A Gardeners Blog

Why do my Tomato leaves curl up or turn white?

2012-01-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

I've just been given a bag of fresh Tomatoes from our friends Frank & Tony Lanza. These are commercially grown hybrids so the taste test will be interesting compared directly the juicy reds that Kerry has started harvesting at home.

As we have reached harvesting I have fielded a few questions about Toms this week.

The first was from Mark who noticed the leaves of his KY1 plants curling upwards. I honestly don't know what would cause this, it may be specific to the KY1 variety. Ky has a very distinctive leaf shape and growth habit as a young plant but I'm not aware of leaves curling up especially. If you have any experience please let me know.

Mark also commented that all his Tomatoes had started fruiting but stopped after only half a dozen fruit or so. This sounded odd but I couldn't respond over the phone, interestingly Kaye has confirmed that her Tomatoes have done the same thing and I may have noticed the same at home (if I looked closely enough). I'm pleased to report that Kaye's plants have started to set fresh flowers.

The other Tomato query came from Michael.

What is causing the bleaching on this Roma plant. I honestly don't know so if you can help me help Michael I'd be very grateful.

A couple of hints following these discussions:

Please please please use good potting mix (Debco Terra Cotta & Tub - I was going to supply a link here but I think someone has raided their web site). Only experienced gardeners should play around mixing in their own compost and fertilizers.
Seaweed solution is NOT fertilizer. It is a great multi vitamin, but you can't survive on vitamins alone.
Tomatoes will need plenty of water on hot days so they need a big container to support their roots.
What's this thing with Epsom Salts? Magnesium is a relatively minor fertilizer element. Let's get the basics right first. NPK. Preferably just stick with manure in garden beds.
Please use Premium Potting mix.
9 times out of 10 a problem observed in the flowers or foliage began with the roots. OK so I exaggerate a little.

I'm off for a couple of weeks. See you soon.

Scotsburn Nurseries - A Short History

2011-12-29T22:45:00.001-08:00

This article has just been published in the Nursery and Garden Industry of Victoria's Groundswell magazine.
Thanks to Alan Hollensen at NGIV and to Uncle Robert.

Scotsburn Nurseries – A Short History
David Wood the 2^nd youngest of 12 children, left school as a 14 year old at the onset of the Great Depression looking for work. He landed a position as ‘Florist’s Boy’ at Vickerman’s Florist in Balaclava, not entirely accidental given the extended Wood family already had a long association with horticulture. David’s father had run his own nursery in Deepdene and worked at the famous Nobelius Nursery, the Orangeries in NSW and planted vines for John Riddoch in the Coonawarra.

Florist's boy with attitude
While David was working at Vickerman’s he met and befriended Fred Linton a young nurseryman delivering stock to the business. In 1932 David joined Fred to learn the skills of flower growing before taking the role of market man at the Vic Market as soon as he was old enough to get his drivers’ licence. Dave manned stand 78 at the Peel St end of shed E from 5.00am four mornings each week for nearly 15 years and the business retained the stand until the wholesale market moved to Footscray in October 1969.
Before the war Fred would grow anything that attracted a sale, things don’t change much. Delphinium, Russell Lupins, Aquilegias, Pansies and Violets were grown along with their stock lines Poppies and Gum. All of these were grown in beds except the Gum tips which were picked from the scrub that surrounded the nursery on the Scotsburn Estate at Huntingdale. Herbs were added to the range and through their contacts at the market they started contract growing vegetable seedlings. It was during this period that flower growers discovered that they could lift young seedlings, wrap them in paper and sell them bundled at the market. Field grown Polyanthus and onions were still sold loose rooted until about ten years ago. The practice of raising seed and pricking off into long wooden “seedling” trays evolved from here.
At the end of the Second World War, Dave was keen to try his hand at his own business and Fred was looking for a change, so in August 1945 the business was sold to David Wood. Fred did not leave the industry so Dave changed the business name from Fred Linton, Nurseryman to Scotsburn Nurseries. Fate smiled on the new business from the start, a large shipment of tomato seedlings bound for Shepparton was lost when the crop was destroyed by floods. David had to supply the lot a second time, for a second payday.
In the early 60’s, Robert Wood joined his father in the family business. As a boy Robert had prepared seedling trays with a layer of elephant manure collected from Wirth’s Circus and topping it up with ‘top soil’. Top soil could be pretty much any old scrapings from the latest housing development. In these days before the introduction of individual punnets nine dozen plants were pricked into the trays to be sold as 100 plants. Most trays were also patched prior to dispatch to fill the gaps where plants had damped off. A significant change to growing technology was needed to improve the efficiency and viability of this system.
Robert, his cousin Fred (FG Wood, Nurseryman later United Nurseries Melbourne), Maurie Wood (David’s brother, Woodlyn Nurseries) and many other Australian Nurserymen travelled to the Waite Institute, South Australia to learn about the UC System for Producing Healthy Container Grown Plants from Professor Kenneth Baker. The UC system produced a revolution in the Australian Nursery Industry as growers scoured the country for second hand steam generators to pasteurize their soil, safer and more effective than the Methyl Bromide treatment they tried first.

The Wood family. I can count 4 nurserymen, I'm sure there are more.
Scotsburn continued to prosper through this period of plenty in Australia. Products continued to evolve with emphasis moving from cut flowers to the quick turn over seedlings and potted crops such as ferns and flowering Cyclamen. G.J. Coles & Co. emerged as a key customer with multiple high turnover stores requiring daily deliveries. Robert encouraged David to invest in skills which led to the employment of a number of Burnley College trained nurserymen including Rod Dawson (Braemar Park Nursery) who would manage the business after David retired.
1967 brought a fierce drought and the introduction of very tight water restrictions. Water restrictions are disastrous for seedling nurseries so Robert left the business to save a wage and took up a teaching position. Although the industry quickly recovered from the ’67 drought Robert did not come back to the business for many years.
In 1972 David’s wife Glenda was diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually take her life five years later. Dave was well known in the industry as a tough competitor but he showed his caring side when he retired from daily running of his business to spend more time with his wife. They travelled and enjoyed the time they had together. In Glenda’s last months they moved in with their daughter Janet and her family.
Scotsburn was finding the competitive landscape very different by now but they retained their place as one of the state’s biggest seedling growers and purchased a site in Keysborough with plans for future growth. However, among the emerging competitors were two powerhouse operators, Wall’s Nursery and Woodlyn Nurseries. Dick Wall had started Wall’s Nursery in the 60’s, Peter & Graham Wood were taking over from their father Maurie at Woodlyn. Dick and Peter were good mates and fierce competitors who led the industry though an exciting period of growth. The subtleties of the manager of the business at Scotsburn not having final say over direction and investments did not help and Scotsburn lost market share to their chief rivals.
Skip to 1983 and David’s daughter Jan and husband Robin Douglas sit their eldest son down and ask him a fateful question; “What will you do if you don’t pass your Year 12exams?” Peter, up ‘til this point hadn’t given much consideration to his future thought “that course at Burnley looks OK, a bit of science, a bit of design and plenty of time outdoors”. He changed his University preference from Arts to Horticulture and enrolled at Burnley – which he loved. During a lecture at Burnley Peter discovered that Scotsburn was a seedling nursery. He also convinced a friend to visit Woodlyn Nursery at Five Ways in preference to travelling all the way to Sunshine Seedlings. Peter’s friend lived in Cheltenham, Sunshine was in neighbouring Heatherton. There was no stated plan to join the family business, not immediately any way.

A curious effect of Peter’s recently discovered enthusiasm for growing plants was a renewed level of interest within the family for the business. Frustrated at Scotsburn’s slipping market share and demands for more investment David asked Robert to return in 1986. In a turbulent period the manager left and Jan resigned her job as a school registrar to manage the Keysborough site. Peter finished his course at Burnley and went to Japan for three months work experience growing Cymbidiums. While away the original Scotsburn Avenue nursery site was sold to Sunshine Seedlings and Peter was asked to start work moving Scotsburn to Keysborough immediately. Scotsburn Nurseries is now run by an ex-teacher, an ex-school registrar and an inexperienced ex-Burnley student.
The business was rebuilt on the back of some tough and painful decisions – the hardest being the retrenchment of over half the staff. The essence of the change was to focus on one product, annual seedlings. Within a year it was almost back to break-even followed by a bumpy ride to a prolonged period of growth and profitability. Robert Wood retired to Beaufort in 1992, nearly worn out but satisfied that he had provided a platform for the family business to continue to develop. Jan and Peter continued with the business and were soon joined by Jan’s husband Robin. Rob who had retired from his own building business was regularly called on for financial advice and found he quite liked the nursery industry.
A wall, or more accurately, a number of them were hit about five years ago and Scotsburn Nurseries found itself the victim of a seismic shift in the market. The international move by consumers away from bedding plants was intensified by the introduction of serious water restrictions for the first time in more than 20 years. The company battled on through these difficulties and drew on their earlier experiences to, once again, re-focus the business.
“We have done five really hard years and have re-learnt what we do and who we are. In the late 80’s we focussed on a particular product. I tried that again but times and tastes have changed. Then we made all the same mistakes trying every opportunity that presented itself. Now we have settled on focussing on a particular market. That’s working much better. Now we try to find products for our market, not markets for our product”
Scotsburn Nurseries has made the decision to devote itself to the independent garden centre market. As Peter describes it; “I’m happier now with what we are growing and selling and who our customers are than I was even in our biggest days. A good deal of our growth then was due as much to competitors leaving as the overall market diminished as it was to our own good work. Now we have to be disciplined and not try everything but it means we can get much closer to our customers and tailor all our sales and marketing efforts. We have also discovered that it allows the business to reflect who we are much more effectively. We do a lot of work with Primary Schools, the Gould League’s Multicultural School Garden Scheme and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program. The response from the school communities is fantastic, it does wonders for our team and hopefully encourages a new generation into the garden.”

Spreading a little Christmas joy.

2011-12-16T22:34:00.000-08:00

This is my 3rd Christmas email. How about that? Some weeks it's hard to find the inspiration, but mostly there is a new question, a new season or a growing problem. This week it's a business problem that I'm contemplating, one I know I should write about but I'm not so sure I want to.

A few weeks back I wrote about the excitement of discovering Fuchsia's. We spent nearly 3 years playing and tweaking Fuchsia until we got confident this season and in our terms went for broke and put in a big batch. Part of the lesson in Fuchsia growing came when we had a pre-order for Fuchsias to dispatch in October last year. Our plants were not up to standard so we called around, I'd rather lose money on the order than admit to messing it up. We were astounded to discover that we couldn't buy a Fuchsia basket for love nor money, they had all been cut back to prepare them for Christmas sales. Who knew? Well apparently anyone that knows anything about Fuchsia, but I'm prepared to learn.

Learn we did and this year's Fuchsia Baskets have been a winner. We had what felt to us like a huge batch and good sized Christmas pre-orders, but not enough to take away the concern that we had grown too many baskets (Mark gets very grumpy when he has to cut back or worse dump plants).

We have put a lot of effort into taking Christmas orders and a great deal of effort goes into getting everything delivered on time. Much more effort than would seem necessary but any number of small problems can derail the process: seed has to be sown on time, plants have to be potted, spaced, moved to the best growing area. Then we have to put ordered stock aside, plus a few for the inevitable losses. The orders then have to be picked from the correct batches. No it shouldn't be that difficult, but believe me it is. I think we have a pretty good reputation for delivering what we promise, but the order that goes out exactly as it was placed many months before is sadly in the minority. Oh, and just for good measure we are still trying to find a way to move any stock once the pre-orders have been delivered.

Well you can see where this story is heading. We grew the Fuchsias and a number of other Christmas Gift items beautifully, but thinking we were over stocked we were less than diligent in putting the required plants aside for orders. Right up to Trade Day last week we were still pushing hard to move the Fuchsias in case we were stuck with them. Then someone suddenly says we haven't got any more Fuchsias???!!! and we've still got orders to fill!! Some language was used at this point that I'm not proud of.

So, we had some frustrated and angry customers, I am genuinely sorry. We did not handle these orders with appropriate care. To everyone else, we have another year's growing experience, great product and an itch to make amends when we next get the chance to handle special seasonal orders.... like Mother's Day. It's not all bad, we really have tested our systems and found the faults, I'm confident we can improve.

Anyway, We have one week to go until Christmas. Enjoy the sales, it's not necessarily easy while under intense pressure. Have a great Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year. By the way we'll work right through and I note with interest that Van Berkel will be delivering between Christmas and New Year for the first time in a long time. Let's hope that's a sign of the health of the industry.

How can I be sure my food is not GMO?

2011-12-01T23:20:00.001-08:00

We took a call from Belinda this week, "can we assure her that our vegetable seedlings are not genetically modified". As soon as I said "Ahhh, that's interesting"
my kids would have started running, poor Belinda.

The simple answer is everything we grow has been genetically modified to some extent, the Aztecs 'selected' their favourite Tomato varieties and the practice of Pea crossing to produce Hybrids was well established before Mendel identified the patterns of inheritance in the mid 19th century. Of course that is not what Belinda meant by 'genetically modified', GM is the black science of gene splicing and breeding resistances into plants by using genetic material from other plants and animals.

Table showing how genes exchange according to segregation or independent assortment during meiosis and how this translates into Mendel's Laws. No I can't explain it, my clearest memory of genetics is falling asleep in the front row of the class. There were only three of us took that elective and I wasn't the only one asleep.

Any way, the answer is unequivocally no, we don't grow GM vegetables. Why? We can't afford to. Simple and practical and not very romantic. Modern hybrid vegetables are extraordinarilly expensive. 10 and 20 times the cost per seed (per each individual seed) than the most expensive varieties we can afford to put in punnets to sell at prices gardeners are prepared to pay. As growers our whole industry was sucked into spending more and more on Pansy seed in the 80's & 90's. These hybrids were by no means GM but the improvements in growth habit, vigour, disease resistance and flower colours were irresistable until we looked one day and discovered our seed bill had gone from 5% of our turnover and was suddenly approaching 15%. The savings from improved growing do not cover this sort of cost increase. From that day on I have learned to be very careful about what plants can and can't be used for punnets or small pots. Of course most home gardeners are environmentally concious and we find the most popular varieties are often the oldest, because they taste better.

Some thoughts on liquid fertilizer

2011-11-25T21:45:00.001-08:00

I noticed this week that Beasley's Nursery has a Dosmatic fertilizer injector set up next to their seedling house. This grabbed my attention for two reasons Beasley's present seedlings as well as any garden centre I know (not mine frustratingly, but that's another story) and because I was asked about fertilizing seedlings a couple of times during the week. Applying some feed to seedlings will become particularly important over the coming months as garden centres try to extend the shelf life of their plants as turn over drops away in the hot months.

We walk a fine line when it comes to fertilizer, too much and plants rush away on us, too little and they stress which can lead to all sorts of other problems. Realistically we offer seedlings that we expect will last a couple of weeks before being planted out as long as they are watered as needed. We have a few strategies to achieve this: a small amount of "micro-fine" controlled release fertilizer mixed into the growing media, regular liquid feeding to keep plants toned and a relatively heavy doe of liquid feed as plants are dispatched. To maintain quality plants in a seedling display I strongly recommend continued application of liquid fertilizer.

I recommend Debco Plant Food - All Purpose, it's a well balanced blend that should maintain healthy plants without producing triffids. Bare in mind that I am not a fan of plant junk food that offers easy green, super green and lush growth. At Scotsburn we use blended liquid fertilizers either Campbell's Diamond White or Krystalon White, fairly obviously they are pretty much interchangeable products from different manufacturers. We use around 1g of fertilizer per litre of water, once a week should be plenty but be prepared to increase the frequency after heavy rain or hot weather when extra irrigation will wash out feed. I haven't tried organic materials such as Charlie Carp but I expect that with a little trialling they would produce perfectly good results... just too expensive for use in our situation.

How is liquid fertilizer best applied. It's best that the plants are not stressed when fertilizing; not too hot, soil not too dry or too wet. A watering can will do the job perfectly well but will become frustrating if feeding a large batch of plants. Sage Horticultural has a range of fertilizer injectors, I notice starting as cheaply as $195.00 that simplify the process of fertilizing so that it is just part of the watering process.

A"Venturi Fertilizer Injector", simple, effective and remarkably cheap.

Can I measure the value of my Vegie Garden

2011-11-18T21:26:00.001-08:00

Are you proud of your vegie garden?

A project to collect yield data from urban food gardens
Food gardens in urban backyards, can be highly productive, they can provide fresh nutritious food at low cost and low energy inputs. Are they am under-recognised food source ?
This project is seeking gardeners willing to measure their harvest for a season, scales can be provided if needed.   It doesn’t matter what gardening style is being used -   Mediterranean, Asian, biodynamic, traditional English, Permaculture or whatever as long as it produces food.   An analysis of the yield data will be published and hopefully assist local councils in their support for food gardens.
As well as harvest measuring the project will interview gardeners and create short case studies on gardening techniques for the local area.
If you are interested to participate or would like to hear more please contact us.

Thanking you, all the best,
John McKenzie
e: abundantgardens@optusnet.com.au     mobile: 0421 699 306
A project by Permaculture Melbourne   ( www.permaculturemelbourne.org.au )

Great cause. Sounds like fun.

Fuchsia Trials

2011-11-10T23:22:00.001-08:00

When I first started working at Scotsburn back in 1987 we were going through a tough period, not dissimilar to what we have experienced of the past few years. We tackled our problems in much the same way by testing and trialling new plants in the hope of steadying a listing ship. Scotsburn had tried indoor plants and ferns and when we were really desperate we tried Christmas Trees, the less said about our trees the better. Amongst the varieties tried were Fuchsia baskets. My Uncle Robert loves his English style perennials including Fuchsias, he is also a collector. I like the idea that gardeners fall into two categories: collectors and controllers. Rob is definitely a collector although I have to admit that his beautiful garden shows distinct signs of 'control' these days. Well Rob put together a terrific collection of named Fuchsia varieties but I don't remember them selling and honestly I glaze over whenever we start talking about individual varieties named after someones cat. I was young and strong willed and ended up taking the opposite course by focusing on seedlings and bloomers and deleting all the "non-core" products including Fuchsia. For better or worse that tactic suited us well at the time.

When things turned nasty with the introduction of water restrictions a few years ago I initially tried to remain focused on core business. I lost count of the number of times I was asked if we had started growing cactus. My response was "no we'll stick to our knitting. Not everyone can grow Cacti". But over time we grew more & more desperate and ended up growing potted bulbs (refer to note on Christmas Trees) and contract growing herbs for next to no return. And guess what! Fuchsia got another run. We grew a few, madly out of season due to a lack of any real understanding of the plant... and they sold. So we took some of our own cuttings and we found we could do that and grow a good plant... and they sold. This year we have put together a program to grow our Fuchsia baskets and have them ready for November/December (Christmas) sales. And with no little pride in my team, they have nailed it... and they sell!

We only have 2 varieties in baskets this year Dark Eyes and Trailing White (I think it's White Eyes, but White Eyes is supposed to be an 'upright' variety) and we have plenty of them. We have taken cuttings of half a dozen more varieties for next year's November sales. It's hard to express how exciting it is to find something that we grow well and people are interested in.

