OUT IN THE GARDEN

Big deliveries of seeds recently and our range is extensive, esp in vegetables, and including Sprouts and Microgreens.                                                                         

Our iCan Chef’s Best range of vegetable seeds is exclusive to Terra Viva in Christchurch and has been carefully selected by NZ’s leading seed distributor choosing only the top performers in each variety. 

Tracey orders all our seeds and her favourites for this week and this time of year are Dwarf Bean Supreme, Corn Tender Sweet, Courgette Leader, Tomato Flavoursome, and Radish Olympus which is a fun easy variety for children in the garden.

  

Our range increases every week and includes single plants, 6 packs, Grafted varieties for extra-big yields, and the hybrid Tasty Toms. 

Use the specifically-formulated Daltons Tomato Mix either in the garden or in containers. The liquid fertilisers like Tom-a-Rite work almost instantly and are easy to use.

Tomatoes have so many good health-giving benefits, to say nothing of the delicious flavour, and we have just about the full range now in stock.  Tomatoes thrive on warmth and well-prepared soil which needs to be kept well-watered but must drain freely.

Health suggestion – guys, it’s Blue September! You should be eating plenty of tomatoes as the high lycopene content is a safeguard against prostate issues.  Asparagus and parsley are also high in lycopene.

Tui Seaweed Tonic is a great tonic to use at spring planting – stimulates root development, promotes healthy growth, enhances flowering and fruiting, and increases resistance to heat, drought, frost, pests and disease. It also improves the uptake of fertiliser through the root system.

Feed spring-flowering bulbs now as they’re storing up reserves for their dormant period that’s on the horizon – we have bulb fertiliser in stock. Because we have so many daffodils at home I use the big 9.5kg bags of Nitro Blue.

 

Planting Phacelia (Californian Bluebell) attracts bees to assist in pollination and attract beneficial insects that repel unwanted pests like aphids – Phacelia is available in seed only and germinates really easily to produce attractive lavender blue flowers. Grows to 1.2m.

 

Our stocks of Strawberries are going down fast and our growers’ current lists are getting slimmer so the last may be coming soon – don’t be missing out!

 

If you have shrubs in large tubs and don’t want to go into even larger pots then you can easily take them out, prune the roots back a bit, add in fresh potting mix, and put them back in the pots.  I find one of the best tools for trimming off some of the root ball is a good serrated bread knife, and usually you can take off approx 7cm of roots, both on the sides, and on the bottom of the root ball.

The Kiwicare Buxus Food works wonders on re-vitalising buxus. 

Make sure you use top quality potting mix when you put the trimmed plants back in the pots.

Camellias will be putting out their new season’s growth soon and so a feed with Acid Plant Food will maximise that growth and a handful of peat also helps maintain the soil acidity.  If you need to trim Camellias to shape then now is the time to do it before you start trimming off next season’s flower buds.

  

Don’t neglect the lawn just because it’s started growing so well – feeding will keep that dark green healthy colour, and Winter promotes the growth of moss so an application of sulphate of iron will deal to that (alternatively use a lawn fertiliser with moss killer in it).

For a good 3 months controlled-release lawn food I use the Burnetts Ezyfert which also comes in a large landscapers’ size under the brand Mesa.                                                                                                                                      Hydrocotyle is also prevalent after this winter and Lawn Pro Turfclean Ultra not only gets rid of Hydrocotyle but deals to all lawn weeds.