fruit & citrus
Berrylicious
S U M ME R E D I T I O N DEC ‘ 1 8 - J A N ‘ 1 9
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letter from the editor During the hectic festive and school holiday summer months, take some time out in your garden to enjoy, refresh and regroup. Being and working in a garden is good for your soul! Have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy new year.
EXCITING BOOK LAUNCH Yates Top 50 Indoor Plants and how NOT to kill them! So Angie may have written a little book on Indoor Plants! “It’s called Yates Top 50 Indoor Plants and how NOT to kill them! I love having indoor plants around my home and so it was a joy to put together how-to-grow information on some of the most popular plants and hopefully help and inspire people to grow some (or more!) of their own.” - Angie Thomas, Author
What’s on The Hunter Valley Gardens in Pokolbin NSW have their dazzling Christmas Lights display running until January 26th. See the Southern Hemisphere’s largest lights display, all within a spectacular garden setting. For more information visit www. huntervalleygardens.com.au
Open Gardens South Australia – there are some gorgeous gardens open in December as part of Open Gardens South Australia. Head to www. opengardensa.org.au to see what beautiful and inspiring gardens are open for viewing.
Kings Park & Botanic Garden continue to run interesting guided walks during December and January, including ‘Botanic Garden treasures’ and ‘Stories of people and plants’. Take a relaxing break and head over to Kings Park! Visit www.bgpa. wa.gov.au/kings-park/ for more information.
The book is now available in bookshops and on-line, and makes a great Christmas gift for friends and family. Afterall, we all need more indoor plants in our lives! CLICK HERE to view more!
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fruit & citrus
Sweet and juicy bright red strawberries look so Christmassy and festive and chilled are a perfect healthy summer holiday snack, not to mention all the delicious recipes you can include them in. It’s easy to grow your own strawberries at home, in a sunny garden bed, pot or hanging basket. Before planting strawberry plants into the garden enrich the soil first with some Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. For potted strawberries use a quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix. Keep the soil or potting mix moist and pick strawberries regularly to help promote an extended harvest and feed each week with Yates Thrive® Strawberry & Berry Fruit Liquid Plant Food. It’s a complete plant food that’s boosted with additional potassium, the nutrient that encourages flowering and fruiting. Applying mulch, such as lucerne, pea or sugar cane straw, around strawberry plants will help to conserve soil moisture and also keep the fruit clean and off the ground. Snails and slugs like chewing into and ruining berries but they’re easy to control with a light sprinkling of Yates Blitzem® Snail & Slug Pellets around the strawberry plants. You may also need to net your strawberry plants to protect them from hungry birds.
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fruit & citrus
Summer BerryliciousCitrus Care Small fruit developing on many varieties of citrus trees during summer heralds what we’ll be enjoying during the cooler months. We can help nurture those promising fruitlets by taking a few simple citrus care steps over summer: Sooty mould If you’ve noticed a black ash like film over citrus leaves or stems (which is a disease called sooty mould) or ants crawling up and down the tree, it could indicate the presence of insect pests like scale. Scale are sap sucking insects that can be covered in a waxy white, brown or pink coating and appear as small raised bumps on foliage or stems. Scale deplete plants of important sugars and nutrients and excrete honey dew, which is a sweet sticky substance that ants eat and sooty mould will grow on. If the scale insects are controlled, the sooty mould and ants will gradually disappear. Control the scale insects by spraying leaves and stems with Yates® Nature’s Way® Citrus & Ornamental Spray. It’s based on natural pyrethrin and vegetable oil and is certified for use in organic gardening. Yates Nature’s Way Citrus & Ornamental Spray will also control the dreaded (and stinky) bronze orange bug (pictured right). It’s important to spray the bronze orange bugs directly.
Watering and feeding Deep and thorough watering of citrus trees, particularly potted citrus, will help reduce water stress, which can lead to citrus dropping their developing fruit. Application of a wetting agent like Yates Waterwise™ Soil Wetter around the tree can assist water to penetrate more effectively down around the roots where it’s needed. It’s also a good opportunity to apply or top up mulch around the root zone, which will help protect the shallow root system. And regular feeding of hungry citrus trees will really help to promote a fantastic harvest so it’s important to make fertilising citrus trees a priority. It’s as simple as applying Yates Thrive Natural Citrus & Fruit Organic Based Pelletised Plant Food around the root zone. It’s a special blend of organic ingredients boosted with fast acting fertilisers to help promote healthy and productive citrus trees.
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If you’re lucky enough to have your own Tahitian lime tree, some of the best tangy fruit will be ready from January. Limes can be harvested whilst still green, when they’re around 6 cm in diameter. Perfect for summer drinks and cocktails as well as marinades, cakes and desserts.
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fruit & citrus
Christmas cherries Cherries are the quintessential Christmas treat, with delicious shiny red fruit becoming available in summer. A big bowl of chilled cherries is hard to resist, as are fruit and savoury salads with cherries, cherry glaze for ham, cherry puddings, cakes, tarts and cheesecake. We’re going to need a lot of cherries! You can grow cherries at home if you live in a climate where you receive enough ‘chilling hours’. Cherries are best suited to areas with cool or cold winters, however there are some varieties that will bear fruit in warmer areas. Cherry trees vary in size from medium height trees down to dwarf varieties in the Fleming’s® nurseries ‘Trixzie®’ range that grow to around 2.5 m tall, which are perfect for smaller gardens. In addition to delicious fruit, cherry trees also have pretty blossoms in spring and lovely autumn foliage.
