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Mum’s Garden  -  August Edition

This month we will look at getting our gardens ready for Spring. 

I have been a little preoccupied over the last two months, not to worry, I have time now and the garden is calling me. Lots to do as spring is just around the corner - Gill and I loved discussing our garden plans helping each other wherever we could. Gill was always eager to improve her garden so as soon as the sun started shining out she would go both her body and mind working overtime.

Gill was a vigorous gardener, best replica watches moving huge rocks with her four wheel drive, pulling out large weedy shrubs or even felling small trees that could later end up a problem. I think the neighbours were amazed at what Gill could do, there was no stopping her. She changed a scrubby, overgrown, boring front area into a colourful, useful and natural native garden. She was so proud of her achievements. Gill loved Australian native plants and found great pleasure in planting out a wide selection of shrubs and groundcovers. However there was a time when several of her new plants died. She went to great lengths to fix this dilemma, bringing in soil, raising beds to suit specific plants the list goes on. Still she had problems. Gill and I deliberated over this for hours, eventually we decided to only plant at certain times of the year-late autumn or early spring-this would give plants enough time to get established only watering them a minimal amount. This seemed to work, the plants were happy with very few failures. So if you are having problems in a specific area of your garden, talk to someone who understands your garden, often the simplest way can be the answer. I must say that Gill had done a lot of the ground work, soil preparation etc. and just needed to find the one thing that would solve her problem. Don’t give up! If you have a problem in your garden and would like to discuss it with a caring garden enthusiast email me on - info@gilliansrainbowbridge.org.au

Over the winter months I am thinking of the coming spring well before it happens. This, for me, is the key. Gather plants along the way- markets, Gill and I love perusing the markets, your favourite nursery or specialist growers, local fetes, garden club annual shows- they are all good avenues for picking up some terrific additions to your garden. I live in Healesville, Victoria, and am spoilt with choice so as you can imagine I have gathered a selection of shrubs, bulbs, seeds and perennials which I will soon include in my existing garden. When choosing these plants I am always thinking of colour, size, texture, position and most importantly will these new comers work well with what already exists? These choices will have a huge impact on whether your garden will look exciting, inviting, or perhaps even stimulate the taste buds of your eyes rather than simply be a garden containing a collection of plants. I believe it is important for me to create a garden that I enjoy just give it a bit of thought before you plant.

The coming month or two is full of hard work, trim perennials that are shooting from the base this way you can easily get rid of old dead foliage, making space for all the new growth. Pull out weeds, dead plants and trim back shrubs that look a little untidy. However do be aware of frosts and protect these more vulnerable newly trimmed plants. I usually don’t trim the salvias until after frosts have gone but Gillian’s Rainbow Bridge is holding a garden event in October so I want the garden to look its best. I have been fortunate in obtaining some marix cloth to cover tender plants over the frosty nights. Lots of work, but us gardeners are a little obsessive!

To protect plants from frosts I also gather empty feed bags, old sheets, even straw can be useful for low growing plants. You will need to take these off each day, except the straw.

As I walk outside I can’t help but smell the spicy aroma of the Erlicheer daffodils, sometimes known as Early Cheer daffodils. Gill would come and gather large bunches of these prolific growing softly coloured enchanting daffs to take home. A lovely memory!

I better get focussed- make sure your roses are trimmed. This year I will only give them a minimal trimming, imagine you are cutting a large bunch of roses, this amount of pruning will be plenty, then reshape if needed. I have old world roses and I like their more natural shapes so I only prune back these beauties every few years. Some of the large climbers rarely get pruned, just a trim here and there. I prefer a garden that is well cared for but also allows the plants freedom to grow and ramble enabling them to mingle with their neighbours.

I remember hearing a rose expert saying that when fertilising a rose, or other plants for that matter, don’t spread the fertiliser evenly around the whole root area of the plant, rather, place it in one or two spots, in small mounds. This, he said, is what nature would do-an animal would do its droppings in one spot rather than neatly spread its manure around the plants root area. It makes sense to me. I do this in my garden and it works.

