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Spring has finally sprung and we are happy to see some rain and warmer weather coming our way. We have put together this spring addition to help you g
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Spring has finally sprung and we are happy to see some rain and warmer weather coming our way. We have put together this spring addition to help you get back out and enjoying your beautiful gardens. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. |
If you want to help bring your lawn and gardens out of hibernation and give them a kick start for the growing season. These are the top things to do for spring. |
1. Fertilise Your Lawn
Its time to fertilise your lawns! With the warmer weather arriving its time to green up your lawn and give it a good kick start to the growing season. See our Summer 2013 Newsletter (found on our website) for information on what type of fertilisers suit your lawn best. If you don’t have the time, feel free to call us and book in a fertilising service for your lawn.
2. Weed the Garden
It’s time to get out and give the garden beds a good weed. Since things have been slow to grow in winter we tend to ignore them, but if you don’t get out there and clean them up now, they will be out of control in a matter of weeks. Time to get out in the spring sunshine and pull them out quick!
Weeding can be time consuming and messy. If you would prefer to leave this to a professional, we are more than happy to provide you with a quote.
3. Add Wetting Agents to Lawns and Gardens
Since we have had quite a dry winter, it is highly possible that your soil has dried out. When soil has been dry for an extended period, it loses its ability to absorb and retain water. To make the most of the rain coming our way, applying a good wetting agent to your lawn and gardens this month is a must. |
4. Mulch
Yes, I know we are always going on about this, but its time to do it again! Mulching is the best thing you can do for your garden. Not only does mulching make it look clean and fresh, it is also a great way to nourish your garden, retain moisture and keep the weeds at bay. Give us a call to organise a quote and to discuss which mulches will suit your needs and budget the best.
5. Clean and Mend
Now that warmer weather is coming, we will all be spending more time outside eating, relaxing and entertaining! This is a great time to check outdoor furniture and outdoor entertaining areas in preparation for summer BBQ’s and parties. Wooden furniture may need to be repainted or re-oiled. Nuts and bolts should be checked and tightened. Clean the barbecue and refill the gas bottles. Paving and other hard surfaces will benefit from a vigorous sweep to remove accumulated leaves and dirt. Pavers may need to be weed sprayed and have a new layer of sand added. Mossy or slippery paths can be high pressure water cleaned. If you are more of a supervisor than a worker, we are happy to do any of this work for you while you sit back and have a nice glass of spring wine. Call us for a quote. |
In the warmer months we can change you over to premium service where we leave the grass to grow for 2 weeks, this allows it to reach it’s optimum height, then we change your services to weekly and cut no more than a third of the blade at a time. This prevents the lawn from scorching in the sun, like it does if it’s cut too short. When using this method we will also assess all individual areas of your lawn and treat them according to location e.g. grass in shaded areas, will be left to grow slightly longer. It is also important to use a mulching mower instead of a catcher so we can let the clippings fall back into the lawn to encourage soil organisms to recycle it into nutrients. |
September is the best planting month in SEQld if you want to take advantage of the mild conditions of spring and early summer. Get in now because things will become more difficult in the extreme conditions of Brisbane in mid and late summer.
September is the perfect time to plant: Tomatoes, eggplant, capsicums, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, rockmelons, carrots, lettuce, radishes, beetroot, silverbeet and beans.
The choko is a long forgotten veggie making a comeback at the moment. It was used as a filler in pies and jams during the Depression years but is actually delicious fried or au gratin (cooked in a mornay or bechamel sauce). Get a vine or two in this spring and rediscover a great old fashion veggie. |
Have your children out grown their sandbox years? Maybe you should reuse it and convert it into a raised veggie garden. This will give your children continued 'ownership' of the space and encourages your child to become interested in spending time outdoors. And what better to get kids to eat veggies than getting them to grow and harvest the veggies by themselves. It is important to remember, a productive garden bed needs to be located in the right area, where good sunlight is available. Since most sandboxes are located in the shadiest area of our garden, it may be necessary to relocate it if its current location has less than ideal growing conditions. Just line with weed cloth (aka landscape fabric) and fill with a good quality organic garden soil and you’re ready to start planting. If your sand pit is one of the old plastic shell varieties, these can still be easily converted, just drill holes in roes along the bottom of the shell every 3 – 5cm. You will need to then place about 200mm of draining gravel in the bottom before you fill it up with soil.
See our Summer 2013 Newsletter for DIY veggie garden tips. |
1. Compost for nutrient rich, fertilized soil:
Eggshells are very quick to decompose in your compost pile and are excellent for adding calcium and other minerals to the soil in the process. |
2. Fantastic seedling starters:
If you are good at cracking your eggs in half you can keep the shells and use them as seedling starters. Just sit the halves in an egg carton, fill with organic potting mix and place 2 or 3 seeds in each shell. Sit them on the window sill until they are big enough to transplanting to the garden.
3. Organic pest control in the garden:
Eggshell are really effective in deterring plant eating slugs and snails from your garden, just sprinkle crushed eggshells around the base or your plants and you will keep the little critters away. |
You can sprinkle your used coffee grounds in the soil of any acidic soil loving plants, these include; rhododendrons, camellias, evergreens, carrots, and radishes. Roses especially love coffee so if you are a coffee lover you would be a perfect match for roses.
2. Organic pest and ant repellent:
Sprinkle areas where ants, slugs, and snails hang out and you will keep them away from your garden. |
3. Growing mushrooms gold:
Nestle your inoculated mushroom plugs into moist coffee grounds and you are guaranteed a bumper mushroom crop. Put a layer of grounds in a container, (a Styrofoam fruit box is perfect) and press your mushroom plugs into them, keep repeating the process with another layer of grounds and mushroom plugs until you run out of room. If mould starts to appear, quickly remove it. Scooping it out with a spoon usually works well. |
If you would like a veggie patch in your back yard, but do not have the time to set it up, why don’t you give our office a call. We can come and discuss your needs and provide a quote for our friendly and qualified staff to come and do all the hard work for you. |
If you look around the fruit and veggie shop and farmers market you will notice more and more colourful carrots appearing. This is because for the last few decades or so, all we have seen in many grocery stores are orange carrots. You would be forgiven for thinking these colourful carrots are a new variety being grown, but did you know carrots were not originally orange. In fact, it was the purple carrot that was a much more popular before the 16th century. The history of orange carrots is quite surprising and a little vague.
There are suggestions in some Byzantine artwork that orange carrots may have existed before the 16th century, but they were very rare. The most common carrots were the purple and white varieties; these carrots were the near relatives of tough and astringent wild roots.
From the research conducted by historians, it has been theorised orange carrots were developed by the Dutch to pay homage to William of Orange, but there is no concrete evidence to validate this claim. However, research has proved the Dutch developed and then stabilized the orange carrot from the yellow variety in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
You may ask why the orange carrot became the most popular. Well, the most likely theory is because of taste. The orange carrot has a sweeter taste than its purple cousin. Another plus for orange carrots is they do not stain your cookware like some of the purple ones can.
So next time you are in the fruit and veggie market look out for some of the different colour carrots and give them a try. You may find a new favourite in an old variety! |
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