So to Uncle Robert, my apologies, but I did listen it just took a long time to act.

The essence of Lavender

2011-11-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

My mother in law visited the Bridewstowe Lavender farm some time ago, based on her photos I have wanted to see it. My only experience with "Lavender Farms" in Victoria has been very underwhealming. So when we were offere the opportunity to grow plants bred at Bridestowe I jumped at the chance. Bridestowe has a long and interesting history, at least I think so, my kids might not agree. They have also built a great horticultural/tourism business that's worth having a look at. it's fair to say they'll sell anything with tha slightest association with Lavender. I've a suspicion that gardeners prepared to buy a Bridestowe coffee cup will be keen to grow their own Bridestowe Lavender.

We potted tube stock from our supplier back in July. These special plants so we chose to grow them in 200mm pots to ensure they had the best chance to show their potential, but back in the cold and dark of July we really did wonder if they would ever fill the pots. Well they started showing green shoots in September and have very quickly filled out. We still have a month or so before they reach peak flowering and that says to me it's time to show them to the public. I'm sure gardeners will want to catch the best of this year's flowering season.

We have 3 varieties grown from breeding done on the Bridestowe Estate. These are English Lavender cultivars (Lavandula angustifolia) selected and sorted to produce flowers, colours, fragrance and oil exported around the world.
Bridestowe Elizabeth: Ideal for cut flowers. This is an excellent hedging lavender with strong, robust stems. Their performance in pots to date suggests they also make ideal container plants. They have medium Purple flowers with Red undertones. Plants will grow to 1m.

Bridestowe Myra. Highly Fragrant. Myra is a classic 'richly perfumed' Lavender. This cultivare emphasizes the breeding done at Bridestowe to to maximize production of high quality essential oils. Of course this makes Myra ideal for flower arrangements and pot pourri. Myra will grow to about 1m.

Bridestowe Philippa. Culinary Lavender. Who knew? Culinary Lavender must be low in Camphor, I assume to make it palatable. In pots Philippa has a riotous growth habit and will grow out to a mounded plant to 60cm tall. "Bridestowe Philippa may be used fresh or dried to impart sophisticated flavours to sweet or savoury dishes". I had to quote that, I am in awe. If you have any good recipes calling for Lavender please let me know and I'll pass them around.

Can I control Early Blight of Tomatoes?

2011-10-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon
I purchased two of your Mighty Red tomato plants about 2 weeks ago, as well as

two Apollo and two Grosse Lisse from another supplier.

I planted the six plants - alternating - in a well prepared garden bed.

Yesterday, the Mighty Red plants had significant Early Blight so I have removed them

to the rubbish bin. The remaining 4 plants show no sign of any disease and look very healthy.
Is Mighty Red susceptible to disease - more than any other?

Your response would be appreciated.

Regards

Harold

Ouch!
Early blight is Alternaria solani (Alternaria of the Tomato family)

It is not a disease we regularly deal with on Tomatoes but it makes me lie awake on frosty nights. Our Pansies can end up looking not far off the pic above if we allow any water to sit on the foliage on cold, still nights. The chief form of prevention is regular doses of fungicide but I find managing watering more effective and more environmentally appropriate.

Why don't we see it more often on Tomatoes? Probably because we molly coddle them and hide them from frost. My guess is that our plants were either too soft from being kept inside too long or they didn't have a protective coating of fungicide to keep the disease out. I won't change our spraying policy but we have moved our Toms outside now to toughen them up. Living on the edge!

We do find that our pansies will grow out of the Alternaria problems if the damage isn't too severe. It helps to have the plants growing vigorously, not hungry and stressed.

So why bare my soul? I'd rather know about problems than not, we want to supply only the very best plants. So if you have seen signs of Early Blight or any other problem that we need to take responsibility for please give me a call or drop me a line. If you have any tips on controlling Alternaria diseases please let me know.

By the way Mighty Red is a hybrid variety with excellent disease resistance and flavour.

Why do my Tomato plants turn purple?

2011-10-14T00:35:00.001-07:00

A tray of our Funky Fresh Kitchen Tomato pots, College Challenger I think. Getting a little "hard" i know.

We walk a fine line at this time of year, we lost the first two batches of Basil before even sending them out. The demand is so crazy that we have to try to have them available but it doesn't take much to put them off.

I've also had inquiries this week about Tomatoes losing colour. Perhaps more accurately taking on the hue of a three day old bruise, purple and yellow. This colouring is a symptom of the plants being hungry. Especially for nitrogen and phosphorus. Tomatoes are a great crop, we have significant demand and they are relatively easy to grow except for the fuss of staking them. There are two issues that we have to watch for: stretching and black spots (haven't seen any yet this year!). To protect the plants from the winter and early spring elements we hold the plants in a poly house. This ensures the plants can grow without stress but encourages them to grow very tall and skinny and if the foliage is too soft the black spot bacteria can infect the plants easily. We try to control this culturally by deliberately under watering them and by supplying only just enough fertilizer to keep them green but not enough to grow like crazy. Another trick is to use what is often called a 'native plant' fertilizer that is very low in phosphorus, this encourages strong cells and inhibits 'stretchy' growth.

When the plants get too hungry they start to change colour: yellow foliage indicates plants need more nitrogen and the purpling is a sign that a little phosphorus is needed. In fact in the nursery this colouring is quite a good sign because we know we can generally turn these plants around very quickly with a little extra liquid feed. But here's the down side, when we are managing plants so closely they can start to look very hungry very soon after leaving our loving care. Now that the weather is warming we can take a calculated risk and move plants outside sooner, this hardens them up naturally and allows us to start applying a little extra fertilizer. In the garden centre a weekly application of complete, liquid fertilizer should help maintain colour and shelf life but I understand that this is not always possible.

For gardeners, a little yellow and purpling is not at all a bad thing. Once plants hit freshly prepared soil or quality potting mix they jump away, I'd suggest much more reliably than plants that go into the garden too soft. Just make sure it's purple shading, not small dark spots.

Hope this helps, please don't hesitate to call if I have only raised more questions.

Where can I buy healthy Tomato plants on the web?

2011-10-07T00:11:00.000-07:00

Grrrrrrrr!
I walked into our local Supermarket and discovered these sad little stunted Grosse Lisse plants. They're fresh, no doubt. Growing vigorously, yes. But Healthy? This is supposed to be Grosse Lisse and it looks more like KY1. For those of us who handle young Tomato plants every spring Ky is a sprawly, spready variety, Grosse is a tall, quite muscular plant. Did the grower use the wrong seed? Did they get the labels wrong? Both of these can and do happen, we have to put a great deal of work into ensuring that they don't.

No I don't think that's the case. These tall growing Tomatoes have no stakes. I think these plants have been heavily, really heavily treated with Plant Growth Regulators (PGR's). Plant Hormones. There's nothing illegal in this practice. PGR's are registered for use on all sorts of fruit and vegetables. I did notice shortly after seeing these plants a TV add promoting chicken (I think) not treated with growth hormones and I know from experience that gardeners feel the same way about PGR's. But that's not why I'm growling.

Will these plants ever grow out of this treatment? Or will the novice gardener who purchases and takes them home assume they have done something wrong? You know what happens then; we have lost another gardener. Grrrrrrr! We infrequently buy young plants - "plugs" when we fall short from our own seed sowing. One draw back in doing this is the PGR treatment of the plugs that prevent the plants growing out the way we expect. If we can't get the result we want, what happens to the home gardener?

Why do nurseries use PGR's? Shelf life. PGR treated plants stay more compact and hold a magnificent, intense green colouring so they look great on shelves longer and in the case of the plants in the photo there is no need to stake them, a very expensive process. In the case of plugs, PGR's have the added benefit of evening up the plants size. Treatment at a very early stage is absorbed more readily by the largest, most vigorous plants allowing the smaller plants to catch up. This makes the trays look better and is valuable when transplanting robotically.

What are the alternatives to PGR's. Grow the plants longer and slower. Harden them off outdoors earlier and keep them as dry as possible, this creates a tougher, more resilient plant. Feeding appropriately also helps: not too much and definitely hold back on the sweeties (read Nitrogen and Phosphorus).

Got that off my chest, I feel much better.

Now, I promise I didn't set the two halves of this newsletter up this happened purely by chance.

Would you like to purchase healthy, fresh Tomato plants directly from the grower? (That's me) Plants guaranteed not to have been treadted with PGR's and I can assure you they have had very little treatment with chemical pesticides.

I trialled posting Tomatoes last year, they arrived safe and sound and grew away very successfully. So enthusiastic am I about this little idea we have created a special web site just for this exersize. It includes an online shopping cart, very high tech. www.tomatopost.com.au That's us! Please give it a try. We have a selection of more than 20 varieties (when they're all available) including hybrids, heirloom varieties and hertiage Tomatoes like Grosse Lisse and KY1. The plants are tough and well hardened and pulled from exactly the cell trays we use for our own production and for commercial vegie growers.

Cost? Around $1.90 each delivered to your letter box.

Please let me know what you think of our new project.

Do Rats eat my vegies?

2011-09-30T19:19:00.001-07:00

Cheese and Whiskers I'm a clever, clever Rat!
Sadly they're not all so cute. In fact I was talking to my dad the other day about Native Rats, "they're quite different you know" and I can here Kerry saying "But it's still a rat!"

Why rats?

Hi Guys,
I just wanted to provide you with some feedback regarding my recent purchase of your Magic Square Garden.
Love the garden, it looks great with it’s rustic / recycled charm! Perfect size to plant plenty of veggies and the best thing is that I don’t have to get on my hands and knees to do so. It’s height also keeps my children’s little fingers from picking off leaves. A great selection of veggies were delivered to plant in the box also.
Your service has been fantastic, everyone I have dealt with has been extremely efficient, friendly and helpful. The box was delivered within it’s expected time frame and you came back a second time to deliver the possum dome for me.
Thank you so much, I love the box and are most grateful for your friendly service.
Cheers Kirsty

So I replied and Thanked Kirsty for her lovely note and asked if I could use it as a testimonial:

Feel free to use my feedback.
I have a puzzle for you also.
About a week ago I had your possum net set up because 70% of the vegies you delivered disappeared. Cauliflower, broccoli, silver beet & spinach gone!! Coriander, spring onions, parsley & chives around the backyard eaten to the roots. Even the leaves of carrots and my well established celery. So I put up the netting (only on the veggie box) to test my possum theory. My neighbour 2 doors away has the same plants, no issues at all.
After putting the netting up, planting a new crop, they were gone again.
So I have concluded it must be rats. I put a rat block bait into the veggie box within the netting, gone in the am! Did it again the next night with the thunder storms, nothing. Did it again last night, the bait was gone again & it had attacked a lemon off my dwarf lemon tree. I am guessing that the rat is able to climb up inside the bottom of the netting around the box.
So frustrating when my neighbour 2 doors away does not have this issue at all!!
Any long term suggestions apart from loads of rat bait?
Cheers Kirsty

I casually raised rats in gardens in the lunch room and we had an entertaining discussion around rats and their ability to get into anything and everything and their appetite for rat baits as well as garden vegetables. It was widely agreed that rats like vegies. Mark was adamant that they collect baits and take them away, supply enough bait and wait and you are likely to find a very smelly corpse somewhere unwanted.

I've done a little Googling and found quite a lot of information very quickly. There are a range of traps available, some lethal some humane... but what are you going to do with a live rat? Baits are readily available but make sure you set it in one of those enclosed 'bait stations' to prevent pets and children finding the bait. And don't forget that rats are communal creatures, there will rarely be just one to remove.

My love of Passionfruit

2011-09-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Damn near 25 years doing this job and still learning new things every day. Gotta like that but it also makes you wonder if I'm a bit slow. Last year we re-introduced Grafted Tomatoes and Grafted Eggpant to our product range. We did this because we found a supplier willing to supply us with young grafted plants. A brilliant product on their part, requires huge skill and equipment. There won't be many competitor's in this space. I'd also like to point out that they produce a beautiful product with a very strong graft with only the rootstock's roots in the soil. (If that raises another question, there is more than one way to graft Tomatoes. One method leave the roots of both the root stock and the scion in the soil. The superior graft and much more difficult requires removal of the scion roots altogether. Done well it is both stronger and more effective at giving the benefit of the root stock to the scion plant.)

We wanted a Grafted Tomato on our list to complete the basket of products on offer to ensure our customers didn't have to go to our competitors for this essential product. That's not the best reason to grow a new plant but the crop of grafted Tomatoes served it's purpose, sold moderately well and we dumped very few. Here's the interesting bit, when we introduced the Grafted Tomatoes last year we were immediately asked if we grew Grafted Passionfruit. Now I didn't make the mental jump from Tomato to Passionfruit but as it happened the same supplier offered a grafted Passionfruit so what the hell, let's have a go. That attitude get's me into trouble at times when Mark and the growing team have to deal with my horticultural inquisitiveness. Any way I ordered 3 batches in about the same quantities as I had ordered Grafted Eggplant plugs, as good a guess as any.

Labels for our various Grafted Vegetables had been held up a little. We released the first of the Tomatoes and Eggplants with stock labels from our label manufacturer, these plants really couldn't wait. The Passionfruit on the other hand were going nowhere so we just allowed them to grow bigger and hardened them off quite thoroughly outside. Our labels arrived last Friday so I took a quick photo with my phone, let you know about them on my newsletter and prepared 6 pots each for Di and I to show off on our spec runs....

We have sold all of the first two batches and effectively pre-ordered all of the third and final batch! Passionfruit was not even added to our availability list and I have been roundly ticked off for failing to fill some of the first orders. I have never seen anything like it.

Once again I have to thank our supplier Highsun for the beautiful starter plants they supplied, the grafts are very neat and close to the roots, minimizing (if not eliminating) the number of buds on the rootstock. The trick now is to guess how many to grow next season.

Sadly I can't say the same for Choisya ternata. Great shrub for hedges and sunny positions. I think we have grown them perfectly well but we just can't get the season or the presentation right. The poor things just will not sell. I have about 1000 x 200mm pots I'm happy to sell off at $2.00each (Ex GST) plus freight (unless you pick them up), minimum order 50 pots. I don't think we'll grow any more Choisya.

My Passion for Passionfruit

2011-09-16T19:57:00.001-07:00

As a Melbournian I love our weather. The variability is essential to the magic. As a Melbournian I can rail against our changeable weather too, that's my right. Any uppity Sydneysider dares to criticize Melbourne weather, watch out!

It's the same with seasons. We have wonderful distinct seasons. I have been bemoaning (winging if you like) that our retail industry is so keen to move on to new season stock that we ignore the peak of our Pansy and Viola season. The past couple of weeks has heightened my frustration as I have carried absolutely stunning Pansy pots around on my customer visits only to have them ignored or worse... "it's a bit boring isn't it"! Well seasons change quickly, this week we have all sort sort of fresh new products on offer. See, when it suits me I can change with the wind.

Among the fresh offerings is the Passionfruit pictured above. Look closely and you can see the little plastic grafting clips where the desirable "Norfolk Island" black passionfruit scion has been grafted to the vigorous but frankly weedy and less tasty Banana Passionfruit rootstock. These are very neat and strong grafts, nice and close to the soil level to minimize the number of dastardly rootstock buds that can escape and overtake the less vigorous Black Passionfruit. Make sure you rub off or slice away any shoots developing below the graft.

You might also notice in the pic above that these plants are growing happily out side. Not quite full sun, we have hail net over them. There would be nothing worse than hail pitting all that beautiful foliage at this stage. Tough plants ready for garden planting.

By the way, this is our new Grafted Passionfruit label. Please look out for them.

Do Androids dream of electric plants?

2011-09-09T01:01:00.000-07:00

The end of an era, a sign of the times or a colossal misjudgment? This is our whiz bang, high tech super efficient seedling transplanter all dressed up and ready to travel to Cowra. This machine required a massive investment 6 or 7 years ago and in that time the industry has changed so much that for us it has become nothing more than an expensive stereo system. Yes it does include a rather impressive stereo.

What has happened? Well for us.... this

Our focus is now bespoke, not quantity and no matter how cleaver the robotics a machine can't produce these. Don't get me wrong we won't make a living out of 5 hanging baskets but they make great displays that encourage sales of other products. That's not an approach that's ever going to cut it in a retail chain store and guess what, we are all enjoying our work more.

Mind you I haven't given up on automation altogether. The funds from the sale of the transplanter are being turned into a spiffy new seeding machine. Of course that's the other path the industry has taken.... we grow so many more vegetables now and the girls are sick and tired of poking individual seeds directly into punnets. I'll send a pic when our new Italian baby arrives... she's red!

Why don't Tomatoes taste like I remember?

2011-09-02T23:15:00.001-07:00

Robert asked "Why don't Tomatoes taste like I remember them?" Apart from the damage cigarettes and beer do to your taste buds the answer is we just don't grow them ourselves any more.

Growing at home has two distinct flavour advantages: Vine ripening and Breeding.

Sugar levels and "complex flavour components" develop in the last week to 2 weeks of the Tomato's ripening process. Commercial tomatoes are picked as soon as the grower knows the colour will develop fully, problem with this is the colour will develop but once picked the flavour development stops. I have read that the acid level of Tom Grosse Lisse develops so far in this final stage that it's best to manage the process by picking this variety a little early. I'm personally sceptical of "vine ripened" Tomatoes in supermarkets, and I know that growers keep a few plants for themselves that are not harvested until the fruit is properly ripe.

And breeding? Here's a favourite frustration; Truss Tomatoes. All Tomatoes grow in trusses! Truss Tomatoes at the supermarket have been breed specifically to produce an attractive truss that presents beautifully in plastic wrapping. Flavour is a secondary consideration. If you are looking for trusses, try Tomato Riesentraube. The translation from German is "giant bunches of grapes", now that might lack subtlety but it certainly is a truss. Heirloom and heritage varieties lack the disease resistance and shelf life of modern hybrids, the fruit might crack and they are often more difficult to harvest mechanically but they are popular because their flavour is the reason they were selected in the first place, all the other stuff is incidental.

Now all I have to do is work out a way to distill all that information into some easy to read posters.

'Tis Pansy Season

2011-08-27T00:12:00.000-07:00

Pansy Strawberries & Cream

Seasons are strange, frustrating, exhilarating, trying and exciting things! This time last year we couldn't buy a fine weekend. This year I have t take my hat off to all those who said our Spring season would arrive early. Hasn't the weather been magnificent?

I'm thinking seasons partly because of the great weather and the stunning blossom and wattle wherever I go and party because the turn of season brings it's own particular frustrations. I spent this morning answering questions at Vasili's refurbished Garden Centre in Munro Street Coburg. Vasili and his family have done a stunning job turning what has to be said was a very sad and run down suburban garden centre into a funky destination with a great looking cafe and nursery with a very homely vegetable gardening theme. Of course Vasili has leveraged his personal brand brilliantly. Anyway, back to the point... Seasons. I answered 90% of questions about Tomatoes. I was thrilled with the response to our Cool Start selection. The "what should I plant this early in the season" question is easily answered by pointing to the group of 4 varieties with accompanying Point of Sale explaining why they are ideal for planting right now. But I also realize just how many gardeners have no concept of seasonality. For mine it is without hesitation past planting time for Primulas and Ornamental Kale, they need need cool weather to bring on colour.