If you have lots of plants growing in paths or other areas where you don’t want them don’t just pull them out and throw them away, consider potting them on. Name these saved treasures, write down the colour and size of the plants too. Local groups, family and friends will love both them and you.This is also a time for mulching and fertilising. I have collected quite a few bags of sheep manure and straw which have had time to decompose. I will liberally spread this over the areas that have been weeded and trimmed, while straw doesn’t have much goodness itself it is both good mulch and a source of organic matter. I will add some lucerne hay and in some areas I will use some old sheep fleeces. Then in mid August I will add some slow release organic pellets and give the roses a dose of diluted sulphate of potash. This will get them all moving and blooming by October with a little bit of luck.

As I garden, I am always thinking of how to improve the area, what plants would look good here, what plants need to be moved, do I need a boost of colour in this spot, do I need some height here, or is one plant taking over. Sometimes I overplant, so maybe a couple of low plants are being hidden by a larger, over enthusiastic gem. Keep your eyes open and be alert to what is happening.

I have noticed that when weeding or trimming I go in one direction, because of this I then turn around and go the opposite way. It is amazing how easy it is to miss weeds or dead stems/branches. By doing this I seem to have most areas covered.
A small hint, if you have a large garden and prefer lucerne hay as mulch consider purchasing the large round bales, they are usually good value for money. My husband then uses an old chain saw to divide the hay into sections this makes it easy to distribute. See if it works for you.

If I have time I will sprinkle some more poppy seeds in the garden, it might be a little late, but I will give it a go. Also I try to use the moon cycles for planting and propagating, it works for me. I recently purchased the seed of a beautiful summer flowering poppy named, White Prickly Poppy- Argemone, from Lambley’s, I will sprinkle these new comers in the garden mid to late spring. I am a bit hooked on poppies these days so enjoy trying a few different varieties. One little gem, Papaver sp. aff. rupifragum, starts flowing early spring and keeps on treating me, and others, to exquisite orange flowers right through into autumn. What a delight. It has self seeded in the garden and I look forward to seeing its blooms. By the end of winter I am so looking forward to seeing the garden come to life again. There is always an array of flowers through most of the year, especially the salvias, but some things like the orange poppy, I have a yearning to see, a bit like the first bite of a home grown tomato. Especially as you have waited so long for the pleasure of this delicious fruit or eye catching flower- at long last here it is. A dear friend and fellow gardener, Jane, and I, both agree that for us, this sense of anticipation is one of the major pleasures of gardening, because there is always something to look forward to.

I can’t end the month without including something from the vegie patch.
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Little Tamsyn, my delight, my granddaughter, loves to feast on Nana’s strawberries, so I better get moving. We have had quite a few friends and family members commenting on how like Gill little Tamsyn looks. We think she has quite a bit of Gill’s full-on personality in her too! With a name like Tamsyn Ashleigh Gillian Conrad we expect trouble at its best!!

Here we go, I grow my strawberries in a couple of old baths and occasionally in large hanging baskets and I have found each year provides different weather conditions which keeps me on my toes. I collect the young plants and pot them on, also I have been told that you get a good three years out of a strawberry plant but I keep them until they are not productive, then I make a decision. Time to tidy up all the old strawberry plants, firstly get rid of all the dead foliage, then cut off the suckers and finally weed around the plants. I then sprinkle some organic slow release fertiliser/pellets over the soil and cover with a generous layer of pine needles-if you have decomposed pine needles all the better. This will give strawberries the acid conditions they will need to really flourish. Also this will help the fresh strawberries from touching the soil and the pine needles will fertilise the plants giving you a bumper crop. See if it works for you.

The other day I was chatting to a fellow gardener who will soon be visiting the garden here at Wallingford, I was showing concerns about the weather when she said, “Don’t worry, Annette, us gardeners are a tough breed”. I thought, yes I suppose we are. So get out there enjoy all that the garden has to offer and reap all the benefits your hard work has created.

Also, I was listening to Jane Edmanson from Gardening Australia and she commented that the fourth biggest killer of people is lack of being active or something along that vein. She suggested getting rugged up and out there, planting a plant, weeding a spot in the garden or trimming a plant, these activities will help to keep you healthy and I agree. Don’t be sedentary about life, enjoy it while you can.

Catch up next month.

Annette

PS  
When standing outside, near Gill’s lawn, and not far from the daffodils, Gary quietly said, “look across at the Claret Ash”,