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Cherry trees are most commonly available in winter as bare rooted plants but potted trees can be available at other times of the year. Choose a variety that’s suited to your climate and also check to see whether that variety is self fertile or needs pollination from another cherry. They need a spot with at least 6 hours of sunshine a day and well drained soil.
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Pear & cherry slugs can attack and skeletonise cherry tree foliage. They can be controlled by spraying trees thoroughly every 7 – 14 days with Yates® Success® Ultra Insect Control.
And for other stone fruit like apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines, continue to reapply Yates Nature’s Way® Fruit Fly Control each week to the trunk, lower foliage or a piece of plywood hung in the orchard to help prevent fruit from being infested with fruit fly maggots. Weekly reapplication is vital to protect the fruit until it’s ready to harvest.
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flowers, trees & shrubs
Add some beautiful bright colours into your garden during December and January and help protect your precious plants from the stresses of a long hot summer. Gardens can suffer from heat stress or lack of water or both (!) during our long hot summers. We can’t change the weather but there are a few things we can do to help protect our gardens during December and January.
Effective watering Apply a soil wetting agent like Yates® Waterwise™ Soil Wetter over the soil and potted plants and water it in well. This will help to break down the waxy, water repellent layer that can develop on soil and potting mix and promote better penetration of moisture down into the root zone where it’s needed.
Mulching
Spreading mulch over garden beds, vegie patches and on the top of pots will help to reduce the amount of moisture lost from the soil. It also helps to protect the soil surface from the baking summer sun.
Find the shade Move sensitive potted plants into a more shaded location, where they are sheltered from the harshest afternoon sun.
Foliage protection Apply an anti-transpirant like Yates Waterwise DroughtShield™ over the foliage of summer-vulnerable plants. Yates DroughtShield can help reduce moisture loss from foliage as well as helping to reduce sunburn. For best results water the plants thoroughly beforehand and spray before stress conditions occur, preferably in the cool of the day. Spray both sides of leaves and stems to the point of run off.
Water storage When planting new plants, mix some hydrated Yates Waterwise Water Storage Crystals into the soil or potting mix. These crystals can store up to 400 times their weight in water and release moisture back to the plants over time, making them very handy during the drier months. It’s a good idea to pre-wet the crystals before using them.
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flowers, trees & shrubs
vibrant attraction Buddlejas are flowering shrubs that provide many months of gorgeous honey scented flowers which attract butterflies, hence their common name of ‘butterfly bush’. The blooms are also loved by other insects and birds. Compact varieties called ‘Buddleja Buzz™’ have been introduced by Proven Winners (www.provenwinners.com. au) which grow to around 1 m tall, so they’re ideal for smaller gardens and also look fantastic in large pots. Buddleja flowers can be cut for a vase display, so you can bring their beautiful colour and fragrance indoors too. Buddleja Buzz come in a range of very pretty varieties, including gorgeous pale blue ‘Sky Blue’, creamy white ‘Ivory’, mid pink ‘Velvet’, mauve ‘Purple Blush’, pastel ‘Soft Pink’, dark purple ‘Midnight’ and vibrant pink ‘Hot Raspberry’. They will grow in a sunny spot but are also happy with morning and late afternoon shade. Buddleja Buzz will tolerate temperatures down to 5 deg C but can be damaged by heavy frosts. Buddleja Buzz require minimal pruning though will benefit from the older growth being trimmed back after flowering. After pruning, help promote a fresh flush of new growth by applying some Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser around the root zone and water in well. It’s also a good time to top up or apply mulch around plants. Mulch will help reduce moisture loss from the soil and also adds a finishing look to the garden.
Buddleja Buzz information and photos courtesy of www.provenwinners.com.au
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flowers, trees & shrubs
Muntries (Kunzea pomifera), also known as native cranberries or emu apples, are small native Australian woody groundcovers that are found along the south east coast, the Portland and Eyre Peninsula areas and Kangaroo Island in South Australia. They produce small green red tinged berries that taste like sweet spicy apples. The berries are super versatile and can be eaten raw or used in both savoury and sweet dishes including jams, chutney, pies, wine, muffins, desserts, dips, cheese platters, salads, sauces and meat stuffing mixes and glazes. They make a delicious substitute for sultanas or apples. Muntries are higher in antioxidants than blueberries so they’re a worthwhile and very healthy addition to your garden and diet. Muntries were a favourite food of the Narrinderi people in south eastern Australia and also called these berries munthari, muntaberry or montberry. Not only were they eaten fresh but also dried for the winter months or made into a paste. Kunzea pomifera will grow to around 30 cm high and spread to 2 m wide and will grow in full sun or a partly shaded spot with moist well drained soil. They can also be grown in pots and can be trained up a low trellis to make harvesting the berries easier. Small white flowers that resemble gum blossoms appear in spring, followed by the delicious berries. To keep kunzea plants healthy and producing lots of fruit, feed each spring and autumn with Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. It’s a rich, organic plant food that’s ideal for feeding Australian native plants such as kunzea and will also help to improve the quality of the soil by providing a concentrated, composted source of earthworm attracting organic matter. Muntries information and image courtesy of TuckerBush. For stockists visit www.tuckerbush.com.au Growing With You
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flowers, trees & shrubs
Native delights Callistemon (Bottlebrush) have been beautifully busy during spring producing masses of vibrant bee and bird attracting flowers. Once the flower show has ended, bottlebrush will start producing lots of small round seed pods, which remain clustered along the flowering stem. New foliage will then emerge from the end of the pod-covered stem. This can result in stems becoming woody and leafless and the plant becoming sparse over time. To help keep bottlebrush looking lush and bushy, after the flowers have finished it’s time to give the plant a trim, cutting off all the most recent spent flower heads and seed pods. Prune to just below the old flower. This will encourage a fresh flush of new foliage on the stem tips and encourage denser leafy growth. It’s important to prune as soon as possible after flowering has finished, so there’s ample time for new stems to develop during summer and autumn, that will be the source of next spring’s flowers. Callistemon will benefit from being fed after pruning with some Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. It’s certified for use in organic gardens and is ideal for feeding Australian native plants like callistemon, slowly releasing gentle organic nutrients. Regular applications of Yates Dynamic Lifter will also help to improve the levels of organic matter in the soil, which encourages earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms as well as promoting improved soil moisture and nutrient storage.