But what about Pansies and Violas? I get the distinct feeling that our industry just gets tired of the staples and wants to move on, too soon! No doubt the enthusiasts are looking for new season stock, despite the fact that we will still get weather cold enough to set back Petunias for another month. But what about the majority of gardeners who just want something beautiful and they want it now? Pansies and Violas will continue to offer stunning displays through 'til Christmas in most years, in fact their best flowering season is the upcoming couple of months. The nursery industry however has pretty much shut the gate on Pansy and wants to see Petunia despite the fact that the only way to have them flowering now is to force them in conditions that leave them unprepared for planting out.

Phew, please give Pansies a go so I can relax a little. It's not that we will be stuck with excess stock, we're not (we are trying to clear punnets of Pansy right now, see below), it's just that we are overlooking a terrific spring flowering plant that has its best season ahead of it.

Oh and we have just transplanted the first batch of Basil (due in a couple of weeks) but my recommendation is to wait at least until the start of October before planting Basil out in Melbourne.

How to ripen Tomatoes EARLY!

2011-08-12T20:53:00.001-07:00

2 weeks back I took a pic from the same spot. This house is now full and 2 varieties have been added to the availability list. We should have pretty much every one of our full list of 20+ Tomato varieties available for sale from Monday 22 August. Not soon enough for some I note, but plenty early for the plants.

Dangerous Don told me a terrific story (as he does, thanks Don). A customer was badgering Don, "how do I get my Tomatoes to fruit early?" Don being the consummate salesman asked a few questions to get a full understanding of the situation and it turned out that his customer had a regular competition with his neighbour to see who could produce the first Tomatoes of the season... and regularly lost. Don recommended early fruiting varieties such as Rouge de Marmande and Apollo (Apollo I might say was easily the first of the plants we had ready for sale, must be that hybrid vigour). "No I've tried those, he still beats me". Don then suggests a warm, sunny position in a narrow bed between a concrete path and a brick wall to reflect as much warmth as possible. "Right then, I'll build a wall!"

Sure enough Don's customer is back in November with ripe Tomatoes and a big smile. He had built a wall and he had won the competition. A little extreme? Not really he had apparently wanted a shed anyway.

Our early season "Cool Start" Tomatoes have been selected for their vigour and resilance more so than their early fruiting. Reisentraube and Siberian are northern European heirloom varieties so theiy have to cope with very cold early seasons followed by hot inland summers. Red Russian is actually a heritage commercial variety bred in New Zealand in the 1950's, it is renowned for it's hardiness in very tough conditions. Apollo as I have mentioned is famous for its hybrid vigour combined with excellent flavour. We have also tried to cover the bases by offering an upright bush variety for caontainers, Red Russian; a spreading bush, Siberian; a cherry type, Reisentraube (translates as bunches of grapes and a tall, staking variety with large "slicing" fruit, Apollo. Of course we have Point of sale material to make sure gardeners understand what makes these variieties special.

I think we should run our own competition. Send me a photo of your first ripe Tomatoes this year, any cheating down at Woolies and I'll know. It'll be too late for supplying more Tomato plants but I'm sure we can find something for the keen gardener. How about a prize each for the fist 10 photos I recieve and a pair of MIFGS tickets for the Tomatoes we judge to be the most impressive. I'll put out reminders through the growing season.

Another interesting first for these varieties is our new label designs have held up production so we have no commercially printed tags for them. Don't panic! Don't panic! We have a fancy new printer that can print directly to plastic, pre cut tags and of course we have Lisa on the team who can produce excellent, high qhality art so you would almost never know we had a labelling issue. Two points to highlight: yes we have genetically modified our Funky Fresh Kitchen and Great Scot labels this season and possibly more exciting, having a printer in house means we can test and trial all sorts of new and interesting plants with short runs of professional looking labels.

Don't forget this great resource for Gardeners and Garden Centres alike: The Secrets of Growing Tomatoes Successfully. This is an e-book by Melbourne based (Burnley trained) horticulturist and writer Sandi Pullman. Sandi's e-book is very detailed and easy to follow. Sandi asked me very nicely to support her e-book which I am doing because I think it's a terrific text and because I could never concentrate long enough to produce anything so comprehensive. I haven't been paid for a plug. The Secrets of Growing Tomatoes Successfully costs $19.95 on line but I have convinced Sandi to create an extract exclusively for us on the specific requirements for planting, which we are offering as a free "taster". Have a look, I think it will be a great tool for many seasons.

How do I grow Heuchera?

2011-07-08T19:08:00.001-07:00

Hands up anyone that hasn't heard of Heuchera! Me.

Heuchera Berry Smoothie.

That's not entirely true. I have grown Heuchera Firefly from seed in the past but it just did not excite anybody.
Heuchera villosa is commonly known as Allum root, hardly inspiring. They are from the Saxifragaceae famila and they are native to North Amercica. The Saxifraga family doesn't have many horticulturally common offspring but Astilbe is an excellent cut flower, Bergenia and Saxifraga are often used in rockeries and cottage gardens.

The old Heuchera Firefly has a marbled green foliage and small red flowers on spidery stems. Its great value is its toughness. Ideal for dry shady positions and perfectly capable of thriving in the sun... but boring.

Then we trialled some Hybrid Heucheras. We purchase tubes from Touch of Class Plants who in turn have sourced their plants from Terra Nova Nurseries in the US and they have a huge range of colours and leaf shapes.

Heuchera Georgia Peach

Now don't get me wrong I still love the brightness and intensity of flowering plants but WOW. Mix and match the foliage shapes and colours of these beautiful, hardy plants and the results are stunning, particulary through winter and early spring and in positions where it is really tough to grow and flower many other plants.

We started selling plants this week as soon as they filled their pots and quickly ran out. So it will be a couple of weeks before we have more to pack and dispatch but they are definitely worth looking out for in your favourite Garden Centre

How do I grow Peas?

2011-07-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the enquiry is fairly simple and to the point. What's this?

The plant is Snow Pea Bikini... No, I was told that much. Peas of all kinds: podded, snow and snap are terrific vegies to grow in the Melbourne winter. In fact they can should thrive pretty much year round except for the real heat of January and February. Planting one punnet every three weeks should keep a family of 4 happily fed on Peas as often as they want. For what it's worth my personal favourite are Snap Peas, the pod is fat, juicy, sweet and very edible. Gardeners apparently think differently, we sell 3 punnets of Snow Pea Bikini (sorry, I promise I didn't create that name) for every 2 of Snap Pea Honey Pod and only one punnet of the podded Green Pea, Massey Gem. Snow Peas along with Carrots are always popular with kids when we do potting demonstrations.

There is a valid argument that frozen shelled peas are sweeter and fresher than fresh ones from the grocer. Valid yes because I'm sure the best, smallest and sweetest ones are sent off for freezing and because Peas are frozen promptly unlike peas that travel to your fridge via the cool store and the market. Nothing is fresher or sweeter than peas you have just picked yourself. Green Peas, Snap Peas or Snow Peas, please pick them very young and you will never go back to a bought Pea. It's also worth noting that as the plant gets older and loses vigour even the young Peas start to lose that vitality and can become 'mealy'.

Back to the picture. The ugly spots look like Botrytis (Grey mold). It is essentially the mold that grows on vegies and bread when they get old. In this instance it is a sure sign of plant stress, the issue is I have no idea what is causing the stress but here are some common causes:

All vegies need plenty of sunshine and air flow. Peas climbing Tee Pees or trellis need protection from howling gales but a gentle breeze fluttering their leaves really puts fungal diseases off.

Vegies also like their roots to be kept moist but not constantly wet. That's why drainage is so important at this time of year. The other thing that will stress plants is a lack of food. This can be as simple as digging manure into soil before planting, of course there is a whole science dedicated to soil nutrition so let's just work on the basics: Apply organic fertiliser and check that the pH is in the 5.5-7 range to ensure that the food you have supplied is actually available to the plants. As a rule of thumb avoid fertiliser with very high Nitrogen content, eg. Chicken Manure, Citrus and Lawn fertilisers they are Junk Food for plants.

What to do with the Botrytis infected plants? Here's a good site with Natural disease control practices. I have done a quick web search for chemical controls for Botrytis and can't find anything which prompts a reminder to ensure that the problem you are trying to solve is listed on the label of any pesticide you purchase. This is particularly true for Botrytis and Powdery Mildew which both need quite specific controls not provided by the general purpose consumer fungicides generally on offer in nurseries.

Having said all that I still think Peas are easy to grow and very satisfying. However I think the ones in the photo need to be dug into the soil (good source of Nitrogen). It is recommended that Peas are grown on rotation in different beds or containers and they don't like growing alongside Onions, Garlic and their family.

How do I Grow Daffodils?

2011-06-10T19:55:00.001-07:00

The older I get the more I love the changing of seasons. What's in the pot? Brand new Daffodil Tete a Tete shoots just pushing through the soil surface. In only a few weeks time they'll look just as good as the ones below! Ok, they'll have to be transferred into a fancy pot.... In fact we might just do that with a few and add some Violas for contrast.

Believe it or not I reckon the shoot tips in the top photo will be ready to ship with buds just showing colour by the end of the month. We often get complaints that the season for Daffs is so brief but keep in mind the intensity of the show in the bleakest part of the year AND this is such a simple perennial to grow. Here's the truth, these are the left over plants from last year. All we have done is put aside the surplus pots and allowed nature to do the rest. There are multiple bulbs in each pot because they have naturally reproduced... superb value for me and for any gardener who picks up one of these little jewels.

Tete a Tete is a mini Daffodil, ideal for containers and for mixing with other plants. Not much else to tell really.

Why does my Spinach bolt to seed?

2011-06-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

I was talking to Deb at Frankston recently and she said "that Peter Cundall doesn't like seedlings does he!". Um. errr. I don't know. Deb is a dead keen, practical gardener and she was looking for advice on vegie growing, including Spinach. Old Pete has a regular column with the Weekly Times and he knows what he is talking about having practiced the fine arts of gardening for a lot longer than I've been breathing.

Here's a great, simple recipe for preparing fresh spinach.

Anyway, Pete has published an article on growing Spinach full of practical information. Timely of course because Spinach is one of my favourite vegetables at it loves cold weather. The flavour and texture are much more subtle than Silverbeet which I find can taste like dirt. (How do I know what dirt tastes like? I'll let you decide). Spinach also has that wonderful feature: continuous cropping. But here's the thing! "By the way spinach seedlings, even tiny ones, can rarely be successfully transplanted. They may look lovely and healthy but cannot stand even the slightest transplant shock. They don't just die, merely bolt to seed even after a few weeks so are a waste of space". WHAT!!!

One might say that Mr Cundall is a bit of a zealot, at least a purist. Yes Spinach will bolt to seed at the slightest shock, that's why it is so difficult to grow outside of the cold months (Spinach likes hot weather as much as I do... not at all). But have you ever tried to germinate the stuff? Spinach seed is as temperamental as Spinach seedlings. It can 'come up like hair on a cat's back' as Uncle Robert would say or it can easily go dormant. Chilling for a few weeks is the standard dormancy breaker but I find it is far from fool proof. As with Carrots I think a novice gardener is more likely to be successful with young seedlings than with seed, we just have to make sure they understand the basics of minimizing transplant shock and how to avoid stressing their plants. I think next week I'll have to type out my garden club talk about minimizing transplant shock.

So keep planting Spinach at least until the end of July for tasty vegies that will flourish through 'til the end of September. Try sowing your own seed it really is very rewarding but growing your vegies from seedlings is nearly as fulfilling and just a little more reliable (if you handle them with care).

Why are my carrots all twisted?

2011-05-27T00:58:00.000-07:00

Now Peter, I have a problem, Attached is a photo of the carrots I managed to grow, my first ever attempt. I know carrots like a sandy soil and not to be over fed. I thought growing mine in my magic square would be easy. I used very good potting mix and everything grew fantastically and still is apart from my 'deformed carrots'. What went wrong? or am I starting a new trend? these might look really good on Master Chef.

Cheers,

Christine

I Have a confession. This problem is 90% my fault. Christine's carrots were transplanted as seedlings, not sown directly into the soil. In the nursery industry we tend to use the term 'seedling' rather carelessly, of course it means a plant grown from seed. So what is the distinction?

Well in this case carrot seed sown directly into well prepared soil will germinate and fire a 'tap' root straight down into the soft and loving earth, and a shoot takes off in search of sun. Christine's carrots on the other hand were sown into a small pot or a punnet and then transplanted into her Magic Square Garden. And you can see what has happened... the roots were bent, twisted, folded back on themselves during the transplanting process and continued to grow in this rather sad, contorted and well Tortured position. They still taste great... carrot is a flavour that really does stand out when picked fresh from your own garden, but they are never going to win prizes at the garden show.

I did the guest spot with Jane Edmanson on the radio one Satuday morning and she took me to task over growing carrots in punnets. My rather lame defence is we resisted the temptation for a number of years but once carrots became a regular seedling line in nurseries we just had to supply what our customers were asking for. There is no doubt they are popular, whenever we do potting days for kids carrots are the most popular vegetable by far.

Anyway, there are good reasons to plant seedlings in preference to sowing seed. Most obvious is the process of germinating seed is possibly the most challenging skill in horticulture. Those involved in striking cuttings or budding and grafting will probably beg to differ but raising seed is my favourite part of being a nurseryman. Challenging and satisfying. Now if you are a novice gardener wouldn't you rather have someone simplify the tricky bits? Another benefit of buying a seedling is that at least 4-6 weeks of growing time is saved and don't forget there's the issue of having to thin plants out because you have sown them too close together.

So you have decided you want to grow vegies from seedlings, not directly from seed. What do you need to do to avoid being labelled a carrot torturer for the rest of your life? Take a little extra time, especially with root vegetables. With carrots I like to dig a little trench, deep enough for the roots of your carrots to stretch out nice and straight (say 5-10cm). Dig the trench with the soil you remove collected on one side, I tend to pull the soil towrds me. Keep in mind that is just hand digging our using a trowel. You will find the roots of young carrots surprisingly fibrous so just separate them carefully and lay them along the opposite edge of the trench to the collected soil. In well worked soil you will find that shaping a relatively smooth, sloping surface on one side of the trench where you can lay the plants is pretty easy. Once the plants have been placed backfill the trench gently covering the roots, it's a bit like tucking them into bed. This is one situation I don't recommend firming the plants into place vigourously, that's likely to bend the roots further. Just smooth the soil over and water them in. It's unlikely they will all grow straight and true but they'll be straighter for the bit of extra care given when planting.

Carrots are a great vegie to plant at any time of year, they easy to grow and very rewarding even if they are not all show quality.

By the way did you catch Italian Food Safari last night? Fantastic recipe for Ravioli with a Cavolo Nero sauce. Yum!

Winter Vegetables - Kale!

2011-05-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

I'll start this week with a big thank you. I have been so overwhelmed with responses to last week's musings on Values that I have not been able to respond to everyone personally. So Thank you. The response has been extremely positive, helpful and gratifying. To be honest I nearly didn't send that newsletter because I worried that it was off topic. To those who replied that they would like a job at Scotsburn please keep in mind that Values are something we strive to achieve, consistency of execution is another challenge altogether. Of course quality people who share our values are welcome to send CV's....

Anyway, It has been genuinely miserable in Melbourne. Real winter weather had set in by Mother's day and I've had a filthy cold that refuses treatment. Think of something positive! Broad beans! I wrote about Broad beans this time last year. Kale. Now there's a terrific vegie. We have been harvesting fresh vegies from the Magic Square Gardens that returned from The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show. Beautiful Broccoli, lots of Chard & Silverbeet, Parsley & other herbs, Cabbages just heading but I noticed that the Kale has been worked around. We have both Cavelo Nero (Black Italian Kale) and Red Russian Kale in the gardens but no-one was picking these so I cut some young fresh Cavelo Nero leaves on Friday. Kaye's first question was "what do you do with it"? and this was repeated when I took them home. So now I know why the Kale is being avoided.

Cavelo Nero, freshly harvested.

This is a shame because these are fantastic winter vegies that love cold weather and are very easy to grow. Cavolo Nero has a "strong nutty" flavour and can be used in any way regular Cabbage is. The deep crinkles are especially good for catching salad dressings, just Google Cavelo Nero recipes, there are too many for me to start making suggestions. The great thing about Cavelo Nero is it is an open headed variety so leaves can be picked as required rather than picking and storing a large head, it's also easier to ensure slugs and ants have not made cosy homes between the tightly packed leaves.

Russian Red Kale.

If possible Russian Red Kale is even tougher and more cold tolerant than Cavelo Nero... "Oh those Russians". It is also an open headed variety making it easy to pick the youngest freshest leaves as required. Russian Red does have quite tough, chewy leaves making them a little more challenging than some other Cabbages but they are very tasty sauteed, or cooked in stews and soups as you might imagine. In fact both these kales are from a "Soup Box" we produced for the Flower Show. Carrots, Cavelo Nero, Red Russian Kale, Parsley and Ruby Chard. How's that for hearty?

Yes Cavelo Nero and Russian Red Kale are both available Now and will be through winter in our Funky Fresh Kitchen 100mm pots. Cavelo Nero is also available in our My Vegie Garden punnet range.

Musing on Values

2011-05-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about values lately. Let's not delve into why... therapy might take too long. We wrote a values statement for Scotsburn Nurseries a few years back: Dependability, Loyalty and Drive were the three things we decided we valued most. I believe "valued most" is pretty important to the process, it's actaually quite challenging to cut out all the stuff that everybody values and focus on what defigns this little group of people.

Of course when we first settled on our values I was proud of them... but over time I have questioned just how effectively these three values defign who we want to be. Do they reflect our character & culture or are they still just a bit safe and well, dull? We promote our values to our suppliers, customers, gardeners and importantly to our staff and I have a nagging sense that we still haven't distilled who we are and what we strive to be.

Some months ago I added a fourth value: Generosity. If you had missed this, that's fine I didn't sing it from any roof top. I like this, it says more about us. A new nursery hand doesn't expect us to tell them that we value generosity and that we expect them to be generous as well. But does it still come across as a little safe and boring? Could we value Fun as much as Loyalty? Can we have fun without necessarily having to demand it?

Here's my current thinking:

Generous and Driven
Loyal and Independent
Dependable and Surprising

I'd love any feedback.
Not your standard gardening newsletter? But hey, it's mine.

Where can I find Winter Salad? Lamb's Lettuce? Mache?....

2011-05-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

Hi Peter
last year a friend gave me a few punnets of seedlings of "Winter Salad" (aka Lamb's lettuce, feldsalat, mache, Rapunzel) from your company. I managed to grow it easily and would love to source some more, but can't find it anywhere. Luckily I kept the tag!
As this is my and my family's favourite lettuce of all time (previously I could only look forward to eating it on my infrequent visits to Germany) I was wondering where on earth I could buy some more?

