May 2013 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

Bushfire Aid for Gardeners

We hear a lot about bushfire relief but have you thought about how it would be to lose not just your garden, but all your garden tools, pots, hoses and fittings, seeds, trellises, stakes, bird netting, your hot house, garden art, bags of amendments and bales of straw mulch? Years or a lifetime of gardening, all literally gone up in smoke! Not even a gnome or wind vane is left, in many cases.

If you have anything that you could donate to help Tasmanian gardeners affected by the bushfires then we are making a collection. They are not yet ready for plants, but anything else would be gratefully accepted. I have sent in a roll of black poly pipe, for example, so useful for making hoops for netting, as well as for irrigation.

Donations can be left at my place, 4 Winns Road, Cygnet, out of view behind my letterbox and I will put them safely away in my shed, to be sent off monthly.

Mothers’ Day

I have received some interesting Mothers’ Day presents from my two boys over the years; my favourite two sit beside my front door now. They are metal dogs. Son Alex loved Star Wars and these dogs were a take on the words “May the gods be with you” which he rewrote as “May the dogs be with you”! I have the dogs and the card, still.

One year I received a trailer load of sheep manure which my then husband had arranged to get from a friend’s shearing shed. The family spent the morning spreading it around the garden for me. Wonderful.

Plants and garden tools are lasting presents that any gardening mother would love but doing stuff in the garden together is even more special. When my boys were little, we would dig up potatoes or plant bulbs or pick fruit. When they were teenagers it was a different matter! Then, my lads would climb up and prune trees, dig out stumps, unload tons of manure or anything that consisted of using a bit of muscle but ask them to plant out tiny seedlings or weed between the lettuce and misery would set in.

So mums and/or children, plan now and you will reap the rewards! Families that garden together, grow together.

Getting ready for winter

My citrus, having been a picture of health for over a year in tubs on my verandah, are now looking decidedly gloomy; some more so than others. I will add a new layer of good compost to the surface and mulch well with straw. I will give them a few doses of liquid seaweed as a tonic but no fertiliser just now or any new shoots will be burnt by the cold nights ahead. And I will push the tubs back from the edge so they are away from the frosts to come. I will prune off some long, spindly stems too.

The other day I weeded and pruned my berries. First, I cut back to the ground all the summer raspberry canes that had had fruit this year. I lightly pruned any really tall, new canes that hit me in the face as I walked down the path. There were lots of runners coming up in the path so I dug up and replanted some elsewhere and gave the rest away.

Autumn raspberries such as Autumn Bliss may not have finished yet so check carefully before you prune! Then I made sure my wire and hoop frame was still secure, ready for next season’s netting. Pine needles make fabulous raspberry mulch and can be applied any time. I’d love a bagful if anyone has some spare!

Next I pruned the black currants hard as informed by Tino Carnevale at a workshop I attended recently. He said to do this when planting out new bushes also. The cuttings are easily propagated so pot up some now and you will have plenty of plants to share in spring. Tino said that red and white currants should only be pruned in spring and summer.

I love the shade the wattles provide for my lounge room windows during summer afternoons but I want the sun in winter. So I pruned them to about half their height, being mindful of cutting out the thick, older wood completely and cutting back the soft, willowy stems just enough to let the sun in the window. I still wanted them to look pretty. I do this every year to 3 of my wattles and it keeps them fresh and soft and means lots of flowers too, on the new growth.

A little bit of fame

Last October Tino and the Gardening Australia team came and filmed in my garden. It was all about saving seeds and I had a ball spending a whole day talking about my passion! Well, it is going to be aired this Saturday, May 4^th, 6.30pm on the ABC.

 

Sow Now	Plant Now
Broad beans Bok Choy Mustard greens Miners’ lettuce Corn salad (mache) Shungiku (edible, Japanese Chrysanthemum) Radishes Salad and spring onions Coriander In the hothouse to plant out: Lettuces Kales To stay in the hothouse: Sugar snap peas	Leek bulbils Garlic cloves Large Seedlings Flower bulbs Plant and grow in the hothouse: Celery (loves it there over winter), 1 or 2 of lots of things, so you can pop out there and pick things without having to put your boots on, in winter…. Lettuce, spinach, Viet. Mint, Lemon Grass, Chervil, Frilly Kale (small variety) for salads, Shungiku, sugar snap peas.