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flowers, trees & shrubs
Christmas colour creations Whether your Christmas colour theme is purest snowy white, sparkly silver and purple or traditional green, gold and red, you can coordinate your decorations with some gorgeous pots of flowers to brighten up your Christmas dinner table or outdoor entertainment area. An added bonus is that your floral creation can last for months! Here is some inspiration: »» Crisp white lobelias, alyssum and geraniums combined with trailing Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’. »» Hanging baskets filled with vibrant red calibrachoas and cascading white lobelia. »» A planter bowl with a showy red geranium in the centre surrounded by a halo of white alyssum. »» Purple and white petunias and grey leafed cineraria ‘Silver Dust’ planted together in a decorative trough. »» A bright red, soft pink or snowy white poinsettia in a matching pretty pot. »» For sheltered and shady spots, a combination of eyecatching red and white impatiens. To promote lots of healthy growth and festive flowers, keep the pots well-watered and feed each week with Yates® Thrive® Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food. It’s a complete plant food that’s boosted with additional flower-promoting potassium Regularly trim off any dead flowers to help keep the plants looking tidy. Festive touches - before guests arrive you can add some final pizzazz to the pots such as ribbons, baubles, sprigs of holly and tinsel or even magical fairy lights.
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flowers, trees & shrubs
Princettia The Northern hemisphere enjoys vibrant red poinsettias during their chilly Christmas weather, which is when they naturally flower and produce their showy coloured bracts. Australians can also enjoy beautiful poinsettias during our sweltering summers due to some very clever light control done by plant nurseries. Oasis Horticulture (www.oasishorticulture. com.au) create an artificially short 10 hour day in their special greenhouses, for around 2 months, to convince the poinsettias that it’s no longer summer and they should start flowering! Oasis not only grow stunning red poinsettias, just perfect for Christmas, but also gorgeous pink and white varieties in their Princettia® range. A white Princettia planted into a decorative pot and teamed with festive ribbon makes an impressive Christmas table centrepiece or gift. And the pink Princettias are just so pretty! Position potted Princettias in a warm brightly lit room, protected from harsh direct sunlight. Keep the pot moist and feed each week with Yates® Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food. It’s a complete plant food that’s boosted with additional flower-promoting potassium. After the flowers (bracts) have faded, prune the plant back by around 30%. This will help keep the Princettia compact and tidy. You can also repot Princettia into a slightly larger pot or plant it out into the garden in a sheltered spot with well drained soil.
Grandessa Daisies have gone to the next fabulous level with a new range called Grandessa from Oasis Horticulture. They are hybrid argyranthemums with brightly coloured flowers during spring and summer that reach an impressive 8 – 10 cm across. Available in a beautiful range of colours including dusky pink ‘Sunset’, vibrant ‘Red’, buttery ‘Yellow’ and dark centred ‘White’. Grandessa are vigorous plants that grow to around 45 – 60 cm tall and prefer a full sun position but will tolerate semi shade as well as dry conditions and frost. They also make a magnificent potted plant and create eye catching pops of colour around a patio, deck or courtyard. To help keep Grandessa looking great feed each week with Yates Thrive Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food. Regularly trim spent flowers and after the main flowering flush has finished, trim the plant back to promote fresh new growth.