The nursery my friend got them from last year has changed hands and I have drawn mystified looks from other retailers. Most have never heard of this wonderful salad.
I'd love to plant it asap for this winter and have left a space in my vegie patch hoping you may be able to help me.
Sincerely
Rebecca

Makes my job easy really doesn't it. We started growing Winter Salad a few years ago after my mum visited Germany, the Black Forest sticks in my mind for some reason. It is actually closely related to Valerian (Valerianella locusta), thrives in cold conditions and is apparently extremely popular in Europe. Treat it like other salad vegetables, if you choose to cook it I suggest a short sharp flip in a pan or the microwave. That's all. Winter Salad is a biennial probably best treated as an annual. Pick leaves from the outside of the rosette towards the middle, this will encourage development of more leaves.

We have sold a batch of Winter Salad already this season and I have directed Rebecca to a couple of the nurseries that have stock.

When should I plant my Primulas?

2011-04-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

I think the painted concrete urn sums up Primula Lollipops. It is a classic of the 50's & 60's but sadly not as popular as it was. There are good reasons for the demise of the concrete urn, but not so for the Primula other than it is a plant that takes its time to achieve its potential. 'Aint that the way of things? So it is my contention that Primula malacoides is the flower for the "slow food movement". Treat them right, give them time and the reward is worth every minute. Pansies may be prettier up close but I believe nothing matches Primulas en masse.

Primula Lollipops is the mix of a series including Gillham's White, Ruby Queen, Carmine Glow and Lavender Lady. Classics of the seedling industry. Primulas like sunny positions and well drained soil, no different to all the other flowers we grow. They are also exceptionally resistant to pests and diseases...EASY to grow. But! They are quite particular about when they get planted. In Melbourne, I believe the ideal window is beginning of March to the end of April. Nothing stopping you planting before or after, but these two months are the pick. In fact I'll go as far as suggesting we institute a new tradition: plant your "Primulas on the Easter weekend".

Planted earlier, the plants will often struggle in hot February weather so they're unlikely to flower any sooner than plantings completed up to a month later. Planting after the end of April is a bit like not cooking the Osso Bucco long enough, all the ingredients are there but you miss the magic. The Primula plant will flower according to season, it waits for the days to lengthen and the nights to start warming so choosing a planting time is mostly about allowing just the right time for a strong rosette of leaves to form that will support the multiple umbels of 'candelabra' flowers. Once the weather cools in May and into June the plants just don't develop fully before the flowers start to develop.

A Fond Farewell

2011-04-15T00:41:00.001-07:00

All good things must come to an end. After just short of 19 years work at Scotsburn our Nonna Nancy has retired this week. We said good bye in traditional Scotsburn style with a Bar-B-Q in the shed (it was a miserable day) and a glass of Riccadonna. Nancy's sister Nina had joined our team in my first spring season at the nursery, 1988 and Nancy joined her in 1992. Nina and Nancy formed a formidable team, really quick, beautiful quality, neat work and hard working. They were dynamite on anyone that didn't meet their standards. They are also both fantastic cooks, Nancy introduced me to Tiramisu and to be quite honest her's is so good I just don't bother with any other. Nina retired in 2006 and Nancy has been Queen Bea ever since. And it has mostly been fun, often a loud voice would be heard from our potting shed: "BOOL SHEET" followed by raucous laughter.

In 19 years Nancy has mentored dozens of nursery folk of many different backgrounds. Her fiery Italian temper has flared on occasion but it's Nancy's support and friendship with her little Cambodian friend Sina that I think is one of the most beautiful relationships I have known. Nancy's friend in this pic is Michele who was only a girl when she started here a couple of years after Nancy and now supervises all our production. While we were lunching yesterday I said to Michele "You look thoughtful", she just replied "it's sad". Yes, there were some tears as well as laughs. So thank you Nancy Pants, you remind me of one of the great things about our industry... the people we work with.

Love you Nance.

How do I prepare soil for my raised garden bed?

2011-04-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show is over for another year. I had to step back from our commitment to The Great Victorian Hanging Basket Competition (follow this link for a list of all the winners) this year, it is just getting too big. I have to say that letting go and getting a broader range of input was the best thing I could do. Congratulations to Don & Jennifer Rickerby and their hard working RHSV team, especially Rod & Kevin. Thanks also to James Wall, Gardenworld and Andrew Jones, Poynton's of Essendon for the work they put into a spectacular display.

Although we reduced our commitment, the Hanging Basket Competition was still the focus of our own representation at the show. We supplied 6 Magic Square Gardens to dress the display along with 3 other gardens for the Tree and Shrub Growers of Victoria's "Kitchen Garden". The response at the show and since has been enormous! Lots of enquiry and web hits. Plus a few questions that came up consistently, especially "What soil should I use in my raised garden bed?".

My immediate response is "this is a big pot so the ideal growing medium is potting mix". Quality potting mix is carefully formulated to manage water and air availability for your plants. We offer potting mix filled Magic Square Gardens but for many people working on a budget this is prohibitively expensive. I have seen top soil from garden supplies used quite regularly, but I have also been disappointed with the plant growth. Garden supplies spruik their favourite top soil but I worry that it is hungry and prone to holding too much water for vegie growing. So what is the best answer?

No Dig Gardening! Mix the top soil up with layers of straw and animal manure to create and ideal vegetable growing media in a box. So what do you need? One Magic Square Garden holds 1m3 of soil so here's a suggested recipe for filling your bed on a budget and still getting a great result.

Quality Top Soil. 2/3 - 3/4m3
Sugar Cane mulch 1 Bale
Horse Poo 1 Bag
Composted garden clippings and worm castings... if you have these available, use them liberally.
I have chosen Sugar Cane mulch because it is available everywhere in convenient bales, lucerne hay is apparently the pick of mulching materials. I chose horse poo because there is plenty of agistment arond here and bags of cheap poop available. Dynamic Lifter is very good and available everywhere.

We're going to produce a layer cake in a box. Start with the mulch, put about 1/3 of the bale in the bottom of your box and add 5-6 hand fulls of manure. Fill the box to about half way with top soil then add another layer of mulch (1/3 of the bale) & manure, it's a good idea to water the layers at this stage to help settle them in. Use the rest of the soil which should leave about 10cm to the top of the box from the soil surface. Plant your vegies in this soil and dress around them carefully with the remaining mulch. Don't use any more fertilizer in this last layer, too much manure too close to the plants can cause burning problems. Osmosis and root systems will draw the goodness up so the plants can use it. You can side dress with maure once the plants have matured and they are looking for additional food while they put energy into flowering and fruiting.

Let me know how your garden grows so I can update this information.

Thanks also to Rosie Appleton and the Berwick Viewfinders Camera Club for the great pics from the Flower & Garden Show.

Gerbera Garvinea - Winter hardy perennial Gerbera

2011-03-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

We're finally there, or here... I'm not sure which. But we have shipped our first Gerbera Garvinea plants. The pictures above are promotional shots from the breeders (Florist bv.) but I'm happy to report that results like this are easy to achieve. Just find a sunny spot and make sure their roots are in well drained soil, they really do like to be grown dry.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo but Garvineas have been used beautifully in the Tree & Shrub Growers of Victoria's Gold Medal winning display at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show. Our plants have been released to nine independent retail Garden Centre outlets around Melbourne and we are looking for more quality retailers to partner with us to give this terrific plant the presentation it deserves. There's also a great chance ("99%") that Graeme Ross will feature Gerbera Garvinea on tonight's Better Homes & Gardens Flower & Garden Show showcase (Channel 7, 7.30pm).

Keep in mind that these plants have been bred for garden performance, they make great pots and the long slender stems produce beautiful cut flowers. Only don't cut the flowers off, give them a gentle twist and fold so that the stem breaks off right down at the growing point at the base of the plant. Pick the flowers often it encourages fresh growth and prevents the spent flowers getting tatty. All potted Gerberas prefer a sunny position so if you bring pots inside, make it short term then send them back outside to recover.

By the way I'll be at the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria's Great Victorian Hanging Basket Competition display (site B59) at the Flower Show on Sunday. Carlton Gardens, 9.00am-5.00pm please come and say hello if your coming in and if you get any inspiring photos, please send some my way.

What's Hosta?

2011-03-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Hosta undulata

Mad as it sounds I had to look Hostas up to find out anything about them. The name has been there, probably since childhood but I've never grown them or taken any interest. However amongst the assorted stuff I've been trying this year is Hosta undulata and we have some ready to sell.

We had them growing under light shade at first but found they preferred a darker position, so there's tip one. The first book I checked recommended well drained soil but Stirling Macoboy (always a great fallback) recommends "shady, moist positions" which fits better with my limited knowledge. I imagine them growing in moist shady gullies and planting around swimming pools seams to be popular. Hostas originated in Japan and China and are great for a tropical look. They will die down over winter and bounce back afresh in spring. The curvaceous, undulating leaves provide great colour over a long period and they are apparently very tasty to slugs.

Hosta undulata "Erromena"

We have small batches of H. undulata which has the very distinctive cream streaked foliage and H undulata "Erromena" which has the more solid green colouring. Both these plants have relatively insignificant mauve flowers on tall, slender stems through summer.

I went to check our Hostas prior to starting this Newsletter and had a very pleasant surprise. In our shady igloo under the gum tree we shuffled last year's complete failure, Kalanchoe Queen. By chance we purchased plugs around March last year but they were a disaster. The young plants just refused to develop any roots and very promptly started budding. The winter/spring flowers were stunning but the plants just weren't good enough to support them. Well surprise, surprise they are now luxurious and glossy and waiting to set a new set of buds. OK an 18 month crop in 125mm pots can never pay for itself, but my faith in our ability to grow has been renewed, just have to work out the proper timing now.

What should I plant in March?

2011-03-20T01:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Peter

I love sweet peas are they ready to buy & are they at any of the garden centres near Kilsyth.

what flower seedlings & veggie seedlings would you recommend to plant at the moment.
Because of the humid weather I have had a lot of mildew & sap sucking insects, any hints to control them?
My tomatoes are terrible this year except for the small varieties.
I read in one of your news letters that you used, the winter version of sudden impact for roses what was it called as I want to buy some.
Thanks
Maureen

Wow, that's a month's worth of newsletters in one query.

Unfortunately having sown our Sweet Peas in the early hours of St Patrick's Day, 17th March (Cath emailed to say it's also traditional to sow your seeds naked! Can you imagine how cold it is in Ireland at this time of year? Sorry, but we'll only go so far for our art) they will not be ready for another week yet.

What are we planting now? Primulas! I think March is the ideal month for Prims. Anything earlier won't produce flowers any quicker and planting after the end of April generally encourages flowers too quickly before the plant has had a chance to develop properly. Without a big strong plant to support the flowers the display suffers. Same is actually true for Cinerarias, Stocks and Ornamental Kale is great for colour in the cold of winter. Planting now produces flowers late in the winter (starting July) and peaking in the early part of spring. If you can't wait that long the palette of flowering varieties is diminishing, Pansy and Viola will still flower 6-8 weeks from planting and give good colour through Melbourne's winter. Although it eventually frustrates many gardeners we're nearly exclusively Violaceae from now until September.

Vegies are interesting. Ideal time for Brassicas; Cauli, Broccoli, Cabbage and depending on the gardener Brussels Sprouts. Oh, don't forget the Oriental Brassicas: Chinese Cabbage, Chinese Broccoli (Kailaan) and Broccolini which despite its Italian sounding name is a Kailaan/Broccoli, sweet & a little nutty. crossPlanting in March and April is ideal for a burst of vigorous growth before cold weather helps ripen the vegies in winter and early spring. Of course in our mild climate there's still time for a Lettuce crop, especially the open headed picking types: Salad mix, Baby Combo, Red & Green Oak Leaf. And we can plant beets, spring onions, leeks an carrots pretty much year round. Herbs like Thyme and Oregano can be planted now but be aware they will die back somewhat over winter before they flush again in spring.

I think Sucking insects deserve a whole newsletter to themselves, but I have previously written about controlling aphids on Broccoli. Sadly there is little we can do about Tomatoes in a season like this, they started so promisingly with warm, moist conditions but all that January rain was just too much. Kerry is still picking some at home but the real flush has passed. No doubt the cherry types are the most reliable for cropping but I think we had the best return from Pricipe Borgese this season, sort of a cross between a Roma and a large cherry. Sweet, tangy fruit and lots of them.

Unfortunately for Maureen, I have never written about Sudden Impact for roses. Sounds a little odd to have a rose fertilizer for their dormant period but I don't know the product so I'd best not make smart comments. If you do know anything about Sudden Impact, let me know and Ill pass it on.

PS. Last week I posted a list of Professional Gardeners willing, even enthusiastic about gardening as distinct from lawn mowing or paving. The response has been great and I've added 3 or 4 new names since. Let me know if this suits your business.

How do I control Downy Mildew in my vegetables?

2011-03-11T20:56:00.001-08:00

The weather is humid and I've had some reports of Downy Mildew in Brassica Vegetables. Brassicas are terrific vegetables and easy to grow so long as you can control 2 significant problems: Grubs, mostly an issue in hot weather but constant observation and control measures are still important and Downy Mildew. I feel that Downy is mostly an issue for young seedlings, generally plants in the ground or established in pots are less dramatically affected.

The best control is cultural, make sure plants are in a sunny position and in a spot where air can move freely around the foliage. The other trick is to not allow the foliage to remain wet around mid morning. Apparently the Downy Mildew fungi germinates around this time of day and needs water to do so. So, water early, like 7.00 or 8.00am or in the early afternoon to restrict the development of the disease spores.

Chemical control is hard to avoid with this disease. Yates offers "Anti Rot" which looks quite safe. It is described as a "Phosacid systemic" fungicide so I guess it is closely related to the Phosphonic Acid we use in commercial quantities. Yates does recommend spraying at the first signs of disease but I suggest controlling Downy Mildew requires preventative sprays as it's really difficult to get rid of once established. Anti Rot is also a very good root rot disease control and I am more confident recommending this than Fongarid which has been the only option in retail packs until now. Don't quote me but I think this type of product is accepted under organic farming regulations, it is an acid though so make sure you dilute it properly. It is certainly certified as NON-Hazardous.

PS. I haven't done this previously but Ray sent me a great link to a "viral videos". If you like great pop songs arranged and played really well, turn your speakers up and follow this link.

PPS. Around Christmas I asked for contact details for Professional Gardeners willing, even enthusiastic about gardeing as distinct from lawn mowing or paving. I have finally posted a list on our web site, if you would like you name added, please let me know.

When can I plant Sweet Pea

2011-03-05T23:39:00.001-08:00

Michael at Cultivate Cultivate Nursery and Gifts asked me 2 years back if we had any Sweet Pea punnets. Each year on St Patrick's Day he plants a narrow bed along the front of his nursery backed by a tall chain wire fence with Sweet Pea. I had to say no. Last year he repeated the request with a plea for us to sow even enough just for him. Um, I forgot. To my shame Michael has not given up so I have the chance of redemption this year. (Thank you Michael, you are too generous) The Sweet Peas on the fence at Cultivate generate lots of discussion and of course inspire gardeners to grow the same.

Unfortunately I don't have a pic of Michael's fence.

The tradition of planting Sweet Peas on St Patrick's Day fascinates me. I like planting traditions: plant your Tomatoes on Cup Weekend is wonderfully Melbournian. Planting Sweet pea on St Pat's day is clearly ingrained here in Victoria but it's origin is Irish!? According to the Gaelics sowing your Sweet Peas in the wee hours the night before St Pat's day will ensure more, larger and more fragrant flowers. So the Irish have a tradition of sowing their Sweet Peas early in their spring and we have transported the named day but we ignored the reversal of season.

While Sweet Peas are nominally late Spring-early Summer flowering we find we can flower them through most of the year in Melbourne, they cope with the heat of Summer, but don't like it and the winter cold slows flowering but our mild climate is not cold enough to kill them off. Planting Sweet Pea on St Patrick's Day produces strong plants that are ready to flower as soon as they recognize the weather warming in Spring.

So we will have Mammoth Sweet Pea (punnets only) ready for St Pat's Day plus Bijou the dwarf variety in punnets and 200mm pots, all tied up in Tee Pees. Plant now and you should have plants flowering just as the true early Spring sowing time comes around, imagine the interest that would generate.

Managing water in my Wicking Bed

2011-02-27T00:32:00.000-08:00

I had to run a little repair job on a Magic Square Garden this week. I wrote about Frank Fisher's garden in the car parking space a few months back. Frank had specifically requested a "wicking bed". I have to admit to being only vaguely aware of the concept prior to this request but having done some research we adapted the standard Magic Square Garden Clean Patio Kit to create a wicking bed. The whole exercise worked really well including a great little ceremony while we set the beds up in his car park, unfortunately I left my wheel barrow behind (Clifton Hill!) so I had to go back. It took a week and a bit at least before I got back and I noticed a small leak from one of the beds. Not good, messy and affects the operation of the wicking bed.

Well eventually I got back to make some repairs. I expected to empty the bed entirely and replace the liner but fortunately I met Frank before he set off for work and he pointed out that the leak had dried up. Well that saves a mountain (small mountain, 1m3) of digging. We had a chat about the gardens. Frank had harvested some very nice Broccoli, Tomatoes, Lettuce and herbs. The bird netting we set up had worked perfectly to keep the possums out and I was really impressed at the lack of "Moth Holes" in the Broccoli leaves. No spraying involved, perhaps the bird net helped? Frank said something along the lines of "I suppose you saw the article on the weekend". No. What article? Says I. Well here it is... I couldn't ask for better unless Scotsburn had rated a mention. Such is life.

Click on the pic to see the article from the Age's Domain section.

Now as I mentioned Frank's beds are the first we have installed even if I have pushed the idea strongly since. It's fair to say that over the Summer we have experienced, watering has been relatively easy. We have ironed out a few bugs over time, including finding a better tap set up for the out let. I took a couple along and replaced the corks Frank had used to replace the clunky arrangements I originally put in. I pulled the cork on the first bed and was nearly knocked over by the smell as a week tea solution spewed out. It was clear, but brown and stank something septic. The second bed had clear, stink free water in the base.

My guess is the water in the first bed needed replacing. It is probably quite rich with nutrient, making it ideal for running off to a small garden bed elsewhere. I considered collecting this solution in a watering can and re-applying to the top of the bed but over time I think this will raise salt levels so let's share the nutrients around. We supply each Wicking Bed Kit with a dip stick (1m bamboo garden stake, nothing like using materials we have on hand) and we are still working out the ideal "saturation zone" in the base of each bed, I guess a round 10cm. Clearly though there needs to be a regular flushing of the bed to keep the water sweet. Love any feedback on this, especially if you have any experience with wicking beds or sub irrigation.

While I'm thinking water and the newspaper, how about the announcement from our new Water minister. Personally I think it's just playing politics and really disappointing. Target 155 was no great friend of nurserymen. But long term keeping water users conscious of consumption is better for all of us and I have always agreed with the theory that gardeners are more aware of their water use than any other group in the community.

Dirt, Soil or Potting Mix?

2011-02-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

I didn't grow up in and around Scotsburn Nurseries, but my mother did so I was taught "It's not dirt, it's soil" from a young age.
Soil/potting media was such a critical element of the nurseryman's craft. My Grandfather, Uncle Dave would collect Elephant poo (manure) from Wirth's Circus which had a permanent site on StKilda Road (Wirth's 'Olympia' Circus building burnt down in 1953, the site is now the Arts Centre). The elephant manure was mixed with local South Oakleigh sand to produce potting mix. Now that's recycling.

