Garden Clinic Blog

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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

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

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.

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.

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