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flowers, trees & shrubs
Pretty in pink Border plants can play an important part in garden designs by providing structure, softening the transition between hard surfaces and lawn or garden beds and adding a finishing touch to a garden. Border plants can be a blend of interesting and different foliage and flowers or grown en masse as a single eye catching variety. Allium ‘Pink Pepper’ from Plant Growers Australia (www.pga.com. au) is a gorgeous dwarf variety of ornamental allium that can be grown as a beautiful narrow border plant. Its soft globe shaped pink flowers appear from spring to summer and attract bees and other pollinating insects. It has a neat mounding habit with strappy green foliage, growing to around 30 cm tall and spreading to 40 cm wide. Allium ‘Pink Pepper’ can also be grown in a decorative pot and combines wonderfully in a mixed garden bed with blue salvias, phlox, dianthus and compact varieties of lavender. Planting ‘Pink Pepper’ in drifts of 3 – 5 creates a beautiful display and they can also be grown in and around the vegie patch to encourage pollinating insects. Allium ‘Pink Pepper’ prefers a full sun position with moist but well drained soil. Little maintenance is required other than removing old foliage when new leaves appear in spring. In cold regions foliage may disappear during winter, reappearing in spring. When planting new alliums enrich the area first by mixing some Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser into the soil and then reapply every spring and autumn to help keep the plants fed. Regular applications of Yates Dynamic Lifter will also contribute to valuable levels of organic matter in the soil, which aids moisture and nutrient storage as well as encouraging earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms.
Allium ‘Pink Pepper’ information and images courtesy of www.pga.com.au Growing With You
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roses
Summer Rose Care Summer can bring heat, hot dry winds and high humidity, which all affect the health and appearance of roses. And if your roses have developed leggy or sparse growth and spindly stems it’s a sign that your roses need a summer prune. Summer pruning roses refreshes and reinvigorates the plants and they will respond in a matter of weeks, putting on new growth, ready for another flush of flowers. In fact, you can time rose re-blooming if you have a special event coming up, as they’ll flower again around 6 – 7 weeks after pruning. Rose pruning is not tricky, just trim off around 30% of the overall growth and also remove any dead or thin stems. You can use hedge shears or a good sharp pair of secateurs. Don’t forget to protect your hands, arms (and face!) from rose thorns with sturdy gloves, long sleeves and glasses. After pruning, collect up all the fallen leaves and stems (this helps to reduce the incidence of disease) and apply some Yates® Thrive® Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food and water in well. It’s a complete and balanced liquid fertiliser that has been boosted with extra flower promoting potassium. Next, spread a layer of mulch, like sugar cane, lucerne or pea straw around the root zone, which will help keep the soil moist and protect the top soil from baking sun. Reapply Yates Thrive each week to encourage healthy new foliage growth and lots of flowers. New foliage and flower buds can attract damaging insect pests like aphids. Regular sprays of Yates Rose Gun® will help control common insect pests like aphids, as well as caterpillars and diseases like black spot, rust and powdery mildew. If you’d like to add a beautiful rose to your garden over summer, potted roses are still available for planting. Bordeaux (Korelamba), is a magnificent floribunda rose from Treloar Roses (www. treloarroses.com.au) with masses of large, double cupped wine red blooms with a subtle fragrance. The bush grows to around 80 cm tall and looks fantastic when mass planted. Bordeaux was awarded a gold medal for being the best floribunda rose release for 2017 and also the best floribunda of the rose trials. Well done Bordeaux! Bordeaux rose image © Gary Matuschka, used under license.
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vegetables & herbs
Potatoes are a delicious and productive vegie to grow at home and can even be grown in pots. Seed potatoes planted during spring will be growing strongly during summer. Here’s what you can do during summer to promote the best possible spud harvest: »» As green shoots emerge, cover with a 15 cm layer of mulch, such as lucerne hay or pea straw, and a sprinkling of Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. The mulch layer encourages the shoots to grow taller, which provides more opportunities for the potatoes to develop along the stem. It also protects the potato tubers from sunlight. Yates Dynamic Lifter provides the growing potato plants with slow release organic nutrients to promote healthy growth and encourage lots of potatoes. Water the plants if the soil and mulch feels dry. »» Each time new shoots emerge through the mulch, apply another 15 cm layer of mulch and more Yates Dynamic Lifter. »» It takes around 4 months for potatoes to fully mature, however impatient gardeners can harvest some tender baby potatoes a little earlier. Gently dig around the root zone of the potato plant (a technique called bandicooting) and feel for the little spuds! Potato insect watch: keep an eye out for sap sucking aphids and mites, which can damage and distort potato foliage. Regular sprays of Yates Nature’s Way® Citrus & Ornamental Spray, on both the upper and lower leaf surfaces, will help keep aphids and mites under control. It’s certified for use in organic gardening so is ideal for gardeners wanting to use organic methods of insect pest control.
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vegetables & herbs
Cucurbits are a versatile family of delicious vegies that include cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, melons and squash. There are different varieties to suit both large and small spaces, including pots, so if you have a sunny spot, everyone can grow a cucurbit! Yates® Squash ‘Green Button Hybrid’ is an easy to grow baby squash that produces an abundant crop of sweet and tender squash that taste great when steamed, baked or stir fried. Starting your patch or pot of squash couldn’t be easier: »» Find a sunny spot that receives at least 6 hours of sun a day. »» In the vegie patch, enrich the soil first with some Yates Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. For potted squash, choose a medium sized pot (around 40 cm in diameter) and fill with a good quality potting mix such as Yates Premium Potting Mix. »» Sow seed 20 mm deep directly into damp soil or potting mix. Seedlings will pop up in 6 – 10 days. »» Feed each week with Yates Thrive® Flower & Fruit Soluble Plant Food, which provides a complete diet for squash plants and helps promote healthy leaf growth as well as being boosted with additional potassium to encourage lots of squash. »» Pick squash regularly when they reach 5 – 10 cm in diameter. Curcurbit disease protection tip: damp or humid weather can promote diseases like powdery mildew, which appears like a fine dusting of talcum powder over the leaves. Yates Lime Sulfur is a very effective way of controlling powdery mildew on vegetables like squash, as well as other cucurbits, vegetables and tomatoes. Yates Lime Sulfur has quite a strong smell (it smells a bit like rotten eggs) but don’t let this deter you! Spray over foliage and repeat as required. Yates Lime Sulfur is a handy product to have on hand during summer, as it will also control tomato mites, two spotted mites and rust.