Wirth's Circus Elephants crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1932.

In 1957 Kenneth F Baker published the UC System for Producing Healthy Container Grown Plants. Baker's system turned plant production in pots on it's head. Out with soil and animal manures, in with sterile, measurable, manageable materials that minimized the risks of disease. The UC system was introduced to Australia primarily by bedding plant growers: Peter Wood (Woodlyn), Dick Wall (Floriana), Fred Wood (FG Wood Nurseryman) and young Dave Wood (my uncle Robert) amongst others were heavily involved. I think it was all a bit technical for Uncle Dave but each grower developed his own blend that made their plants special. As much as the blend was important the attention to detail in preparation was critical. A key element was steaming the blended soil to kill the disease organisms, steaming at the right temperature for the correct time pasteurized the soil leaving good organisms healthy. The growers all invested in boilers and steam chambers (Bakerizers, I'm still embarrassed at sniggering at the name before I put Baker in his place... under a withering stare).

Australia had it's own potting mix pioneer in David Nichols who developed soil less potting mixes at CSIRO before moving to Debco. In my 20 plus years as a nurseryman I have never mixed a potting media from scratch, the attempt we made in recycling old mix is another story altogether. Scotsburn started purchasing mixes from Decbo shortly before I started here and despite many trials of other mixes we use Debco potting mixes almost exclusively. What was once a major competitive advantage to good nurserymen has vanished it is now just so easy to buy consistently premium quality mix. Potting mix, please note. Not dirt or soil. Our pot mix is essentially Terra Cotta and Tub mix with a little extra controlled release fertiliser. We use a finer blend for punnets and a really fine mix for seed raising.

What prompted writing this item? We have had a bad batch of mix. We have had 3 or 4 batches like this over 20 years, always in January. I believe it has something to do with composting bark in hot weather, it may also be that slight imperfections are amplified when growing in hot weather. The variation in technical specifications is so slight that our measurment of pH, salt level and ammonia can't pick up a problem so I have given up regular testing of new batches of mix. We rely on observation of our plants. The symptoms are plants that just won't grow, they don't die, they just get very hard and refuse to move. Except of course for the odd plant that finds a prill of mini Osmocote and bolts away from the rest. Observation is of course a very reactive way to deal with this type of problem and forcing extra liquid feed into these plants can end up with all of them racing away from us.

So what's the point? Not poor me. I am a loyal Debco customer because I'm confident they supply the most consistent potting mix minimizing the possibility of problems like the one we currently face. This is why I beg and plead with garden clubs and anyone else who'll listen to use quality potting mix. Inexperienced gardeners won't try to fix problems caused by planting into raw plant litter (cheap potting mix), they'll just give up thinking they just aren't cut out for gardening.

Gerbera Garvinea

2011-02-12T22:48:00.000-08:00

We are getting closer and closer to releasing our first Gerbera Garvinea. This pic is a trial planter we are preparing for retail nursery displays. No tricks, Lisa has put 9, 200mm pots in the box and taken a photo.

Garvinea is a very new Gerbera bred for outdoor growing. The emphasis is on overwintering. These plants will happily survive consistent night temperatures below zero. That's not to say they will continue to flower through winter although Kaye has grown on plants we trialled last year in her garden and she reports some flowers right through the year.

Gerberas are very drought tolerant plants, we grow our regular pot varieties under clear glass through the summer and they love it. Having grown our Garvineas outdoors through the spring and a very wet summer we have learnt that they really do need good drainage. We had a large block growing on a low bed which prevented them draining freely. Just as we thought we had them ready we started losing plants to a very ugly wilt. At first I just thought they were hungry and didn't check properly. Having had our fingers burnt we moved them to a better drained, still outdoor position and they have re-grown roots they lost very promptly. Tough as nails, just need to be kept clear of wet feet.

Gardening Irony

2011-02-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

I love a little irony, but this is ridiculous. Last week I wrote about surviving fierce hot weather, Tuesday turned out to be the worst. Tonight I have driven from StKilda through floods all along Brighton Road/Nepean Highway, St Kilda, Elsternwick, Brighton and Mordialloc. Too much too quick. It was all a little frightening and exhausting. Makes me even more accutely aware of the trauma the people in Queensland have experienced over the past month.

I did get some great replys to last week's Newsletter, it appears my frustration with trigger nozzles is not mine alone. Hellen sent a great suggestion that I hadn't considered: pick your roses (and other flowers) before hot spells force the blooms open and smash them. I was just thinking about how practical this idea was when Kerry came in with a mountainous bowl of Tomatoes from the garden. Our 'matoes are needing regular picking at the moment so Kerry was just getting in before the heat caused the fruit to split. The Black Russians regularly crack but the cherry types appear to get to the point where their skin just can't hold all that goodness any longer, they are probably best picked just as they turn to red.

I don't have any suggestions for massive down pour mediation. Get your pots out of the weather? I am interested to see how a lot of the drought loving varieties planted over the past 10 years will cope with wet conditions. I'd love a difinitive prediction for weather conditions over the next 5 years, but then again I'd like a lot of other stuff too.

Hand Watering in Hot Weather

2011-01-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Looks like we're about to pay for the garden friendly Summer we've experienced so far this season: 40, 39 and a week above 30 degrees C.

Water becomes the critical issue over the week to come. We have adjusted irrigation programs to suit and checked all the sprinkler lines. Water early and water late to maximize efficiency. I'm prompted to comment on a pet hate.... Trigger Nozzles!

I get the trigger bit, auto shut off to save wasting water as we move from plant to plant, bed to bed, etc. But the stupid things are designed for washing cars not watering plants!!! Fireman Sam reporting for duty! Even the expensive brass numbers are not designed for looking after plants they either bast your plants out of the ground with a rocket stream or evaporate before reaching the foliage when adjusted to a gentler fan. Here'a a thought: lazy nurserymen make the best waterers. Why? Because they are happy to plug in the i-pod and take more time watering each plant. Busy people are usually too eager to move on to the next job. By the way this is a rule of thumb, there are plenty of exceptions. But I don't care how entertaining the i-pod is NO-ONE can soak a plants roots with a trigger nozzle set to fan it just takes too long. Of course that's a false economy, faffing around dampening the mulch just wastes water. AND don't start me on "multiple pattern nozzles", what a waste of time.

So two tips for today.

1. Aim to wet the root system. I try to teach our guys to imagine each pot is empty and they are trying to fill it as they water. You can generally adjust up or down from this starting point. Hand watering garden beds? Use the same theory, how much water would I apply to a fill hole left if the plant was removed. Yes, each individual plant.

2. Buy a decent watering rose. We use plain old Gardena Soft Spray Nozzles for seed raising and very young plants. If you're prepared to spend the money Dramm make the best general purpose "water breakers". For standard 1/2" (12mm) hose the smaller ones are better because you just won't get enough flow to operate the bigger discs properly. You will have to add a shut off valve and possibly a wand to reach baskets, etc.

Please water early and water deep!

Garden Favourites in Summer

2010-12-30T23:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

A couple of old favourites have bobbed up again this week. By chance Kerry proudly showed me a couple of Tomato plants I had taken home. I delivered these "spotty" plants and said I was keen to see if we could out grow the bacterial spec once the plants were in the ground. The Boss has done the rest very successfully and very simply. Cleaned off the infected foliage and top dressed around the plants with about a shovel per plant of Chook litter (litter, not raw poo). They are growing vigorously now, about 1m tall each. That's it! I'd prefer this wasn't an issue but I'm still getting questions about spots on Tomato leaves so it's nice to be able to say there is a practical solution.

The other favourite is

I was just wondering if you have any idea why I rarely ever get any female flowers on my pumpkins? Is there a particular nutrient that produces female flowers? I get plenty of male, but they're not that useful without the females!

Warmest regards

Sherilee

I checked with Dangerous Don who confirmed this is a common and inconsistent problem and recommended we just wait. I also checked back on my previous Newsletters and discovered I have written about it previously! Any way I had delayed answering Sherilee about a week and by the time I had suggested "pruning" the Pumpkin tentacles, 6 female flowers had appeared of their own accord. My theory is Pumpkins and other Cucurbits wait for a check to their growth before deciding it's time to reproduce. That could be the weather getting hot or someone amputating a few limbs.

Best wishes for a safe, prosperous and Happy New Year.

Take care with mulch

2010-12-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

Last year we tried growing pretty much one of every Tomato Scotsburn produces in 250-300mm pots at home. They grew beautifully until they started to set fruit. Then the combination of their advanced size, hot weather and voracious appetite knocked them over, we really didn't get much of a crop.

This year our Tomatoes have gone into the front garden much to Ben's horror. Kerry keeps the garden and not unsurprisingly it's essentially cottagey with Roses, perennials, annuals and the odd vegetable plus a rather handsome Lemon Scented Gum. This year the front garden has looked stunning, Kerry had a weed blitz over winter, added fertilizer (Seamungus I think) and a layer of mulch. Our wet winter/spring has finished the job just nicely. Now I think the Tomatoes have blended perfectly but the 6' stakes seem to offend Ben. He'll get over it and they made good posts for Christmas lights (solar, I'm too miserable to pay for electricity).

Anyway the Tomatoes are growing beautifully, fruit set and just about to start ripening. Sadly we have lost two over the past week. It could be Fusarium wilt which is a common Tomato problem best controlled with crop rotation. One of the Fusarium symptoms is the bark being "stripped" from the stem just above the soil surface and this is apparent on these two plants but there is one, possibly easier to overcome problem. Mulch. Be careful not to mulch to close to the stems of your plants. I think the bark has just rotted because there is too much wet material next to the stem.

Follow this link for a reasonably amusing and fairly thorough "mulching" video.

Magic Square Car Parks and Pommie Cricketers

2010-12-16T23:31:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season to get silly!

Unfortunately the pic's no good but this is my pommie mate, Mark... before the Poms had collapsed to 6 for 120.

Well, what can you do?

On Saturday I helped set up a garden in a car park. This project had been some months in planning, in fact I asked for suggestions on wicking gardens back in September. I knew a small crowd had been invited but I must admit to being completely unprepared of the day that followed.

The car park is actually one car parking space at a block of flats. This space has now been deliberately and specifically reclaimed for the envionment and we have created two productive vegie gardens for the residents to tend and consume. My thanks to Aj, Frank and friends for welcoming me so openly.

The project was challenging in that we had to guess and adapt to create wicking beds but I had plenty of willing helpers, all of whom were generous with suggestions and ideas. As a social experiment this is obviously "thinking local" but I was pleased when the neighbours showed up and joined in... neighbours Frank hadn't seen in "ages". I think that's a great start, let's hope all the residents of these flats get to participate: planting, growing, watering, harvesting or consuming. Aj's a bit of a dynamo so I'm sure there'll be regular updates.

Adapt? Possums are challenging in this environment. I started with this 4 poster arrangement but following suggestions on the day I think we could set up some very neat cloche hoops, like small, independent poly houses. I can also report that Marsha who had purchesed our very first Magic Square Gardens was one of the participants on the day. Marsha has just planted a new crop having harvested "the best Broccoli she has ever tasted"! Sadly the onions weren't so successful but I'll take the Broccoli as the greater challenge any day.

Aglio fresh and local

2010-12-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

This is Nancy and Michele with our Garlic harvest. Garlic is a remarkable plant, easy to grow but it has given me several years of grief. I think the grief is over now purely because Kaye picked up a bag of locally grown Garlic late in the autumn.

The trouble with Garlic has been getting quality bulbs. Without proper preparation and planning we were forced to head down to the market to buy Garlic which was either far too expensive or amazingly cheep. Of course if it was amazingly cheep it has been freighted to Australia from the other side of the world, bleached and treated to prevent it sprouting. I'm not sure, but I think this is a quarantine regulation. Anyway first Kaye then Lisa found some cloves, a different, smaller variety it turns out. Just went out an got them. Probably got so frustrated that I prevaricated (fiddled) for so long. OK so what do we do with it? There's hardly enough to pot and sell. Well they were planted into one of our Magic Square Gardens and given the winter and spring to develop. And guess what! After the latest big dump of rain the plants were looking a little poorly so I dug one up and low and behold, beautiful fat Garlic cloves. One thing to note our Garlic plants never looked stunning. Dangerous Don the font of all horticultural knowlege (and sadly crippled at the moment) tells me that the potting media needs additional lime for Garlic. Makes sense as our general mix is relatively acid. We'll need to work out something clever before we plant in the Autumn.

Nancy got involved because she and her husband dry Garlic at home (you might remember that Nancy also cleans Tomato seed beautifully... Oh and makes fantastic Bruschetta and Pizza and...) We'll hang this little stash up in the shed to dry, then pot up individual cloves perhaps in February. Of course we'll have to keep a small bag full to plant out for next year's crop. Considering our industry it's remarkable how little really seasonal growing we do like this. I'm very proud we have grow our little Garlic crop and I'll be very proud to sell this as Genuinely Australian Grown Garlic.

Just as an aside we also were given about 4 Elephant Garlic cloves and the same quantity of Egyptian Walking Garlic. I'll treat these a little differently and try to collect seed. They're interesting plants in their own right so I give them more detail at a later date.

Maintaining our Heritage (pompous twit)

2010-11-18T23:40:00.000-08:00

"Why is it that KY1 seedlings have disapeard of nursery shelves. they where my favourite and so easy to grow, is it just a lack of seed or something that there is no longer a market for the older varieties. In my long search for seedlings just about all the Nursery staff are bewilldered at the shortage, I wonder if anyone has any idea?" Anonymous

It's actually getting late in the Tomato season but I like this story. It fascinates me how quickly the demand for Tomatoes drops away as soon as Cup weekend is over, we have grower orders for delivery in January but home gardeners appear to lose their appetite for Tomatoes very quickly.

So, KY1. My guess is Kyabram 1. It is certainly a variety bred by the Victorian Department of Agriculture. For the life of me I can't find when it was first introduced but I'm guessing 1950's-70's because of it's determinate growth habit. Determinate is Tomato tech. speak for bush type. Bush types are popular with commercial growers because the plants can be mechanically harvested, of course this makes them anathema to some Heirloom purists. The advantage of bush Tomatoes at home is there is no special need for staking and they are somewhat more suited to growing in pots, you'll note I'm not absolutely convinced by this logic. Some seed suppliers suggest that Scoresby Dwarf is an alternative name for KY1. If it is, my guess at the origin of the KY1 name is way out. Other sources suggest that they are distinct varieties so think they might come from the same breeding and have similar qualities.

The other important features of KY1 are it's 'oblate' fruit shape (some call this an Adelaide Tomato), productivity, excellent sauce qualities (meaty flesh) and superb flavour. Critically this older, "heritage" breeding is open pollinated. Plants in the garden produce perfectly usable seed that produces plants true to the parents unlike modern F1 hybrids that may or may not produce usable plants. Here is the essence of the vanishing varieties. KY1's older breeding is not ideally suited to modern production or vegetable retailing. Modern hybrid Tomatoes are more vigorous, disease resistant and prolific, the fruit is firmer and lasts longer. Breeders spend small fortunes developing new hybrids for the commercial producer and expect to get a return on that investment. Modern hybrid Tomato seeds cost 20 and 30 times the old varieties. Far too expensive for producing in punnets for home gardeners. The big seed houses have just stopped producing old varieties that don't produce big margins. So in a way we provide a service, keeping heritage varieties alive.

At least we try. About 5 years ago we found we couldn't't purchase KY1 seed any longer. No-one had any. Fortune smiled however and our friend Dangerous Don, an avid vegetable grower and marketeer had a thimble full of seed he had collected from his own plants. We bartered for some of Don's seed, I guess a few plants were exchanged for half of Don's seed. We then grew some in pots at Scotsburn and sent half to Royston Petrie Seeds. Royston Petrie does a great job of maintaining an extensive list of heritage vegetables, many of which they grow and harvest themselves. From the first batch we grew for ourselves we harvested a couple of buckets of Tomatoes which Nancy took home and duly produced a good sized batch of beautifully cleaned seed (it's easy to collect seed covered in fuzz and dried Tomato pulp, not so easy to clean it up thoroughly. It's much easier to sow large quantities if it is properly cleaned). I think we collected seed a second season but we have now found it much easier to go back to Royston Petrie to purchase seed grown and harvested professionally.

So there you are Anonymous. One small grower is still supplying Tomato KY1 to Melbourne nurseries in punnets and small pots. Unfortunately you'll have to nag to get more nurseries to stock this terrific variety.

Just Crazy for Perennial Spreading Petunias

2010-11-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

How's that for a retail display! Thanks to James at Warran Glen, despite the ring ins at the bottom this Craze Petunia (Pink). Follow this link for our list of retail partners.

The trick with Craze Petunia is getting gardeners to appreciate their true value. You just can't do this in a 140mm pot, not even in a 300mm Terra Cotta bowl. Perhaps a hanging basket does justice but to get a real appreciation for how striking this plant is, you have to see it en mass. I think we grew 5 plants in the Rustic planter, truth is if we were patient one plant would fill out this box. The other thing to notice is the plants in the box are last year's left overs. Yes, truly perennial.

It has taken until November to get the saleable 140mm pots to size, they have just refused to bulk up in the conditions we have had this season. We have also had a hiccup in supply only one week in, our 140mm potted plants have gone a little yellow. The Craze Petunia is a very vigorous plant and needs a little extra feed a lot of fertilizer was washed out of these pots on Derby Day so we have just taken a week's breather to help them catch up. If you're concerned a teaspoon of Osmocote or similar in a 140mm pot will easily lift them up and hold their colour for several months.

Craze Petunias are available in 140mm Pots

and our Great Scot Premium flower punnets.

Now there are two reasons for writing about our Craze Petunia displays, the first is pretty obvious... we're very proud of them.
Second? To achieve maximum impact we have only released our Craze Petunias through Garden Centres willing to work closely with us to maximize the value of the presentation. Planning has started for an even more exciting, NEW product for release in Autumn. Next week we take delivery of our first Garvinea Perennial Gerbera plants. This first batch of plants is intended for growing on to create stunning new display boxes. We grew a small trial batch of Garvineas early this year and they were remarkably popular for their distinctive long stemmed, old fashioned flowers. We didn't need to promote their vigour, their outdoor growing potential or even the fact that they are perennial.

This is an exciting release for Scotsburn and includes strong backing from 'florist' the Dutch breeders and Highsun our young plant supplier.

What are these spots on my Tomato plants?

2010-10-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of discussion about a return to a traditional weather pattern this year. I'm certainly pleased that October is looking like the busiest sales month this year, that means the season follows our plan and that means we have stock available when we need it. Happier retailers and less waste for us.

The return to traditional seasonality however reminds me of growing problems we have almost forgotten. This week I'm particularly thinking of Black Spots on Tomatoes. With the dry and relatively warm, early seasons we have experienced over an extended period we have rarely seen any sign of Black Spots with yellow margins on Tomato leaves for the best part of 10 years. They have made a return this year.

