Dead Heading Roses

It is time to dead head the roses in the garden. A lot of people tend to just nip off the ends of the dead roses. This will make the rose bush grow more stems but on weak branches. You should always prune back into the bush to ensure the new stems have a strong base to hold them selves onto. This will increase the number of flowers and keep the bush strong and sturdy. I usually prune off about three nodes down form the base of the dead rose head. It takes about five or six weeks for recurrent d\roses to flower again. if you have old fashioned roses which only flower once then prune straight away after flowering. This will ensure a bountiful crop of flowers for the next season. 
Happy Pruning.

time to plant

It is now time to plant certain things in the garden. It is customary to plant tomatoes just after Melbourne Cup day. There is no advantage planting tomatoes early because they always grow quickly this time of year, Some people like to plant tomatoes as soon as they see them in the nurseries but then have to protect them from the frost or cold weather, This time of year you can control the watering of them also. Planting tomatoes early usually results in the plants getting fungal diseases because they are weak and cannot fight off infection. Planting tomatoes from now on gives them a better chance of survival. It is a good idea to plant your tomatoes with a teaspoon or two of a granular slow release fertilizer like osmocote or something similar  For the first four weeks you should put some liquid fertilizer on them just until the slow release kicks in. Tomatoes need a balanced fertilizer with a good dose of Nitrogen a small amount of phosphorous and some potassium. This will ensure good growth with the Nitrogen and the Potassium will aid in the production of the flowers then fruit. You may need to spray with an all purpose fungicide as tomatoes are susceptible to all types of fungal diseases. When you water the tomatoes you should avoid watering the leaves of the plant, the more you water the leaves the more you encourage disease. A few weeks into the growing you should stake the plants with either bamboo or wooden stakes. Tomatoes grow to around five to six feet so you will need tall stakes to be successful. The more flowers the more fruit but it doesn't hurt to  pinch out the in between growth once they are up the top of the stake. Train the plants to two main branches, feed them well, water them well and you will have fantastic fruit. The next time you plant tomatoes plant them in a different spot to minimize fungal diseases.

watering at the bottom

Time to feed the garden

It is time to feed the garden. Time to throw a little fertilizer around the base of our plants. I like to use a granular type fertilizer as it works straight away. Organic ferts are ok but you do need to wait a while e for the  chemical breakdown. cow manure contains about 2% nitrogen but it takes a while to extract the nitrogen out of it.