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vegetables & herbs
Cast your mind forward to cooler weather in late autumn when roasts and soups will start to be on the menu. Caulflower is a brilliant vegie to use in so many warming recipes and if you start sowing seed now, you’ll be eating home grown cauliflower in a few months time. Yates® Cauliflower Phenomenal Early is a popular, early maturing and easy to grow variety. It produces large, firm heads in 14 – 18 weeks. It’s best to start cauliflower off in trays of Yates Seed Raising Mix and transplant the seedlings out into a sunny vegie patch when they’re around 7 cm high. Leave 50 – 75 cm between each plant, so they have enough roomto grow. To reduce the incidence of disease, cauliflowers should not be grown where other brassica vegies (like cabbages, broccoli and kale) have been grown in the last 2 years. To help grow big healthy cauliflowers, once the seedlings are established feed with Yates Thrive® Natural Vegie & Herb Organic Based Pelletised Plant Food. It’s boosted with fast acting fertilisers to promote healthy cauliflower growth. As the white heads (called a ‘curd’) develop, fold the leaves over the top to prevent yellowing.
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Brassica vegies like cauliflower are adored by cabbage white butterfly caterpillars, which devour leaves. These caterpillars can be controlled by spraying every 1 – 2 weeks with Yates Success™ Ultra Insect Control.
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vegetables & herbs
Lettuce and leafy greens are always fantastic to have on hand to create a healthy salad and add to a sandwich or wrap. Home grown is not only convenient but also you can pick them at their most tender and sweet and forget buying bagged salad that quickly goes slimy in the fridge. Yates® Mesclun French Salad Mixed is a gourmet selection of colourful greens like loose leaf lettuce, endive, corn salad, peppery rocket and chicory. Individual leaves can be picked fresh as you need them after only 4 – 10 weeks. Yates Mesclun mix is also a great choice if you’re short on space, as it’s perfect for growing in a pot. Here’s how to grow your own Mesclun French salad at home: Sow seed mix direct where the plants are to grow or raise in trays of Yates Seed Raising Mix and transplant when the seedlings are 3 – 4 cm high. »» Yates Mesclun French Salad Mixed can be grown in a sunny vegie patch or in pots. A pot positioned on a deck or courtyard, not too far from the kitchen, makes it super convenient to harvest. »» Keep the soil moist while the seedlings establish. If the plants are closer than 20 cm, you may need to thin them out. There’s no need to waste these thinnings – if you dig them out carefully you can transplant them into another spot. »» As the plants grow, water them regularly and each week apply some Yates Thrive® Vegie & Herb Liquid Plant Food. It’s a complete and balanced fertiliser that contains the right blend of nutrients to encourage lots of leafy green growth. »» Harvest leaves regularly from 4 weeks, while they’re young and tender. This will also help promote a longer harvest.
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PEST WATCH:
Keep an eye out for snails and slugs, which love eating through leafy greens. Control snails and slugs by scattering some Yates Blitzem™ Snail & Slug Pellets over the soil around the plants.
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vegetables & herbs
Summer is tomato mite time! Related to spiders, two spotted mites are tiny pinkish red sap sucking pests that cause mottled yellow or bronzed foliage and distorted leaves and flower buds. Large colonies can produce masses of fine webbing and a severe infestation can lead to tomatoes losing much of their foliage. After overwintering in protected places, mites are active during hot dry weather, when the life cycle for eggs to adults is completed in a week, so they can multiply very quickly. In addition to tomatoes, mites can also affect other vegies like capsicum, beans, squash, cucumber and zucchini. As mites dislike humid conditions, overhead watering is a useful deterrent and regular sprays of Yates® Nature’s Way® Natrasoap® Vegie & Herb Spray can also help reduce mite populations. It’s a soap based spray that’s certified for use in organic gardening. The soap coats the mites, causing them to desiccate. Make sure to thoroughly coat the leaves on both the upper and lower leaf surfaces as the spray works via contact. Continue to feed tomato plants each week with a specific tomato food like Yates Thrive® Tomato Liquid Plant Food. It will help sustain both healthy leaf growth and flowering and fruiting throughout summer. It’s easy to apply, just mix 1 – 2 capfuls into a 9 L watering can. It’s important to keep watering tomato plants thoroughly to ensure the soil is moist. Inadequate or irregular watering, which contributes to calcium deficiency, can predispose tomato fruit to develop a disease called blossom end rot. An application of Yates Hydrangea Pinking Liquid Lime & Dolomite can help reduce the incidence of blossom end rot by supplying plants with calcium.
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Tomatoes taste better when vine ripened however really hot weather can scorch or even cook the tomatoes on the vine. So during scorching weather harvest tomatoes just as you see a blush of colour and ripen the fruit indoors on a bright windowsill or in a paper bag along with a banana to encourage the tomatoes to ripen.