I think we have managed the crops well but the weather conditions have made it more prevalent so we have dumped a few batches of stock, particularly Tiny Tim. In other years Roma has been a concern. Some retail customers have reported outbreaks. I am happy to share responsibility for the first outbreak with a garden centre customer but after that our response is buyer beware. This is a disease that is too common for us to accept every casualty.

So how is it best controlled? When I first started growing Tomatoes all we knew was to spray with Copper. Kocide, Copper Oxichloride, Copper Curit, Bordeaux mix. These are all preventative fungicides that coat the foliage of the plant to keep the Bacteria out. The effectiveness was was limited at best. In the nursery, cultural controls are most effective. Hy gene is critical, dump any plants showing signs of disease and treat the growing area with chlorine solution. Sporekill is a product we use regularly but dilute house hold disinfectant will do perfectly well. We have found that using Sporekill at very dilute rates we can mix with a Copper fungicide to cleanup an outbreak if we get in early (often hard to do because this disease will spread very rapidly). Growing on benches is also ideal as it limits the ability of the disease to splash about in irrigation water.

The other tip I picked up from Peter Wood (Woodlyn Nursery) be careful with fertilizer. If we use a blended fertilizer with a high Nitrogen ratio the plant cells become very soft and susceptible to disease infestation. Using a balanced Nitrogen (N):Potassium (K) ratio, even a higher Potassium to Nitrogen ratio is good. This toughens up the cell walls and keeps the bacteria out. We use a blended liquid fertilizer: Campbell's Diamond White, it works remarkably well.

Anyway, hopefully from now on the weather will warm up and the problem becomes less acute. Ha Ha, I've just read the weather forecast! Keep warm, good luck at the Cup.

Round Ribbon Zucchini Salad

2010-10-29T00:24:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks back I was bailed up while delivering. Caz at Burdett's Nursery wanted to know if we grew 'Round' Zucchini? As it happens we had tried to introduce a variety called Black Max ('Ronde de Nice' style. Can't get that OP seed but I wish we had used that name on the label... Sooo French) in 2009 but having prepared labels we couldn't source seed. This year we found some seed, duly sowed it and sold none! Admittedly this was during that diabolical September when nothing much was moving. Kaye warned me that they were not moving so we gave away quite a few trays just so garden centres could test the market. Not a bad strategy because we have sold the rest of the plants grown pretty well, not as popular as Black Jack by any stretch but a worthy introduction to our range.

So back to Caz. Caz is clearly a foodie, she rattled off two recipes and expected me to absorb the information on the spot. Incapable of absorbing much more than I'm hot or I'm cold I offered Caz a free tray of Round Zucchini with her next order, in exchange for the recipes in written form. Well here is the first one, if you want the second please email me.

Round Ribbon Zucchini Salad.
2-3 Round Zucchini
1/4 Cup chopped mint
Pinch of salt & pepper
2 table spoons of olive oil
Danish feta (to taste I guess)
Preserved lemon
1/4 cup chopped basil
Table spoon vinegar
Lemon juice (to taste)
Toasted pine nuts
Slice Zucchini ribbon thin. Take the pith out of the preserved lemon, slice thinly and add to the bowl of Zucchini.
Coarsely chop mint and basil and add to bowl. Mix oil, lemon juice, vinegar and salt & pepper. Mix this vinaigrette through the salad.
Top with crumbled feta and toasted pine nuts.

We have tested this recipe at the nursery, it is fantastic!. We cheated at this time of year with bought long Zucchini, mostly because the recipe calls for ribbon slices. The chief culinary value of small round Zucchinis appears to be the individual serving size.

Many thanks to Mark's wife Sam for testing the recipe for us.

A Sweet & Crunchy addition

2010-10-15T17:52:00.001-07:00

We are always on he lookout for new varieties to add to our list. Something just a little different, a plant to make our list a little more attractive than the next seedling suppliers. This process needs some caution, only five years ago we had two lettuce varieties on our My Vegie Garden seedling list. We now have 8, if you include Winter Salad. The more variety we offer the more difficult it is to manage the inventory. On the other hand our industry is not alone in discovering that if we offer our consumers a greater range there is a good chance that they will purchase more.

Like our new label design? Keep it simple, we're very happy with it.

Anyway, we have plenty of ideas for new varieties and plenty of suggestions form friends, customers and seed suppliers. Some are terrific and worth producing new labels for, others are terrific but we know we will never sell enough plants to warrant the production of labels. It's that simple really. This lead to a search for Bantam Corn over the past winter. Great plant, I had planned production but drew a blank when I discovered I could only buy seed in retail packets. However, while I was hunting for Bantam Corn I kept reading about a mini Cos lettuce: Little Gem (follow the link for the best description I have found).

Click on the image for Little Gem's own blog!

The process of selecting plants goes back and forward amongst our staff and when my Pommie mate Mark heard about Little Gem I got the response I was looking for (we grow Jap Pumpkin because it's my mums favourite). Before emigrating Mark worked in the wholesale vegie industry in Lankashire. Little Gem is the most popular Lettuce in Europe, in Mark's considered opinion. Wildly popular with chefs and foodies for it's sweet flavour and individual serving size. That's the one, just have to source the seed... yes we found a supply. Organic!

We haven't had the chance to grow any out yet but the seedlings make a beautiful punnet (neat and compact) and they have been perfectly well behaved, not showing any signs of disease susceptibility. They are also quick to ripen taking only about 5 weeks which is usually a good sign with Lettuce that they will be easy to care for. A word of warning, don't let them sit in the garden too long, they apparently can get bitter. Turn them over quickly and put in a fresh batch.

Please give Lettuce Little Gem a try and let me know what you think.

Soft & Downey & Deadly to Impatiens

2010-09-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Peter, Thanks for the information on upcoming seedlings. My query is this. For a few years now I have avoided growing Impatiens due to rotting when they seemed to be doing so well. Has this problem been eliminated or will I still be taking a risk trying again. I always had such pleasure over the summer months watching my colourful friends keeping "busy"

Looking forward to seeing my garden full of Busy Lizzies again, thank you from Kay.

What a timely question. Careful Peter, timely in time of year, not that we have seen any sign of the dreaded Impatiens Downey Mildew. In fact we are growing beautiful Impatiens this year.

So beautiful in fact we are treating this tray (Summer Berries and about 30 of her friends) as not up to our standards but that's just because she's too big to offer shelf life in a retail garden centre.

I have written about Impatiens Downey Mildew previously, so you can find lots of information here. Unfortunately I can't say the Downey Mildew has gone away or that we have found a miracle cure. We are being careful not to bring any Impatiens plants into our nursery and we grow our seedlings very 'dry' which prevents the fungi spores germinating.

There was a research program done some years back (Wow 1996) on Downey Mildew in Brassica Vegetable seedlings, a closely related but different strain. Both diseases have similar symptoms to each other but they are very specific to the host plant, they are not interchangable. The recommendation of this research was to NOT water our plants between 9.00 & 11.00am. This is the time when the spores are most active and the addition of water just provides a perfect environment for germination. I favour 'early' watering to ensure time for evaporation through the day. Water sitting on foliage over night is just bad news as it encourages any number of fungal & bacterial diseases.

Unfortunately the other critical cultural element is to remove any diseased plant material and ensure that Impatiens are not grown in the same space again at least for a season or two. This is of course the ancient crop rotation system. Sad really, I clearly recall cousin Fred Wood lamenting that Impatiens seedlings would last so long that they had ruined the autumn flower seedling sales season... perhaps there's a conspiracy! Anyway, if Kay hasn't grown Impatiens for a few years she is a good chance to make a fresh start so long as she chooses 'clean' seedlings. This applies to potted plants as well, If you find the disease don't fight it. Remove the infected stock and clean containers thoroughly with disinfectant.

Actually, the best advice I can offer is to grow New Guinea Impatiens. The Impatiens Downey Mildew disease is so specific that it doesn't even effect this close relative of Impatiens wallerana.

Wicking Gardens

2010-09-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

Some times I wonder if writing a weekly newsletter is a wise use of my time. I enjoy the variety but there's no measurable return on my investment. And then I get some gems! Direct communication with gardeners and garden retailers produces an idea or challenge every now and then that I am sure would never otherwise come up. I received this enquiry:

hi there,
just looked over your website. keen on purchasing a few of them (Magic Square Gardens), delivered and fully planted ... weighing up cost considerations BUT also ... wondering if you're able to set up a wicking bed system in them?? ...
look forwarding to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Aj. (Aj's website is worth a look, PD)

Wicking beds! I hadn't even heard of wicking beds until 12 months ago when the Chelsea Heights Earth Carers asked for some plants to fill their one built into an old trailer. The concept is simple, very effective and used extensively in the horticulture industry. In its simplest form the wicking bed is going on a holiday and leaving your pot plants sitting on one end of a towel with the other end in a bucket of water or the bath. "Capillary action" draws the water up the towel to the pot plants. The growing media in the pot draws water up into the root zone by the same process.

Potted plant growers have been playing with this process for years now and there are many systems in use through the industry, some of them very technically advanced. The horticultural benefits are the reductions in water and nutrient use plus reduced disease risk because the foliage remains drier. The environmental benefits are obvious.

Take a look at Colin Austin's web site for details on wicking beds. I have researched the wicking concept enough (asked the Earth Carers about their set up) to have decided that it suits our Magic Square Gardens perfectly and provides a passive water management option that sits comfortably beside the active, solar pump version offered by Waterwand. Waterwand will hold significantly more water as it's clever reservoir is an open space as distinct to the sand filled bed used for wicking gardens.

I'm keen to get feedback from anyone who has used a wicking bed system. Please let me know why they are great, or otherwise. I have to get cracking and put something together for Aj.

Snail Trail

2010-08-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Oh Wow, I've hit on a topic that generates serious interest. Snails and Slugs. Isn't it always the way of things? The least sexy subject is possibly the most important.

Peter . I use my thumb and pointer after rain with a torch then put them on the ground and use my shoe . It works and no dust to inhale or pellets for the animals Laurie

Laurie sums up the general feeling and I've a suspicion that he finds this therapeutic. John (vegie plot King) had a detailed and valuable contribution as usual. Snails are like annual weeds, they lay eggs that wait for favourable conditions to hatch. Favourable? I don't have detail but I guess Spring rain is pretty good so John's suggestion is to set baits early and catch the babies as they hatch. John also suggested a salt solution poured over the plants in the afternoon, then washed off next morning. I have concerns about using salt in the garden, rotten stuff accumulates in the soil.

I did find that Kendon Chemicals produce a spray on snail repellent Escargo (gotta love the name). Escargo is not listed on their web site, but I'm told it is effective and long lasting so long as the area sprayed doesn't get too wet. If you followed the link to the non chemical snail controls last week you may have noticed that gastropods don't like copper (pic above). Copper is the active ingredient of Escargo which is available in 1l spray bottles at quality garden centres (Thanks Rob). Please keep in mind this is a chemical solution and should be treated with care. A couple of readers pointed out experiences that show Multiguard is not quite as environmentally friendly as promoted.

However, not everyone agrees:

I was at a funeral last week of a lady I have known for some time. During the Eulogy by her daughter her love of snails was mentioned, not that she loved them in her garden, but she didn't like to kill them. So when they gardened she would gather all she could find in a bucket and then take it down to the park at the end of the street and empty them there.
Cheers,
Jenni

Segue. Chooks are a terrific way to control all manner of garden pests as long as you're prepared to put up with their own destruction or manage the process (our chooks have massacred our back yard over winter).  If you would like some chooks, here's your chance.  Visit Gippsland Chook Rescue they are offering as many 'girls' as you like for a flat fee of $10.00.  Offer is open until Tuesday only!

Of Slugs and Snails

2010-08-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Peter,

This year many of my plant leaves have been eaten by baby snails. These tiny snails live on the plants and so are not eating the snail bate on the ground. They are easy to pick off but they are not noticed until holes start appearing in the leaves etc.

Is there a spray or powder that can be put on the leaves? Year's ago snail killer was available in a powder form, but nowadays only in pellets. I have thought a putting some pellets through an old food processor to grind them up.

Any suggestions?

Jeff

Ahhh, I don't know. However, a quick search provided these non-chemical solutions to the snail and slug problem. I did like the site that suggested "You use little tiny hammers, lovingly made by leprechauns, and paid for with dew".

I do have some considerable experience with snails and slugs. My 21st birthday cake had a large, marzipan 'Leopard Slug' on the top.

Oh yes we can produce some beauties at the nursery.

Sadly I have rushed to the vet's on more than one occasion with a dog who has found the Blue pellets left lying around. Poor old Molly survived on both these occasions but it's an experience I never want to repeat. And that's actually the first thing that I thought of when I read Jeff's enquiry, this is poison you are planning to grind up in the blender! Please treat any garden pesticide as dangerous. The snail bait Mesurol (blue pellets) is available as a powdered form for spraying (commercial only), it is also effective on Fungus Gnats and Thrip. In fact the only reason we ever used this stuff was to control Western Flower Thrip under instruction from the DPI. Mesurol was the most toxic chemical we kept at the nursery.

The point I am labouring is that despite this knowledge I am forever catching staff using snail baits without proper protective equipment: it's "just snail bait". We have changed to using Multiguard pellets which use Iron to kill the snails and slugs so are less harmful to the environment, pets and children, but I'm uncomfortable about grinding pellets to dust. Interestingly when I Googled Slugs and dust the top 4 items were about the danger of dust from commercially available snail pellets.

Sorry Jeff, not much help but you can probably tell it's a subject that I'm pretty passionate about.

Of Earwigs and Garden Shows

2010-08-14T00:22:00.000-07:00

Regular correspondent Laurie has taken me to task in the past for defending Earwigs. I've always treated earwigs as predators that help control other bug populations. Laurie hit me with:Peter . I was shocked to hear you praise Earwigs . The bastards are destroying my garden , Vegies and flowers . I kill about 10 to 20 a day and I am losing the battle . I am spraying and leaving pieces of water pipe laying aound and empty each morning . The only other problems are white butterflies and the occasional snail or slug .
and more recently
Why can earwigs eat rhubarb leaves which are poison to humans?
I don't know Laurie! But just after I received this enquiry I found an article titled "Not all Earwigs are pests" and it would appear that both Laurie and I are both correct. Native, Common Brown Earwigs (Labidura truncata, how's that for professional!) are predators... good for your garden. They love caterpillars, codling moth, cut worms, budworms, Slugs and even other Earwigs. Common Brown Earwigs are big, up to 3cm long and have a distinct orange triangle on their backs.
The bad guys are nasty, European, imported interlopers. Smaller, darker, harder bodied and I imagine they have bad moustaches and terrible accents. So Laurie, please take a little care when you next go hunting for those wascally earwigs! (Thanks to Hort Journal, August 2010)
Spring is almost here so the fete and show season is also starting:

It's Camellia Time and the flowers are blooming in great profusion!

Camellias Victoria and Waverley Garden Club are holding their annual Camellia Festival to celebrate their favourite flower plus lots more.

On Saturday, 21st August from 1 - 5 pm and Sunday, 22nd from 10 am to 4.30 pm. in the Mount Waverley Community Centre, Miller Crescent, Mount Waverley (Opposite the Railway Station). There will be hundreds of beautiful blooms on display, along with general garden exhibits and also the Inaugural Winter Floral Art Championship, where some of Melbourne's best floral artists will compete for the top prize. There will be plant sales of many different varieties of camellias and Devonshire teas when you have finished looking at all the exhibits.

Enquiries Shirley on 9802 3771.

Crafty Grafted Tomatoes

2010-08-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

I receive a daily "Dirt du Jour" newsletter by email. Much less long winded than I am. Every now and than I get a real surprise: "Grafted Tomatoes. Alice Doyle at Log House Plants says they’ve been doing it in Europe for ages. The benefits are many. Tomatoes grafted onto sturdy rootstock resist disease, resist nematodes, resist cold and provide a bumper crop from fussy heirlooms even in depleted soils. Every tomato she’s trialed has been bigger and better on grafted rootstock".

They've been doing it in Europe for ages!?! Is this a new concept in the US? Anyway after many years of not growing Grafted Tomatoes we are putting a toe back in the water.

Grafting does help enhance Tomato productivity and when Grafted Tomatoes were first introduced to the Australian market by Cousin Fred (Wood) back in the early '80s they were a massive hit. Of course everyone jumped on the bandwagon and the market became crowded. I felt they became unprofitable for the level of work required to produce good grafted plants so we stopped producing. Good grafted plants require specialist equipment and dedication, Floriana used to grow the best and they dominated the market. Well one of our Seed suppliers, Highsun Express have offered pre-grafted Tomato plugs this season so we're trying them out. Our first Tomatoes, Grosse Lisse and Apollo (and Eggplants, Bonica) have arrived and I'm pleased to say that the grafts are excellent so we should have plants ready for early September sales. For those in the know these are "V" grafted plants with only the one set of roots in the soil, that's considered the ideal process.

We will sell our Grafted vegies in 100mm square pots and expect they will retail for just under $10.00 per pot. From our perspective they're worth every cent both for the work involved in production and also for their exceptional productivity.

Why Crafted? Just one of those malapropisms that stuck and has always made me smile. Thanks Landy.

Keen on Bonsai?

The Waverley Bonsai Group is holding it's show next weekend, 14-15th August at the Mount Waverley Community Centre. Displays, demonstrations, experts and sales. Follow the link for full details.

Oxalis revs up garden passions.

2010-07-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

One of the interesting things about writing a weekly newsletter is the immediate response. I know very quickly weather I have touched a subject that stirs gardener's passions. Wow! does Oxalis get green thumbs hot?

Some of the feedback is definitely worth sharing. Two separate correspondents recommend Aeroguard! Yes that's right the mozzie repellent. Apparently it will kill Oxalis and not the surrounding plants. I thought this was an expensive approach but for spot spraying around plants you want to keep it's cheaper and easier than selective herbicides. At least it should help Laurie:
Peter . Your solution is off target .My Oxalis grows with my daffodils –camelias and other flowers . There I cannot use roundup or cover with paper . We need a another solution . I use your (grand) father`s solution.
By the way I haven't tried this so please trial carefully before spraying liberally.

As usual the best practical advice comes from John, king of the Knox Garden Plotters:

The bane of all our plotters is oxalis.

Many of our members have been plotters for 20 years.

We agree that the only cure is to let it grow till summer. Then it is a large plant and because it is very green and imature, it can be removed. Too late once it has matured - there will be millions of bublets. Need I say more. Make sure you bag it up and put in your garbage or yellow bin. Most of our plotters find that it will be gone in 2 years. Give it a try.

Anyway the recurring theme is do whatever you can to keep knocking down the top growth which will over time starve the bulbs. If you can, dig the bulbs out and destroy them.

These plotters are students at Chelsea Heights Primary School. This whole area had been invaded by a Banana Passion fruit root stock that had escaped but the kids and their families have done a great job building a really successful vegie garden.

A Horrid Weed... Oxalis!

2010-07-24T02:10:00.000-07:00

"Oxalis? Any magic cure for this horrid weed?" Jane

By chance the subject of Oxalis came up as I joined a gardening forum at Burnley Gardens last Sunday. I was lucky enough to hide behind those more knowledgeable and absorb information that turned out to be immediately valuable.

