed, Amgrow’s Harvest and Scotts’ Osmocote. All this plus a Platinum membership, but best get in quick. Stocks are limited.

Star of the Season: The Sensation Lily

Lily bulbs are one of the most exciting bulbs to grow, with a scent, scale and drama hard to beat in the flower world. Lilies will look gorgeous for years.

What to do this week: knock-out those weeds

It’s timely to attend to our lawns at this time as winter weeds can weaken growth and should be controlled before they set seed. Here are Graham’s tips for a great lawn, all about control of lawn weeds.

Star of the Season: the Aussie Wattle

Do you know John Williamsons’ song … Cootamundra Wattle? “Hey it’s July and the winter sun is shining. And the Cootamundra wattle is my friend”. Worth looking up on YouTube; one of his best songs. We call him the ‘Living Lawson’. There are many beautiful forms of wattle, but this one, Acacia baileyana ‘Goldilocks’ is well worth growing.

What's in the Love My Orchids Pack?

This week we have an extra special gift to say thank you for joining us at the club – a beautiful Sarcochilus orchid – and a box full of orchid fertilisers to help you grow beautiful flowers. Strikeback Fertiliser from Neutrog, Orchid Indoor food drippers from Yates and Seasol. All this plus a Platinum membership, best get in quick

What to do this week: Prune climbing roses

Every suburban paling fence should be swaddled with a rose! Our fence at The Garden Clinic HQ is adorned with Crepescule, a glorious old rambling rose from 1904. It can be trained against a trellis or as we have done, along wires attached to the fence. Some people are intimidated by climbing roses, uncertain of how to prune them. It’s not difficult; all you need is a sharp pair of secateurs and long leather gloves to protect your arms.

Star of the Season: Hellebores

If there’s one flower that’s both shamelessly promiscuous and awkwardly shy, it’s the winter rose, or hellebore.

She loves cold temperatures, the crisp frost and chilling air that comes with winter. We find it incredible that her delicate beauty can withstand such bone-crunching cold. But she also loves the winter sun beneath deciduous trees that then provide her with essential summer shade when these trees come back into leaf.

What to do this week: Plant ‘Crown Vegetables’

Asparagus and rhubarb are two long-lived plants you can grow from crowns planted in winter. The crown is a section of the plant with roots attached. Crowns are more expensive than seed but offer a shorter wait till harvest.Both these plants do best with an entire garden bed to themselves

In the Vegie Patch: Sow tomato, eggplant and capsicum seeds indoors

Last week we sowed five seeds of an oxheart tomato (Cuore Di Bue Rugantino) in small pots in a mini greenhouse sitting on a heat pad in our laundry.

The Brilliant Banksia

Do you remember the Big Bad Banksia Man from the pen of May Gibbs in her famous classic, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie? May had a soft spot for banksias and so do we. Their golden candles are a beacon for bees and a haven for birds. Grow it as a dense shrub to provide safe haven for little birds such as the blue wren.

What to do this week: July Rose Pruning

July is rose pruning month if you live in a frost-free garden. It’s best to wait until frosts have finished before pruning roses because new shoots will be frosted and the rose plant will suffer. Take a small container of Dettol and a cloth to clean secateurs between roses.

In the Vegie Patch: Time to sow tomatoes

July is a good time to sow tomatoes. It takes 6 to 8 weeks for seeds to germinate and seedlings to grow big and strong enough to be planted out in the vegetable garden.

Plant of the Week: Luculia

The lovely Luculia is a wonderful addition to your winter garden. We have just planted two of them in a new east-facing position in our patch with morning sunshine near the front entrance to our home.

A Camellia Update

This week all the delectable varieties of Camellia reticulata are coming into flower. Flowers are massive; some as large as dinner plates, up to 25cm across. Flowers have a ruffle of petals, and come in rich reds, deep pinks and crimson. These beauties flower later and longer than other camellias, blooming between early May and late September. Most varieties bloom for two months.

What To Do This Week

As the cold weather continues its good to prune plants like bamboo, shell ginger, palms and canna. Feed native plants, in particular the hybrids, which will respond with fabulous flowering latte winter. Use a fertiliser specially for native plants. We love Bush Tucker (Neutrog). Cultivate between rows of vegetables using a single tine, made by removing two tines from a three-pronged cultivator. This opens the soil allowing air and water to penetrate and dislodges weeds.

Winter Orchids

Dancing Lady (oncidium) is a captivating orchid, much more forgiving of bright light than the Moth Orchid. You can grow oncidium on bark slabs and in baskets and hang them in trees. With large fleshy pseudobulb and masses of roots, its prone to rotting if you over-water. Keep them between 18 - 22C during daylight and 10 – 18C at night and you will be rewarded with sprays of ‘dancing ladies’.

What to do this week

The good news is that as winter arrives, weed growth slows. Here are a few jobs that will really make a difference.

In the Vegie Patch … it’s time to plant rhubarb

Winter vegetables are growing well in our patch despite the fact they don’t receive full day sunshine.

Mad About Orchids

Orchids, like our Stanhopea (Upside-down orchid) need feeding each month. So if, like me, you're mad about orchids take care of them now for the floral reward later. Here are some tips about three of my favourites to help make orchid care quick and easy.

Winter Wallflowers

Wallflowers make the perfect winter and spring cut flowers; keep picking and dead-heading and they'll flower right through to spring.It is one of our favourite flowers, deliciously fragrant, a soft mix of mauve and apricot.

What's in the Swagman Master Gardener Pack

An 8L Swagman sprayer, the best on the market, plus everything you need to create our famous Magic Mix: ECO Aminogro, Seaweed concentrate, ECO Neem and of course ECO Oil.

What To Do This Week

This week in the veggie patch we're planting out and watching out for early winter pests.

What to do this week: Graham's to do list

Time to build a compost system and turn the green waste your garden generates into a priceless resource.

In the Veggie Patch: It’s time to plant strawberries

It is remarkable how the taste of home-grown strawberries is so much sweeter than the ones from the supermarket. Delicious sweet strawberries grow well in pots, vegetable gardens and ornamental garden beds.

Time to Plant Flowers

Stock, pansy, viola, poppy, primula and polyanthus can all be planted now.