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vegetables & herbs
Tasty tomatoes In temperate and cool zones there’s still time to start tomatoes from seed during December. You can sow tomatoes year round in tropical and sub-tropical areas. December sowing will help keep your kitchen stocked with this versatile ingredient well into autumn or get creative and make your own passata that you can enjoy during winter. Yates® Improved Apollo Tomato is an improved strain of this popular hybrid and provides prolific yields of tasty red fruit over several months. It’s nematode and bacterial wilt resistant and will also fruit at lower temperatures. It’s a tall growing variety that will need support with some stakes or a tomato cage. It can be grown in a sunny garden bed and also containers, so balcony and courtyard gardeners don’t need to miss out on growing their very own tomatoes. Here’s how to get your Yates Improved Apollo Tomatoes started: »»
Seed can be sown direct into a vegie patch that’s had the soil enriched with some Yates Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser or sown into seedling punnets filled with a good quality seed raising mix like Yates Seed Raising Mix.
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Sow seed 6 mm deep, cover with seed raising mix and water gently.
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Keep the soil or seed raising mix moist and seedlings will start to emerge in around 6 – 12 days.
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For seedlings raised in punnets they can be transplanted into their final home, in either a garden bed or a container, when they’re 5 – 7 cm tall.
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In a fortnight, start feeding each week with Yates Thrive® Tomato Liquid Plant Food, which will provide the tomatoes with a balanced diet of nutrients to promote lots of healthy growth and encourage lots of flowers which will turn into delicious fruit.
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vegetables & herbs
Crisp and crunchy beans eaten straight from the garden are delicious and they make a great addition to stir fries and salads. Dwarf (or bush) beans are super easy to grow at home, don’t require a trellis and are ideal for beginner gardeners. Yates® Dwarf Beans Hawkesbury Wonder is a hardy variety that produces a large crop of flavoursome, high quality flat pods over a long period. Summer’s hot weather is perfect for sowing dwarf beans in cool and temperate areas as they require soil temperatures consistently above 20 degrees celsius. Here’s how to grow a fantastic crop of beans: »» Sow beans direct where they are to grow, 25 mm deep, in well drained, damp soil in a sunny position. »» They can also be grown in a medium to large size pot (a Yates Tuscan 40 cm or 50 cm pot is ideal). »» Cover the seeds with some Yates Seed Raising Mix, firm down and don’t water for a few days. »» Seeds will germinate in 7 – 10 days. Once the seedlings emerge, feed each week with Yates Thrive® Flower & Fruit Soluble Plant Food, which contains additional potassium to encourage lots of flowers and bean pods. »» You can start to harvest beans in just 8 – 10 weeks. »» To promote a longer harvest, pick young bean pods regularly.
tip!
Dwarf beans do not require a trellis to climb on, however if tendrils appear (particularly during prolonged cloudy weather), these can be trimmed to maintain a bushy habit.
Beans for the tropics and sub tropics: in warm zones, try growing snake beans during summer. Snake beans have long thin pods (they’re sometimes called the ‘Yard Long’ bean), which are best harvested when the pods are young and sweet.
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vegetables & herbs
Dill Dill (Anethum graveolens) is a traditional aromatic and versatile annual herb that can add delicious flavour to a wide range of dishes including seafood, quiches and tarts, salads and even breads and savoury muffins. Yates® Dill seed can be sown throughout Australia during December and January and dill is happy to grow both in the ground and in pots. Dill doesn’t like to be transplanted, so sow seed direct where it is to grow. The easiest way to sow dill is to lightly scatter seed over the soil surface or pot and then cover with a thin layer of Yates Seed Raising Mix, so the seed is only 1 mm deep, and gently firm down. Keep the soil or potting mix moist while the seed germinates (in around 10 – 12 days) and the seedlings establish. Thin any excess seedlings so plants are around 20 cm apart. Grow dill in a sunny, well drained spot that is protected from the wind. The ferny foliage can be picked from around 8 weeks. Feed dill plants regularly with a complete plant food like Yates Thrive® All Purpose Soluble Plant Food, to promote lots of healthy leafy growth. If left to flower, dill’s pretty yellow flowers will attract bees and other beneficial insects that will help to control insect pests like aphids.
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vegetables & herbs
Tabbouleh anyone? Whether used in tabbouleh, pesto, soups or as a not so humble garnish, parsley is one of the must-have herbs at home. Yates® Italian Plain Leaf Parsley is an upright growing variety with large, flat leaves. It has a stronger flavour than curled parsley and can be picked continuously for up to 2 years. Italian flat leaf parsley seed can be sown all around Australia during December and January. It grows well in full sun to part shade, in either garden beds or pots. To keep parsley productive, keep it well watered, feed every 1 – 2 weeks from spring to autumn with nitrogen rich Yates Thrive® Vegie & Herb Liquid Plant Food, harvest leaves regularly and remove any flowering stems. Sow more seeds during spring to ensure you have a constant fresh supply of this delicious herb.
tip!
When parsley plants eventually mature and flower, their tall delicate flower heads will attract beneficial insects such as ladybirds and hoverflies.
