ISLAND G SNEDRA

Magazines, internet, or a walk/drive around your local area could reveal several garden designs that appeal to you. Also, there are people around like myself who'll help design and/or project manage your new garden creation or source suitable plants for your needs. Call me anytime on 0436 320 848.

Preparing your ground as much as you can is an important start. Eradicating or minimising rogue grasses and weeds now, will stop them coming back with too much force later on.

Excavating sand and replacing with garden soil is a good investment into your garden, resulting in lusher growth. An alternative to removing soil is to enrich the existing soil by mixing products into it. Mushroom compost is ideal because it contains a lot of goodness in a small package. Pelletised or granular fertilisers are excellent for the same reason.

This is the foundation of your garden design. Hardscapes include things like paving, edging and garden walls. Your local landscape suppliers, hardware stores and nurseries can usually recommended trusted and reliable tradespeople.

I think this is where the fun starts. There's the social aspectgetting to know and supporting local businesses who care about your garden, and there's the joy of seeing the beauty of your garden unfold before you.

Two good options include a full electronic system or a DIY setup with a timer that you attach to your garden tap. Or if you opt to water manually, an oscillating sprinkler like the one pictured here does a great job. It covers up to 80 square metres at a time and is fully adjustable - covering the width of the space you wish to water.

While good garden soil comes with fertiliser, a little extra here and there often helps. There's potash to assist in fruiting or flowering, fertilisers rich in nitrogen (a great help for sandy soils), and specific fertilisers for all types of plants.

Covering your soil with mulch helps to suppress weeds and retain moisture. I love to use lucerne mulch because it's rich in nitrogen, and slowly releases all sorts of goodness into your soil over time. Or if your fertiliser is taking care of that already, simply choose a mulch you like the look of, remembering it may fade quickly over time

By Peter Schinkel

Birdbaths are a great help for the birds you've attracted to your garden, especially in the summer. Affixing a birdbath to a paver with liquid nails or pinning the birdbath into the ground with metal pegs helps it remain stable. Rocks, garden ornaments, a bench, fence or wall art, an archway, etc... can all make your garden even more attractive or unique.

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have a rewarding time creating your new garden, or that you gained some useful tips for maintaining or transforming your existing one.

I look forward to seeing you in issue 187 on 10th March. Thanks for reading. I Wish you a welcome transition to the cooler weather soon :-)

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Sunday 5th March 2023

Hornsby Road, behind the Shopping Centre or Turners Camp, on the way from Ningi

WE'RE JOINING IN WITH CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY. PLEASE COME ALONG TO ONE OF OUR TWO SITES AND HELP COLLECT LITTER TO PROTECT WILDLIFE AND STOP IT FROM GETTING INTO THE WATERWAYS AND OCEAN AROUND BRIBIE ISLAND.

05 Mar, 8:00 am – 10:00 am

See site locations in description.

Clean Up Australia Day is 5 March and BIEPA has registered Clean Up events where volunteers can join us. Please use the below link to join one of our sites on the Clean Up AUSTRALIA WEBSITE:

• Hornsby Road, Bribie Island (behind Bribie Island Shopping Centre)

• Turners Camp, Bribie Island Road (between Ningi and Spinnaker Sound) https://www.biepa.online/event-details/clean-up-australia-day

You'll need to create a Clean Up Australia account, but you can then join any future clean up events (not just BIEPA ones). Clean Up Australia will send us a kit with bags, gloves etc. and MBRC will pick up all rubbish collected.

A favourite for many gardeners, they are compact and don’t generally need staking. I find them much easier to grow. They are less susceptible to pests and diseases and more adaptable to drought. Cherry tomatoes are quicker to mature than most larger varieties. Oh, and they are perfect for salads –no chopping required! Cherry and grape tomatoes suit small gardens. They are great for snacks and are available in lots of flavours and colours..

Large Salad and Beefsteak tomatoes

Also popular, they need support and take longer to harvest as the fruit needs more time to grow and ripen. Salad and beefsteak varieties also tend to have more problems. If you want tomatoes for sandwiches and enjoy their fullbodied flavours, the bigger and heavier salad and beefsteak tomato cultivars might be a good choice.

Roma tomatoes

Heirloom Tomatoes

Roma’s are ideal for sauces because they are firm, not too juicy and have fewer seeds. However, these cultivars need strong support. They also take longer to harvest as the fruit needs more time to mature. https://themicrogardener.com/ top-tips-for-growing-terrifictomatoes/#more-43565

In summary, large tomato varieties are not suitable for gardeners with a short or cool summer growing season. However, if you want to preserve your harvest by making sauces or bottling tomatoes, you may want to grow varieties that meet these specific needs.

So, do you choose to grow a determinate or indeterminate variety?

Determinate Tomatoes

These are also known as bush, dwarf or mini varieties. Determinate tomatoes are bred to grow to a pre-determined height when mature. They usually don’t grow over 1.2m/4ft. When mature, they stop growing. During this time, they produce flowers and fruit in a month or two. The benefit of determinate cultivars is you pick your tomatoes sooner. However, the plant completes its life earlier too. They are small and short-lived sprinters! Determinates have a set number of flowers and fruit and are like ‘well-behaved kids’! You know what you get. If you prune these other than the lower leaves, you will lose your limited harvest. Like

However, high temperatures can cause problems with germination and fruit set. So, intense heat in summer may be more challenging. Tomatoes are generally sown in spring, summer and autumn as they are frost tender.

Check your days to maturity (60-85 days on average) for the variety you choose to grow. Then you will know how long to wait from seed to harvest. There’s also a way to work with nature to accelerate seed germination and give young seedlings the best chance to get a good start in life. Try planting in harmony with the moon cycle. New moon phase is the best time to sow and transplant. The easiest way to know the ideal time of the month to plant in your climate is to use a moon calendar.