Oxalis is not a weed that causes nursery problems. We are troubled more by the annuals that spread quickly by seed, Flick weed, willow herb and chick weed.

This is a form of flick weed, a type of mustard that flings seed far and wide once the seed pods have matured. Comes up like hair on a cat's back if we don't maintain our hygiene.

Oxalis is particularly horrid in gardens because it's an herbaceous perennial with a tiny bulb that lurks deep under the soil surface waiting for the opportunity to sprout. The bulb is designed to protect the plant and that's why is it so successful. You can quite easily remove the top of the plant but it's near impossible to get at the bulb, especially once it has established. And they multiply!

The usual response to Oxalis is RoundUp (Glyphosate), I think most gardeners are aware of RoundUp or Zero. It has been around a while now and it's very effective and apparently safe. It works by interrupting the photosynthesis process (that's why they say it can't hurt us, we don't photosynthesize) which should starve the plant, roots and all. Because the Oxalis bulb stores energy for the plant you might need a few goes to kill the bulb.

Most gardeners I know prefer not to use chemicals so the question becomes how do you control Oxalis without spraying. My grandfather used to get me to dig them up from the formal beds at his home. Very carefully digging down to find all the bulbs. The soil was well worked so the digging wasn't too difficult, but that's just the environment Oxalis loves. The agreed solution at the Burnley College forum was to crowd the weeds out with mulch. Heavy mulch. Try a layer of cardboard, newspaper or even carpet underlay under a more regular and attractive mulch to force the weeds to stretch too far to find a path to light. The alternative was a really thick ground covering plant like Myoporum parvifolium (I have to say I'm sure I've seen Oxalis bursting out from this type of ground cover so layering all these various mulches sounds the best option). I'm honestly not sure if the bulbs eventually starve under all the mulch or how long it would take to happen. Still, I'm a big fan of mulching... although that lead to another discussion over the merit of mulching in fire prone areas. Best leave that for another day.

Small Vegie Gardens

2010-07-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

I was asked to speak about "small" vegie gardens last week. I have to admit to going along somewhat under prepared. My long term operations manager Deb has resigned after 10 years at Scotsburn, 6 years running the show and she finished up on Friday. It's obviously difficult at these times to express all the emotions so I will publicly say thanks Deb, best of luck with the challenges ahead. Anyway, my mind was elsewhere when I arrived to talk to the Chelsea Earth Carers about small gardens.

I had planned my standard "hanging basket" talk: good plants, good potting mix, careful watering. You might have seen an Item in the Herald Sun based on that talk a couple of weeks back (thanks Tony). I took a couple of sample pots along and started by asking what people were looking for when they signed up for a workshop on "small gardens". Well if you were there (and if you could hear, it was a busy room) it was a fascinating discussion. Fortunately the basics: good plants, good potting mix and watering kept us somewhere near on track but I was amazed at the level of interest in the sample pots.

OK so the one on the left is pretty ornamental but you can see these troughs are big enough to sustain 3-4 fairly substantial herbs or vegies and they look great by the back door or on a patio.

Our Rustic troughs are made from recycled fence palings and other 'collected' timber. We have had a trough resized to suit a styrene fruit box. The fruit box is not entirely environmentally friendly and apparently the growers are using them less these days but they are recycled and they make ideal containers for growing small quantities of herbs and vegies. The polystyrene provides insulation to the soil and protects the timber from voracious soil organisms. The rustic trough presents the not necessarily attractive styrene box beautifully and protects it from marauding chickens... perhaps it's just our chooks but they just love pecking at polystyrene. I haven't noticed our eggs developing additional bounce. We sell these, delivered to your home for $85.00.

The other "small garden" sample that created ENORMOUS interest was the Greensmart Pot.

This pic was taken by Andre at Greensmart Pots Eltham you can tell photography is one of his hobbies. Andre's blog willl tell you a great deal more about these cleaver "wicking" pots that have the capacity to sustain far more herbs and vegies than a container this size has a right to. The water is stored in a well at the bottom of the pot and absorbed into the potting mix through 'wicks', it's very clever, water wise and uses nutrients amazingly efficiently.

Greensmart Pots Eltham and Scotsburn are offering planted pots for $100.00 each, delivered. If you are interested please give us a call 03 9798 7066.

Ornamental and Culinary Chillis

2010-06-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

May, June & July are always a little frustrating, even angst ridden. No matter how I try I have never been able to finish our planning for spring on time... like back in May. Well it's the same this year, I'm still fussing over the final details of a plan that should serve us for the next 12 months. Really I should be well into organizing seed and label orders, all of which need to be done in advance.

Of course all of that makes this the most stimulating time of year as we look at what we have done and what new things we want to try. This year we are looking at expanding the range of Chillis and Capsicums we grow. Now I know it's a little early to start talking about plants that you don't expect to start planting until September at the earliest but we have been sowing various Chillis for 3-4 weeks now, so I'm on a roll.

We are offering more Chillis because of the intense interest they have generated over the past 2 years, particularly the question we continually answer: "Can we eat ornamental Chillis?" We have decided that our habit of identifying Chillis as Ornamental or Edible creates the confusion so from now on we will use the terms Ornamental and Culinary. Genius! Yes, now everyone will understand! Perhaps not, but the idea is (to my knowledge) there are no poisonous Capsicums, but there are plenty that taste terrible. Our rep Di who is a real foodie has tested this theory and supports it fully. Of course, just because a Chilli tastes terrible doesn't mean it isn't hot. Chilli heat is a quite separate thing to taste and I should point out that not all ornamental Chillis are hot.

Now, I have said that to my knowledge there are no poisonous Chillis but I do need to remind you that Capsicums and Chillis are from the Solanaceae family that includes Tomatoes, Potatoes and Deadly Nightshade. The leaves of these plants are poisonous to greater and lesser degrees so I don't recommend eating the foliage.

Just to add to the complexity of this group of plants we produce them for sales in two distinct seasons. The first is the culinary Chilli and Capsicum Season. We start selling traditional varieties like Capsicum Californian Wonder and Chilli Red Hot Cayenne in August for enthusiasts with green houses to protect their crops. Although I generally regard the Capsicums as hardier than Tomatoes, at least they tend to suffer fewer growing problems they are less vigorous than their pomodori cousins in cold weather. Both will Capsicums and Tomatoes turn quite black at the slightest hint of frost. These are the young seedlings we offer in punnets and the more advanced plants in single 100mm pots.

The second season is for the ornamentals. Of course this is really just the fruit of our earlier labour. We hope to produce brightly coloured fruit by Christmas from the plants we first started sowing back in May, generally though we expect our Chillis will produce their best colour in January and February next year. The development of the fruit is fascinating to watch as the small green berries fatten into more recognizable Capsicum fruit and the colours come, then go, then finally take on their mature colours which range through yellow, orange, fire engine red to purples and black. Eventually the fruit dries and shrivels on the plant, it will usually hold its colour to this stage. When the skin has dried like this the seed is ready to collect and should be quite viable to produce a new crop although I can't vouch the new plants will be true to form if you have been growing a selection of different Capsicums in one area. Keep in mind that Capsicums as a group are actually short lived perennial plants that can be over wintered in Victoria and will produce successfully in the second and possibly third season if they are re-potted or at least given a cut back and a good feed.

So why do we identify some Chillis as ornamental? They have been bred to be used purely as ornamental plants, generally the plant will be more compact and carry a lot of fruit in bunches that are particularly striking. Flavour is ignored altogether. We have done a little research this year and have found a few culinary varieties that produce attractive, compact plants so we'll see how they go come December and January. The pic above is Capsicum Courtyard a great tasting Pimento (heart shaped) Capsicum with the added benefit of growing on a very attractive plant.

Scotsburn Nurseries' Environment

2010-06-18T00:46:00.000-07:00

We had our EcoHort and NIASA audits last week. Not confirmed yet but we pretty confident of retaining our industry accreditations. What am I talking about? Follow the links for some pretty dry back ground on these programs run by the Nursery and Garden Industry Association. In simple terms these are business development programs promoting best practice in environmental sustainability (EcoHort) and nursery production (NIASA). We are audited regularly to ensure we maintain the highest standards.

If you have noted our letter head you know we are very proud of our EcoHort certification. We are careful not to claim to be 'organic' but EcoHort has helped us develop practices to minimise our impact on our environment. With time and care I would like to work towards NASAA but I don't want to lose many of the benefits that come with modern horticulture like consistent quality and reliable results for our consumers. Yeah, and I'm just that bit conservative so we'll go slowly.

Key thing to come from our EcoHort audit is we need a written environment policy. So here goes...
Scotsburn Nurseries Environment Policy

Great gardening is healthy, beautiful, richly variable and environmentally positive. So are our plants.

It is our policy to supply the Victorian garden industry with ornamental plants that are of themselves environmentally positive and are produced and distributed in a manner that actively minimises damage to our local and the global environment.

To achieve this we:

· Maintain Nursery industry best practice currently defined in NIASA EcoHort certification.

· Commit to complying with environmental regulations and laws.

· Provide information, resources and training to continually improve workplace environmental performance.

· Consult with employees, customers and consumers of our plants about environmental issues and concerns to manage risks to improve standards.

Implementation of this policy is the responsibility of everyone at Scotsburn Nurseries. It is a condition of employment that all staff will:

· Understand and comply with Scotsburn’s policies, practices and procedures.

· Identify, report assess and control environmental concerns.

This policy will be used a core criteria in all business decisions and will be reviewed annually by nursery staff.

There you go... I got worried once I started about where this would take me but keep it short and to the point works for me. I'd love some feedback, please let me know what you think. I've still got to work on some of the specific 'practice' documents, specifically a waste management plan. I might bore you with this another time.
I've been looking for a good excuse to use these terrific pics from Upwey Primary School. I think the link to our Environment policy is pretty obvious.

World's Biggest Display of Hanging Baskets?

2010-06-11T00:51:00.000-07:00

Saturday 19th June is the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria's annual conference day. Rob Pelletier will give the key note presentation on Sustainable gardening, worth the price of admission alone. Actually I think it's free and Rob is worth more, he's a 'horticultural thinker', not afraid to challenge and always entertaining. The Royal's afternoon tea is worth the trip too. Starts at 1.00pm, follow the link for more details. Prizes for the Great Victorian Hanging Basket competition will be distributed at the Royal's conference, you can find the official list of winners here.

If you're really keen follow this link to see the You Tube video of the Hanging basket competition.

My association with the Royal goes back 10 years. We met through the International Flower and Garden Show. Scotsburn wanted to display hanging baskets and the Royal wanted better representation of amateur horticulture at Australia's premier garden show. 10 years! and this year we think we have set the record for for the largest display of hanging baskets in the world! Guinness Book of World Records!

Gerda van der Peet First Prize Members

Now let's get a few things straight. This is a new record for the greatest number of baskets being displayed in the one location at the same time. All the entries are from members or affiliates of the Royal Horticultural Society so they were attempting this record as a team. To ensure consistency for the competition judges, every participant was supplied with a Gardman Hanging Basket and a bag of Debco's Terra Cotta and Tub potting mix. The competition rules state that there must be at least one living plant in the basket for it to be judged, I'm pleased to say every basket I saw had several although I did also find the odd dead 'un. How many baskets? Two hundred and twenty one! It took about 4 goes to count them, it was remarkably easy to get lost in the maze of paths and boxes and baskets. I eventually had to use the site plan and tick each position off, then re-check!

Why am I telling you all of this? Well I have been asked to witness the the display actually achieved what it claimed to and I'm very pleased to say that it did.

Bentleigh Garden Club First Prize Affiliate Clubs
Quantity and quality!

Unfortunately I can't make the conference this year, Ben is playing possibly his last game of netball in a Grand Final. At 14 he's too old to play juniors after this season and possibly a little young to be playing open mixed with the 20 year olds. Wish him luck.

Crisp White shirts and potting mix!

2010-06-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

First week of Winter! Bit of a slog really. Seedling sales are worse than usual for this time of year. OK I know we have good weeks and bad so I just have to keep my chin up. Well, here's a great way to pick up the spirits: Work with young people! (WC Fields be damned).

We had a group of Year 4 Envirokids from Mentone Girl's Grammar (at least 20, I lost count) tour the nursery recently. Their teacher, Allison tells me they had a great time. I know I was thoroughly refreshed. Very excited young ladies, beautifully behaved and full of perceptive questions. In fact I had to be on my toes to keep up, including the query about "what happens if any of the nursery equipment breaks down?" Little did I know that our main air compressor had broken down that afternoon and as the school bus was leaving the electricity company arrived with a notice that our power would be off all day the following Tuesday! You just can't put anything past clever kids.

Where does seed come from? Well, actually a packet in the fridge. The Envirokids have a vegie patch at school, planted up with seedlings we supplied (that's how we got to know each other). The visit to Scotsburn ties the whole environment, gardening, healthy food and cooking cycle together.

Every body goes home with a potted plant and sows a pea seed for good measure.

So long as I don't have to wash those crisp white shirts!

The tour took an hour-hour and a half. I'd love to do more: schools, kindas, garden clubs (I'm not age-ist). If you're interested please let me know. I can't offer tours for free, but if we can cover cost I'm happy to discuss. We're not over supplied with amenities, but it's far from primitive.

Of course the great thing is these kids have had a terrific introduction to horticulture thanks to a dedicated teacher and a great program.

Thanks to Allison and the Envirokids. I had a wonderful day.

By the way if you want a stunning way to blow some money follow this link!

Broadly Speaking

2010-05-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

My Grandfather used to bring a brown paper bag of broad beans to the nursery when I first started working here. "Uncle Dave" had long since retired from active nursery work but he came in weekly, as long as he wasn't warming himself at Broadbeach and tidied around the office. This included a little mowing and gardening. I never quite understood his passion for his 'Beefsteaks' but I have come to realize that broad beans are a real marker of genuine vegie gardeners.

My Grandfather "Uncle Dave" Wood with my daughter Emma. Emma is in year 11 now, she won't thank me for using this pic.

And while I still can't get excited over a plate of boiled beans (and let's not even think about baked beans from a can) I have learned that broad beans are an extraordinarily versatile vegetable. Kerry mushes them up with Mediterranean spices to make magnificent falafels and I once had a fava bean paste as a butter substitute at a fancy restaurant, I can't remember how they made it but I guess it wasn't much more than beans, olive oil and seasoning.... to die for! I think the name fava bean is more common in the US than broad bean (Hannibal Lecter liked then with liver, but we won't go there), broad bean is seriously uninspiring as names go but at least it's better than horse bean. All of these are the same thing.

From a gardeners perspective the great thing about broad beans is you can plant them now! Timing is ideal, the plants will develop through the winter and set their fruit (the pod is the fruit, the bean is a seed) while they do all that manic growing in spring. This is important if you want to produce tender beans in that odd period where we are busy planting but not much else is ready to harvest.

The other great thing about broad beans is that they are very quick and easy to grow. There is very little that Melbourne weather can do to upset them unless it gets very wet and miserable which can encourage fungal diseases. The recommendation is to space them at least 15cm apart and a good 40cm between rows to allow air to circulate and prevent the disease getting established. Watch our for Aphids in spring they just love succulent growing tips. Of course soil needs to be thoroughly prepared or they can be grown in large containers with premium potting mix. We grow a variety called Cole's Dwarf which grows to about 1m tall making it easy to harvest and great for containers.

Harvesting? Beans should be ready in about 10 weeks from planting. Picked very young (little finger sized or smaller) they can be cooked and eaten pod and all. More commonly they are shelled and eaten fresh or they can be dried. A good tip is to pick your beans while the membrane attaching them to the pod is still green, once it starts to change colour the beans will be too mature and they start to get hard and chalky.

Either way, it's time for planting.

A nasty stain

2010-05-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Peter

I have some more problems in my vegie garden my beetroot is all leaves there is nothing growing or developing below the ground.

I have sooty mould on my bean leaves & little white insects as well, it is also starting to effect our basil.

I hope you can help

Regards

Maureen

My mum has a passion for Beetroot. She actively tried to pass it on but only partially successfully. I like Beetroot but I don't get that excited. As usual though, home grown or at least home prepared is extra special. Tinned beetroot is perfectly flavoursome but Beetroot is such a fantastic raw material for pickling, flavouring and cooking it is really worth having a go. Besides that, Beetroot is generally pest free and easy to grow.

These are beetroot we harvested this week from the Magic Square Display Garden we prepared for the flower and garden show. No additional fertilizer added, that's the value of a large volume of potting media for containerized vegies.

So what could prevent Maureen's Beetroot from developing a nice fat root? Generally the explanation is too much nitrogen encourages leaf development at the expense of root growth. Of course this is one of my favourite topics, ensure your plants get abalanced diet. Many commercial preparations over emphasize nitrogen because it makes plants look shiny and healthy easily but really it is junk food. Chicken manure and chook pellets are also heavily weighted towards a quick shot of nitrogen.

My other mantra is "prepare soil thoroughly and if you are growing in containers use a premium potting mix". The structure of the growing medium (soil or potting mix) is really important when growing root crops such as beetroot because the root needs to expand and grow into the medium. Poorly drained, soggy soil and hard compacted old dirt just don't cut it with root vegies.

At Scotsburn we have traditionally sold Beetroot seedlings year round in Melbourne although the text books generally recommend against sowing through the winter. Experience says they will plant out quite happily, they just grow more slowly adding a few weeks to the standard 10-11. There is an argument for direct seeding all root vegies as it prevents root damage during transplanting, of course from my perspective starting with seedlings takes away the problems of germinating seed. Careful transplanting of seedlings also removes the need to thin out direct seeded plantings that have been over sown. We sow Beetroot 'seed pods' directly into punnets and pots so each of these clusters can be thinned as you plant them.

OK so a little bigger than my recommendation, but they grew faster than we expected. These were planted from advanced Funky Fresh Kitchen pots a couple of weeks prior to the Flower Show so that's about 9 weeks in the beds. Where did these beetroot go you ask? So did I. I believe Debra schanffled them.

Don't be afraid to pick small sweet leaves for salad mixes this should encourage more growth and ensure that the shoulder of the bulbous root is covered with soil as it matures to protect it from cracking when exposed to the weather. And please pick your Beetroot before the bulbs reach cricket ball size.... taste sweet!

By the way. Basil season is ending, getting too cold for Basil now. Little white insects? White fly. White fly love beans and tomatoes. They are sucking insects so treat them the same way as Aphids. White fly doesn't generally create a lot of damage itself but it can carry viral diseases.

Who Powdered my Pansies?

2010-05-14T00:53:00.000-07:00

We have the most beautiful batch of Violas in 200mm pots. Three separate colours including white and Deep Marina.

Oh, yes they are this beautiful.
Except for one thing.... the foliage is full of powdery mildew. Our sales people have been driven mad with desire. They can see these beautiful plants but the production team won't let them be touched.

Powdery Mildew is not a fungal disease that we deal with all that regularly. We often get plenty delivered to us on hanging baskets that we are sending to the flower & Garden show. The fungus just loves the Autumn weather; cool nights, high humidity and still days. The other factor that has affected our Violas is they were returned from the Flower & Garden Show display and cut back to re-grow. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be an issue but cutting the plants back stressed them enough to allow the Powdery Mildew fungus to attack.