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kid’s gardening
With school holidays just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get your little ones outdoors and away from their screens. With a myriad of free and cheap ideas, you’ll also help with their development, learning and wellbeing. Angie Thomas, Horticulture Consultant to Yates, and mother of two, is urging parents to encourage their kids into the backyard these holidays: “Don’t let the kids climb the walls these school holidays - get them outdoors for fresh air. “Playing with dirt in the garden is scientifically proven to release happy chemicals like serotonin and help our little ones build their immune systems[1]. Plus, a recent national survey commissioned by Yates revealed four out of 10 Aussies say their best memories with loved ones are made in the backyard.” [1] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840.php
1. Build an outdoor fort Your kids will be occupied for hours on end building a fort using furniture, sheets, empty boxes and anything else they can get their hands on (just not Grandma’s cherished tablecloth!) This is a great activity, not just because it’s free but because your kids will need to practice teamwork to ensure their fort is the strongest it can be.
2. Plant a vegie garden Visit your local nursery with the kids and let them pick out the seedlings that interest them (keeping under budget, of course). When kids are included in the sowing, growing and harvesting of their own vegies, they’re more likely to eat them come dinner time! Remember to check seed packets to see what time of year is best to plant and use a seed raising mix to give them an extra boost. Not sure what to grow? Test out this seed growing guide tool.
3. Go on an insect safari Your garden is buzzing with insects and bugs for your little ones to find and learn about. Head outdoors with the kids armed with a pen, paper and magnifying glass to learn about all walks of life and hone their observation skills by uncovering the secret lives of bugs. Kids will learn to pay attention to smaller details while getting into your garden’s nooks and crannies looking for their new eight or six legged friends.
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kid’s gardening
4. Make your own backyard games There’s a tonne of backyard games you can make at home using everyday household items. Have you ever played croquet? Make some hoops out of wire coat hangers, push them into the lawn and try to hit a tennis ball along the ground through the hoops with a bat of some kind. You can also make homemade bocce using different coloured balls. Use one ball as the target, stand a few metres away and then try to throw your ball so it lands closest to the target ball.
5. Visit your local botanic garden If you have limited green space at home you can still explore the wonderful world of growing with your kids at your local botanic garden. Take a walk through the grounds, pack a lunch or take part in a free guided tour many offer. This is a great way to get some fresh air and inspire your kids to learn more about gardening together.
6. Go backyard camping Missed out on a spot at your favourite caravan park? Look no further than your backyard! Set up your tent, have a barbeque dinner and snuggle up in your sleeping bags under the stars for some quality family bonding time.
7. Build a worm farm A great way to get kids interested in gardening is to let them get dirty and build their own worm farm. This hands on activity is a mini science experiment and kids can see up close what goes on in the life of a worm!
8. Host a scavenger hunt Get your kids outside and exploring the garden with their very own scavenger hunt. They’re easy to create and can be tailored to any theme, age or location. It’s a great activity to keep school friends outdoors and amused for hours.
9. Create your own mini terrarium Do your kids have small toy cars, dinosaurs or fairies lying around and that are being neglected? Give them a new life and home by crafting a mini-terrarium for them to live in. You can use an old fishbowl, vase or even a large drinking glass. Fill it with soil, small plants and tiny decorations and figurines. Your child will learn the importance of recycling and the small size of the activity is calming and perfect for practicing mindfulness.
10. Make a friendly scarecrow To protect your newly planted vegie patch get crafty with the kids and build your own friendly scarecrow using recycled household items. Use old pillowcases, clothes the kids have grown out of or broken buckets, brooms or mops to craft your new garden friend. While building the scarecrow, children will begin to understand the importance of protecting and nurturing their plants.
All you need are a few household items like a large plastic bottle and cling wrap, sand, soil, leaves and earthworms from your garden. Watch your new friends dig tunnels and mix up the sand and soil.
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organic gardening
Whitefly Have you seen tiny white insects on your vegies, herbs and flowers that fly up when disturbed? They are called white fly (they’re not actually flies) and they’re sap sucking insects that can congregate predominantly underneath foliage. They deplete plants of valuable sugars and nutrients, can cause wilting and stunting of new shoots, silvering and yellowing of leaves and adversely affect yields of edible plants. You may also find plants develop a black ash like layer, which is a disease called sooty mould which grows on the sweet honeydew that whiteflies excrete. Vegies and herbs like tomatoes, broccoli, kale, eggplant, squash, beans and mint are particularly prone to white fly infestations, as well as ornamental plants like hibiscus, gerbera and poinsettia. Whitefly can be controlled with Yates® Nature’s Way® Vegie & Herb Spray, which is a soap based spray that suffocates and desiccates whitefly. It’s certified for use in organic gardening so is ideal for people wanting to use organic methods of insect pest control. The key to effective whitefly control is persistence and spraying both the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves. Disturb the whitefly as little as possible and re-spray every 5 – 7 days. New generations of whitefly can appear every 1 – 2 weeks which is why ongoing and regular spraying is important. Yates Nature’s Way Vegie & Herb Spray is available in both a handy ready to use trigger pack and a concentrated formulation for larger gardens.
