Gardening in the Wheatbelt

I had expected the deciduous trees to be bare at this time of the year, however, May has been quite warm and it has given us all, the opportunity to enjoy the brilliant colours of autumn for a lot longer. If anyone is interested in seeing amazing colour displays there are orchards which have pick your own persimmons around the Roleystone area. Persimmons have incredible colours and are a worthy ornamental garden tree even without their delicious fruit. The QGLG welcomes anyone interested in gardens and gardening to come to our next meeting at the CRC on Friday 26th May at 10am. Thank you to everyone who came and contributed to our Biggest Morning Tea event we raised $184.50.

Plant of the Month – In the last few months we have looked at some of the fruit trees which can be successfully grown in the Central Wheatbelt. Well, there is another group of productive trees which do extremely well in our area and that is nut trees. At Eaglewood we have Almonds, Pistachios Pecans, Macadamias, Chestnuts and Stone Pines. Most of our trees are young and not producing nuts yet, however, the Almond trees produce every year and last year I froze six kilos of nuts which are still being used to make Almond meal and are also eaten as a healthy snack. The Pistachios produced their first crop this year and are a delicious addition to our orchard produce. The Stone Pine trees don’t bare nuts until they are about twenty years old so we won’t be picking cones but I’m sure the Carnaby Cockatoos will be ever so grateful we planted them. Some of the trees mentioned are large trees which may not be suitable to keep trimmed in a suburban block, but Almond tree make a beautiful garden tree. They are the first of the deciduous trees to flower and when their petals fall it creates a magical fairy garden scene with the ground covered in pink and white blossom. Macadamias are also an easy tree to have in the garden, they don’t need a lot of space and there are new cultivars which have long pink blossom and make an attractive statement when in flower. Pistachios take about seven years to produce their first nuts and only grow to five or so metres, however, you do need at least two trees because they are dioecious, that is, you must plant a male tree and a female tree or two to get fruit set. All these nut trees are easy care, require very little maintenance and as long as they are in well drained soil with some irrigation during the hottest of our summer months, they will produce a good crop each year. They all benefit from some fertilizer in late winter and animal manure mulch under their drip line.

This Month in the Garden –It’s time to – There are far more enjoyable tasks to be done in the garden during June than tiresome ones. So many native plants can be planted and many spring flowering annuals also. The joy of planting and sowing far outweighs the weeding that needs to be done, but the weeding must be tackled before seeds appear and become a problem for years to come. Start preparing for the summer vegetable crops. Dig trenches where the tomatoes, capsicums, eggplants, cucumbers, pumpkins and melons will be planted, ready to fill with manure and compost in August. Start a compost site, use all the fallen leaves in your garden, add some weeds and manure and turn the pile from time to time to make the best compost ever. Take hardwood cuttings of your deciduous trees. Spread aged manure, blood and bone or pelletized chicken manure under native plants which flower in winter to help them along in spring when they put on new growth. If there are roses that suffer from black spot, just take the affected leaves off and bin them; there isn’t much point in treating the roses this month best to wait till July at pruning time. Keep a look out for scale and aphids on citrus and treat with eco oil as soon as possible.

Sow – There’s still time to put in spring bulbs but not many plants to sow in June.

Plant – Bare rooted plants and trees are in catalogues and nurseries, even if you haven’t ordered anything there are always some available. Now is a great time to put in native plants. Keep in mind they must be watered if there are long dry spells during winter.

Harvest – We’re harvesting apples, pomegranates, the last of the grapes and lemons have started too. In the veggie beds there is lettuce, still some eggplant and capsicums, rocket, radicchio, carrots, English spinach, silver beet and radishes. The peanuts have been harvested and are drying in the greenhouse. There are sweet potatoes to harvest too but they look so lush we haven’t had the heart to pull them out.

The last word –“In a way winter is the real spring, the time when the inner things happen, the resurge of nature.” Edna O’Brien (novelist)