That's a really nasty infestation of Powdery in Zinnia. From my experience Powdery can really destroy a plant but usually it just hangs around making the plant miserable and it is very contagious if the conditions are right.

What to do? First and foremost prevent infestation! Remove any infected plants. Ensure hight light levels, yes that's right if possible get your plants out from under the shade. There are very few plants that will need or like shade cover between now and December. The other thing we do in the green houses is turn the fans on. Quite simple, we have fans that stir the air around to prevent that close humid environment developing that fungi like. The other thing I have seen (but never used myself) greenhouse growers use is Sulfur Burners, sulphur is very effective in controlling the Powdery fungi. I'm sure these are available for enthusiasts from Sage Horticulture, but they are of no value out of doors.

OK so sometimes we still get infected. Commercially there are some very specific fungicides for controlling Powdery mildew, BayletonTM comes to mind but I'm not aware of it being available on consumer packages. A Lime Sulphur spray should be available from most good garden centres. I have made the mistake of spraying Powdery with a general fungicide assuming that if it was effective on Botrytis (Grey mould) it would be effective on Powdery... wrong! So don't do that. I have found two interesting organic sprays: baking soda and milk. The baking soda idea matches one sent to me this week by Marina who suggested this basic recipe to control aphids and sooty mould. Marina's spray didn't include baking soda and she replaced the water with dish water, I think that might just frighten the Aphids away. Thank's Marina.

Last resort? Dilute Quarternary Ammonia, some household disinfectants contain ammonia in this (quarternary) form. It works, but it needs care not to burn the plants and you must use the quarternary form. If the foliage is especially dense (think our Viola crop) it is very difficult to get the ammonia solution in contact with the fungus so we might have to cut them back again.... Oh I'm getting dizzy.

A Mould for all Seasons

2010-05-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

Thank for the news and advice!
I have a fairly large Kaffir Lime in a tub, never had a problem over many years, suddenly developed BLACK MOULD in/on/under the leaves. Also ants LOVE it and run all over it.
It looks very healthy apart from this.
What to do?
Many thanks, Lena

I love this one because I can talk about Aphid poo and snigger like a school boy.

I'm pretty sure that Lena's Lime has Sooty Mould.

That's a pretty disastrous infestation on oranges. Click here to see the original and get some detailed information on the source of the mould, Mealy Bugs.

This mould is quite common on Citrus, Gardenias, Crepe Myrtle, Azaleas and I remember Oleander from childhood. Fortunately for me it is not a common problem with annual flower or vegetable seedlings. The interesting thing is that the mould fungi does not actually grow on the plant but in the sugary Honeydew secreted by sap sucking insects: Aphids, Mealy Bugs, Scale, White Fly, etc. Honeydew? That's the polite term for bug poo, hence my juvenile merriment.

Of course it's unsightly and it is a clear sign that something will have to be done about the sap suckers. I have written about sap suckers previously, just follow this link if you want all the details.

The short and honey sweet version is spray with Confidor if you are happy with chemicals. Very effective and apparently safe Confidor is a 'systemic' insecticide so it gets into the plants system and is sucked up by the insect.
Not into chemicals? White oil is very effective and drowns the bugs on the plant's surface. I have always been a fan of Clensel, a soap formulation that knocks down insects. Keep an eye out for Neem preparations, I don't know any brand names but have a look at this link if you are interested.

Oh, and the ants that Lena noticed? I think that's nature managing the aphid population.

Enough for now. Di wants me to look at Powdery Mildew next week. Timely of course.

Our first Magic Square Garden!

2010-04-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

Shaun unloading the potting mix (guess who's taking photos)
Yesterday young Shaun and I loaded up the ute and set off to install our very first Magic Square Garden. This garden was delivered to Jan & Mike, Jan was one of two winners of Magic Square Gardens from the Great Victorian Hanging Basket Competition People's Choice lucky draw we ran at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show.

Jan & Mike with their freshly planted Magic Square Garden
After a quick drive up Eastlink we unloaded an empty box lined with Weed Mat (keeps the goodness in and allows the water out). Getting into the back yard was a little challenging but having unscrewed the gate we got through and followed up with 8 barrow loads of our best potting mix and a selection of fresh vegetables including carrots, Bok Choi, Cabbage, Cauli and Broccoli. Of course we couldn't forget some Silverbeet and Parsley. How's that for self sufficiency?

Professionally planted (don't tell Kerry I have been gardening)
So now we have an entirely new product line... Magic Square Gardens (I've just realized the acronym is MSG, I quite like the irony but it still may change. I might tell you what happened to the BAG name later).

What is a Magic Square Garden?First and foremost it is a raised garden bed!
Start with a recycled fruit produce bin, add a weed mat liner.
Stir in fresh premium quality Debco potting mix
Garnish with a tray of crisp vegetables and herbs.
Method. All the tips I could offer and more are contained in the User's Guide:

Lolo Houbein's beautiful One Magic Square. Grow your own food in one square metre. It is a really beautiful "edible gardening" book. Recommended retail $45.00, we supply a copy with every Magic Square Garden sold.

There is heaps of information on our web page so if you are interested please follow the link. Please give us a call if you want to know more.

My Broccoli has gone all fuzzy and other Autumn stories

2010-04-23T01:05:00.000-07:00

It's raining outside. Tumbling town. Not a thunder storm. Not drizzle. Quality, soaking rain! Oh wow!

It is a blessing of course but the humid weather leading up to this cleansing has been somewhat trying. I'm prepared to guess that from now on we are moving towards winter. It reminds me of one important tip for Autumn growing. Warm days and cool, still nights are shockers for fungal diseases on the foliage of plants.

I'm particularly thinking of powdery mildew, downy mildew and a miserable spotting caused by a fungi called Alternanthera. These are all quite different diseases caused by different fungi and if you choose to treat chemically will each require a different poison. That's three separate treatments for one plant... Pansies and Violas are certainly susceptible to all three so I would prefer to avoid the diseases altogether.

Downy Mildew on Broccoli Alternaria Spots (Geranium?)

Powdery Mildew on Pansy

This is one situation where water restrictions have been thought through effectively because the easiest way to avoid these diseases is to water early in the day to make sure the foliage is not wet over night, especially those cool clear nights that will be frosty in a few months time. Easy! And seriously, no watering after 10.00am (yes I know Stage 3 restrictions dictate 6am-8am but you might have tanks or use grey water).

Enjoy your long weekend. Get into the garden the ground is still warm.

Leeks on top of the heap!

2010-04-16T01:17:00.000-07:00

I was talking to an ex customer recently. Let's call him Michael. Michael was a cut flower grower and cut flower growing just got too tough. Too many problems and not enough profit. You should have heard the problems he had with water supply! Michael gave away cut flower growing for growing vegetables??? who am I to argue?

I'm not really a pushy salesman but I don't let an opportunity pass by either so I asked if Michael wanted me to grow any Capsicum or Tomato seedlings for him. "Thanks but no, I'm doing easy stuff like onions, carrots, silverbeet, spinach. Just sow the seed directly into the rows. But I might get you to grow some leeks." Leeks? Don't you direct sow them just like onions?

Shows how much I know. It turns out that to get that nice white and tender base to the stem the Leeks need the soil to be mounded up around the stem once the young direct sown seedlings have established. This is a fiddly, time consuming job so it is more practical to purchase well established plants and plant them deeper. Not the spindly little punnet sized plants that we have always assumed were suited to retail nurseries (young plants give better shelf life) but tough wizened old things; if the tops of the leaves go a bit brown, that's fine just cut them off.

A great planting suggestion is to use your rake handle and dibble holes about 15cm deep. The idea then is not to firm the plants in as I usually recommend but to water them in and allow the water to gently wash back into the planting holes. It all sounds quite mystical really. We recommend planting 15-20cm apart as this allows good air flow between the individual plants which minimizes the chance of fungal infections which is one of the few pests to trouble Leeks.

Sticking with the theme of producing tender, white stems I will also change my regular fertilizer recommendation. Chook poo is ideal for Leeks because it provides lots of Nitrogen for rapid, soft growth. I suggest you don't change the standard soil preparation especially for a crop of Leek, just apply the Chook poo as a side dressing. Start doing this about 6 weeks after planting and repeat every three weeks.

Planting Leeks now (April) should produce a harvest in August which is just about ideal for the sort of comfort food that Leeks are best suited to. Don't wait for the leaves to start folding over like other onions, they'll be getting to old and woody by then (I think the ones in the photo are probably a little past ideal a 2cm stem is about perfect). That said Leeks are like Spring Onions and can be planted pretty much any time of year. I also think that we have noticed a significant increase in their popularity which I link to all the modern cooking shows that use Leeks in new and interesting ways including "Barbecuing and Grilling" which significantly expands their usefulness and seasonality.

By the way, I was threatened with Brussels Sprouts for dinner through the week, I'm much happier with the idea of that pasta sauce with Pumpkin and Leek with a few pine nuts and some shaved Parmesan. Yum!

Don't forget Mother's Day is just around the corner, Sunday May 9th. Have you considered a Living Gift?

Brusseles Sprouts.... Do I have to?

2010-04-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Peter

I really enjoyed reading the news letter.
I would like some advise on growing Brussels sprouts, every year I try as yet with no luck. They either look like a stem with leaves at the top or they don't close properly when they do grow up the stems.
I want to plant some soon so if you have any tips I would really like to hear them.
Regards
Maureen
Let's start with a confession. When it comes to Brussels Sprouts I'm a very naughty child. I have tried, but Sprout is a flavour I just can't stand. Kerry loves 'em, says I'd get over it if I just tried them cooked with a little sugar to take away the bitterness. I have been known to raise the subject of lipstick and pigs at this point, which of course just gets me into more trouble. I'm not a fan of honey with carrots either. So I hope you'll understand that my suggestions here are almost entirely theoretical, with very little practical experience. I'd love some feedback and tips if you have any Sprout growing experience.

I'm surprised how difficult it is to find a pic of a full sprout plant.

Many years ago I went hunting for the best home garden vegetable varieties and advice for seedling growing. My chief concerns were downy mildew and grubs, the answer to these problems turned out to be discipline and benches. Amongst the people I asked however was a technician from Henderson Seeds in Templestowe. Henderson Seeds was one of the few companies breeding and producing vegetable seeds here in Australia. They are still located in Lower Templestowe but I think are now owned by a multinational company and I don't know if we still have a local breeding program. Anyway I think you get the message that this was credible source of information.

What sticks in my mind from this 20 year old conversation is his horror that I wanted to sow Brussels Sprouts in the Autumn. I wanted to talk about varieties and growing techniques, he just wanted to talk about seasons. There was no problem with sowing other Brassica vegies (Cabbage, Cauli, Broccoli) in Autumn, just Sprouts. Now this is where we loop back to my opening statement. Sprouts weren't an important seller for us and I had hang ups about them anyway so I just went (and still do) with the flow and continued producing all our brassicas through the same season-Autumn/Winter. To get the best results Brussels Sprouts should be planted January-March, No later. I admit we continue to sell seedlings beyond this period because there is demand and there are growers who know just what they are doing in there particular environment. For the less experienced gardener this can be a trap because many retail nurserymen and many gardeners assume that if the plants are available they are appropriate to plant. Usually this is the case but some local knowledge is very important which is why a quality retail nursery is invaluable.

Why is it so important to plant Brussels Sprouts so early? They have a long, slow growing season, around 140 days. Broccoli on the other hand can be grown and harvested in only 100 days depending on the season and variety, that's nearly a month and a half difference. Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauli also have cultivars that can be harvested pretty much year round but Brussels have their season and that's it. Grow them in the warmth of Summer and harvest in the cool of late Autumn and Early Winter. Sorry Maureen, I think you are too late.

I like this pic with the tiny sprouts just forming, it also shows very clearly the leaf axils.

All of that said, Sprouts are said to be the easiest brassicas to grow. Many of the usual Vegie planting tips apply

Plant them deep. We sow Brassica vegie seeds directly into punnets so thewre is usually a good inch (25mm) between the top of the root system and the first leaves. Bury the stem right up to that first leaf axil this will help anchor them particularly once they start getting tall.
Fertilize heavily. Brussels Sprouts like plenty of tucker.
Mulch well and try to keep watering consistent.
Some growers recommend lopping the 'top sprout' off the developing plants. This will encourage development of the sprouts on the stems by stopping the production of additional sprouts. Your choice. I think this is more of a commercial practice to encourage the plants produce a single crop, at home you are more likely to want to continue picking over an extended period.

I've just read a suggestion that sprouts be stir fried with nuts, now even I might try them cooked like that!

A world record deserves a few thank yous!

2010-03-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a little more follow up on the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

Firstly thanks to Lyn Noonan, Thelma di Donna and Elsie Carter for there help collecting baskets on the Saturday and Sunday before the show opened. I forgot these lady's last week, my apologies. Also thanks to the unknown Samaritan who picked up 14 baskets at the last minute that had been missed by our carrier in Shepparton.

Bentleigh Garden Club Gerda van der Peet

A world record winning competition. Yes, with 221 baskets on display (I counted them all twice-to check, not to double up) The Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria's Great Victorian Hanging Basket Competition is officially the world's biggest and from the pictures above, the quality is not bad either. Bentleigh Garden Club (winner Affiliate Clubs section) and Gerda van der Peet (winner Members section) are both multiple winners now and risk being put in the Hall of fame to give others a chance if they win too many more. I am please to say that we have other competitors who have entered many times and won prizes for the first time this year.

Brighton Floral Art society Julie Adams
(Best use of Colour) (Best Waterwise Basket)

I also note that as we get more experienced and the quality improves it is getting harder to win a prize as a first timer.

Congratulations and thank you to everybody who entered and a special cheer for the prize winners, you can see a full list of prizes and winners here.

Grubs in my Cabbage? Cauli? Broccoli? Not any more!

2010-03-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

I would like to offer a little credit where it is due. Our sales rep Di was getting increasingly frustrated at seeing moth eaten (literally) brassica (Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli) vegetables wherever she went so she did something about it.

Di went out and bought some 2 litre pressure sprayers...
Just like this one, nothing fancy. We supplied her with a small quantity of Dipel (Bacillus thuringiensis, Bt) in a plastic screw top container and instructions to mix 1 teaspoon of Dipel in 2l of water. Oh and some kitchen measuring spoons. Di started doing a quick spray on the vegies at garden centres where she called weekly and presto the grub problem disappeared.

I feel like I bang on about Dipel. The product has been around for years and I think some people regard it with some suspicion because of it's 'Eco' tag. There has also been some controversy around Bt's because big chemical companies have been breeding the bacteria into some hybrid crops. But this product is safe, naturally prevents insects developing resistance to its effectiveness and it works better than anything else on grubs.

I have a few quick tips.
1. Keep it refrigerated. Bt's are living organisms and they will last longer in the fridge. Just make sure the packet is sealed and clearly marked.
2. Use it regularly. Usually I prefer to monitor pests and spray as required. Grubs are a little different. Once the grub season arrives (January-May) particularly the warmest period, the life cycle of a Cabbage Moth is less than a week and they can fly in from anywhere. The Bt works when the caterpillar eats some some foliage that you have smothered with Dipel, the bacteria becomes active in the caterpillar's gut and kills it from the inside out. Dipel has to be applied weekly to keep it fresh and to catch each new generation of grubs.
3. Try to get the Dipel spray on the underside of the plant's foliage. You know where the grubs hide, so take a little extra care to spray under the foliage.
4. Remember Dipel is only effective on grubs. All sorts of grubs yes, but it won't do anything to protect your plants from Aphids or Thrips.
5. Dipel is safe, but treat it with respect. I prefer our staff to use protective equipment whenever they handle chemicals, it's just good policy. I am constantly amazed at the contempt familiarity breeds with some common garden chemicals, particularly snail bait. Please wear gloves, shoes and at least a dust mask when using these products.

Thanks Di. Good job, well done!

Big Arse Gardens bust out at the worlds Biggest Hanging Basket Competition

2010-03-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a fortnight! My baby girl turned 16, went to the Ball, introduced me to the boy friend! and now has her learner driver's permit. At least we haven't been on the open road yet. I needed to get that information out first because the rest of my time has been spent at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.


As I hope you know we are staging the 10th annual Great Victorian Hanging Basket Competition for the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria. We have to do a final count but we believe we have 219 (possibly 222) baskets on display, every one grown by a home gardener. Can I give a little perspective? That's about 90 more baskets than we displayed last year and we are waiting for confirmation that this is a world record. Congratulations to The RHSV committee, particularly Don & Jennifer Rickerby who have put hours and hours into this project. I would also like to acknowledge John DiDonna, who built and painted most of our black towers. John's son Russell, Rod Noonan and my friend Mac McKillop all volunteered to build the display over five days leading up to the show opening. It's physically hard work and I'm really grateful for all the help.

You will understand that I'm a little disappointed that we did not get a prize for our display, but I have to admit that some of the finer details that we have put in in the past gave way to volume this time around. Unfortunately the Flower Show haven't published the basket competition results so I can't congratulate everyone deserving recognition. I'll make sure I have the details for next week. I do know that my son Ben won first prize in the children's competition and I promise I only watered his basket once. Ben has entered the competition since the children's section was started about 5 years ago so I'm really pleased for him that he has finally won a prize.


We also have plants on display with the Guide Dogs of Victoria garden designed by James Dawson. The second pic was taken at about 8.30 last night, after the show had closed.


And... the winner takes all Tree and Shrub Growers of Victoria "Our Plants Our Planet" series of gardens from aroound the world. I am especially pleased with our plants being presented in these gardens because annual flowers and vegetables are often ignored by landscapers. You can see from the pics (if you look closely) that the Guide Dogs display particularly is very modern and the Aussie Garden at the Tree and Shrub Growers is fresh and stylish too. Who are the Tree & Shrub Growers of Victoria? T&S is a sub group of the Nursery and Garden Industry of Victoria that specifically represents the industry's growers. Yes Scotsburn is a member and no we don't grow trees.

Finally our Big Arse Gardens (BAGs). What a hit! We can't get over how many enquiries we have had. Seeing as I threw these boxes out there to get a feel for what people want without much more plan than that, I now have to do some serious homework and find out just how mush these beasties cost us to put together but it certainly seams that there are gardeners who would love to have a ready to go garden, delivered to their door. We will sit down after the show and collate all the information we have. We definitely have to put together a few "packages" of planting types and finalize some prices for finished boxes.

Here are some thoughts to date. We will line the boxes with weed mat (a water permeable membrane, that sounds more professional) but I am struggling with ideas for large saucers to prevent water sluicing over paving. Drip irrigation and castor wheels will be optional extras and we will almost certainly have to put boxes together on site. Possibly the most frequently asked question has been about longevity, I'll guarantee 2 years but beyond that there are just too many variables.

By the way the volunteers from the Royal Horticultural Society were nearly driven to distraction with questions about our rustic troughs. These will be available after the show. Planted up and delivered (Melbourne Metro) $80.00 each. If you want to buy one (or more) please give us a call or send an email. We have credit card facilities but I haven't worked out a shopping cart for our web site yet.