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organic gardening
Let’s talk manure Healthy soil is the foundation of a great garden, so it’s important to continually include soil improvement in your gardening plans. Adding organic matter is a fantastic way to improve the health of the soil in your vegie patch and one of the ways you can do this is by growing a green manure crop. A green manure crop is leafy foliage that is grown and mixed back into the soil, rather than being harvested, adding lovely organic matter to the soil. If you’re going away over the summer holidays, growing a green manure crop in your vegie patch is a much better option than leaving it bare and provides a low maintenance way to fill the patch and reduce the chance of it being infested with weeds by the time you return. Here’s how to grow your own green manure: »» Gently cultivate the top few centimetres of soil to break it up and then mix in some Yates® Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. Certified for use in organic gardening it’s a rich source of organic nutrients that will gently feed the green manure crop as it establishes. »» Mix some ‘green manure’ seeds into the soil. Bird seed and packet of pea or bean seeds makes for an inexpensive and foliage rich green manure crop. »» Keep the area moist while the plants establish. »» When you return from holidays (or after 2 – 3 months, before the plants flower), cut the plants close to the ground and then dig all the foliage and roots into the soil. »» Mulch over the top with sugar cane or lucerne hay and the green manure plants will break down and enrich the soil, ready for the next crop of home grown vegies.
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lawns
Keeping your lawn green and pest free in summer The army is coming! Lawn armyworm (pictured right) are caterpillars of night-flying moths which lay their eggs amongst turf leaves. The caterpillars grow up to 4 cm long and range in colour from green to brown, with darker and paler stripes running along their back and sides. Adult moths are brown and attracted to lights at night. There can be multiple generations of armyworm in a year, with caterpillars being most active during summer and autumn. In large numbers, armyworm can advance like an army (hence their name), strip the turf foliage and cause rapidly expanding bare patches. In addition to bare patches, if you see birds pecking at the lawn, it can be a sign that lawn armyworm may be present (the birds are searching for the caterpillars). Yates® Baythroid® Lawn Grub and Garden Insecticide is an effective way of controlling lawn armyworm. It can be applied over the lawn via a garden sprayer or watering can. Apply in the late afternoon and lightly water the lawn before applying. And there’s no need for a brown and crispy lawn during summer! Providing the lawn with adequate water and nutrients will help keep it looking lush and green throughout the warmer months. Here’s how: »» Give the lawn several deep waterings each week, rather than more frequent light waterings. »» Use a wetting agent like Yates Waterwise® Soil Wetter to help the water penetrate more effectively down into the soil. »» Apply a liquid lawn fertiliser like Yates Lawn Fertiliser, which is rich in nitrogen to encourage a lush, green lawn in days and comes in a quick and easy to use hose-on applicator. In the tropics and sub-tropics during summer’s wet weather, delay fertilising until the drier months arrive. Using a soil wetter and aerating or coring the lawn can help to move the rainfall down into the soil, rather than sitting on the lawn surface, which can encourage diseases.
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the happy gardener
As the weather heats up the warm season vegies are really coming along. The tomatoes are showing the promise of fruit, the sweet corn plants are getting lush and tall and we’ve been harvesting strawberries, including soft but flavour packed alpine strawberries. Our raised bed full of Lebanese and blackjack zucchinis is doing well, though we have to watch them like a hawk as they seem to turn gigantic overnight! The first batches of zucchini slice have been made and the boys are looking forward to a nice tray of chocolate zucchini brownies. When the zucchinis are in full flight, they get added to everything! The temptation got too much for us and we harvested a few early potatoes. Digging for spuds is so much fun and we let out the odd squeal of delight when another potato was unearthed. I’m going to save the rest of the potatoes for Christmas lunch. Yum!
As I write this much of our garlic has been harvested. I think the super dry winter made things very hard for it, however we’ll get quite a few heads, enough to save some for planting next autumn and some to enjoy over the coming months. I failed abismally at trying to braid the leaves together to store them. More practice required... With the warm weather comes the snakes. I startled a very healthy looking (and rather large) brown snake behind our chicken coop, so it’s definitely gum boot gardening from now on, plus a lot of heavy stomping! Until next time, happy gardening everyone and I hope you have a happy and safe Christmas,
Angie
The globe artichokes are bursting into full beautiful purple flower and I know the bees will enjoy them for weeks. They make such a gorgeous statement in the vegie patch.
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Live Chat! Yates® has a LiveChat portal where gardeners can have their queries answered on the spot. Our hours are 8 am – 5.30 pm on weekdays and 10 am – 6 pm on weekends. You can even upload a photo of your query and be sent a record of the chat via email. It’s easy to access our LiveChat service through the Yates website
Join the Yates Garden Club We have more than 190,000 members! The Yates Garden Club is perfect for both first time and experienced gardeners. Whether you’re interested in growing your own fruit and vegies, love roses and flowers or want a beautiful lawn, as a Yates Garden Club member you’ll receive a personalised monthly email that contains fantastic gardening information, advice and inspiration for your garden. It’s completely FREE to join the Yates Garden Club – head to www.yates.com.au/garden-club to join.
Facebook Community Join the Yates Facebook community and be inspired with ideas as to what to plant in your garden, share your garden successes (and challenges), hear about gardening hints and tips and see some gorgeous gardens and clever gardeners from around the world.
Yates Website Visit the Yates website at www.yates.com.au for loads of fantastic information about all things gardening, including problem solving, a gardening calendar, organic gardening, how to grow guides on vegies and herbs, fruit and citrus, roses and flowers and lawns and an interactive virtual garden planning tool.
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