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The Edible Garden



Strawberry plants are in store this month so now is the time to prepare your strawberry bed. Buy a bag of Portstone’s own composted deer manure and lightly hoe it into the top layer of soil. Once you have planted your strawberries, then put a layer of our peastraw ($8 bale) round the plants to keep the ripening fruit off the damp soil which would make them go mouldy. The peastraw also suppresses the weeds, and puts nitrogen into the soil as it breaks down. Hanging baskets are ideal for strawberries; they’re easy to pick, they don’t rot on the ground, the birds can’t get them, and of course they look great. Strawberry plants will produce best if you treat them as an annual.


Hanging baskets are an ideal for strawberries, as they’re easy to pick, they don’t rot on the ground, the birds can’t get them, and of course they look great.


Mycorrcin watered into the soil or sprayed over the plants as a foliar feed, will greatly improve the yield, quality and flavour of your strawberries.

 

Garlic bulbs can be planted anytime now. Plant in a sunny position in light well drained soil that has had plenty of compost added.

 

Vegetable Seedlings of broad beans, lettuce, parsley, silverbeet and brassicas can still be planted. Some of these may not grow much over winter, but will be well established to take off quickly when the soil warms.

 

Fruit Trees really are the ultimate in trees, providing spring blossom, summer shade, autumn colour, winter structure, and of course yummy fruit. A basic spray programme for pip and stone fruit is to apply a dose of copper immediately after leaf fall, one at bud movement (just showing a tiny tip of green), then again 10 days later. Wally Richards Liquid Copper is the easiest to use. Prune out dead, damaged and competing branches, then seal the cuts with Heal n’ Sealto prevent infections entering the tree.  

 

Coriander is easier to grow in winter than summer as it doesn’t bolt so quickly.


Keep feeding your rhubarb with plenty of chicken pellets.

 

If you are not planting a winter crop then apply some lime to the soil in preparation for spring planting. Then consider sowing a green manure crop for the winter, in order to feed the soil and to suppress the winter weeds. Try our Lupin, Mustard and Grain Mix which provides nitrogen, carbon and a clean up of soil.

 


The Flower Garden



Prepare now for your new roses that will be in store by Queen’s Birthday weekend. Dig in compost and rotted manure which will feed the soil and encourage worms, so by the time your roses arrive, your plot will be nutritious and well draining. Ask at the counter for our rose catalogue and be sure to order early to avoid missing out on your favourite variety.

 

Oriental & Asiatic Lily Bulbs are in store now. Many are wonderfully scented plus they come in a lovely range of colours.

 

Colour up your winter with potted colour with Polyanthus, primulas, pansies . For indoor colour you can’t go past a cyclamen. They will flower through winter, then put them outside under a tree when they stop flowering. Feed all these plants with dried blood to keep them flowering.

 


Order your FRUIT TREES


Some varieties will sell out quickly.Ask at the counter for our Fuit Tree Catalogue.

 

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