Category: Jim’s News

The most romantic bloom needs a spot in every garden. New rose plants are being stocked at garden centres in time for the winter bloom. Regardless of whether you want them to run the show, or keep them for picking, there is always place in the garden for roses.

Using Space to Grow More Roses

Layer

Typical roses provide instant accent and height. Unlike trees, they don’t continue to grow. They can be planted underneath with low growing herbs, flowers and even vegetables.

Border Blending

Roses don’t require their own formal space. You can combine them with other plants in a mixed planting space.

Vertical Growth

Every sunny fence, pergola, post or wall provides an opportunity to grow roses. Roses can even grow up trees. Train a climbing rose or tall shrub up a post or build your own rose obelisk. When winter comes, the obelisk becomes a garden feature itself, providing vertical accent without taking up too much garden space.

Container Roses

Various types of roses are specifically bred for pots and tubs. Typically known as patio roses, these styles are compact and repeat flowing with a great abundance of bloom the belies their size. Roses grown in containers require regular watering and feeding. The bigger the pot, the less likely it is too loose food or water too quickly.

Prioritise

With the endless amounts of roses species to choose from an new varieties cropping up every year, there is simply not the space for every style in the one garden. Saying goodbye to  struggling crop can really free up the space for a winter bloom. You have to be selective when it comes to roses and choose the plant varieties that are most suitable for your needs. Roses that are disease resistant minimise the need for spraying. Certain rose varieties produce more flowers and can flower for longer than other varieties. Some are even more potent in perfume than others.

Tip: when replacing a weak or sick rose, remove a wheelbarrow load of soil and replace it with fresh soil from a different section of the garden and mix it with compost.

The Basics of Rose Growing

You are ready to plant, prune and take precautionary measures against diseases and pests. Paying close attention to roses throughout winter can thoroughly improve their performance come summer and spring.

Where to Plant

Roses thrive with plenty of sun. They require an amount of air movement to minimise disease and pests. The optimal soil for roses contains plenty of nutrients and moisture, this means a clay-based soil is best. Soil that is too heavy (clay) or too light (sandy) can be enhanced with compost.

Planting

Many roses sold in the winter months are called ‘bare-root’ roses. This means they have been grown in an open garden and dug up in time for winter planting. The roots are then planted in pots or wrapped with protective packing once they get to the garden centre.

When you plant bare-root roses in the winter, ensure that you remove the wrapping as well as any packaging materials around the roots. Soak the roots in water at least an hour before planting. When planting pot roses in spring ensure that you carefully remove the container, leaving the new root growth as in tact as physically possible.

Dig a decent planting hole that is big enough to fit roots without forcing them in. Add sheep pellets or controlled-release rose fertiliser to the hole. Place the plant in the hole that the roots grow downwards and the bud union or crown sits about ground level. Fill the hole with soil before treading firmly. Water the plant thoroughly.

Pruning

July is the best time to prune most rose bushes, but wait until the weather is coldest. Use a sharp, clean pair of secateurs and remove any decaying or dead wood first. Remove old unnecessary wood, branches crossing over the other or crowding the middle of the bush. Mae cuts about 5mm above a bud that is slanting away from the bud. The new growth will sprout here in the spring. Remember this when selecting your rose buds.

Discovering new and innovative ways to grow more fruit in less space isn’t a new concept in gardening. With today’s myriad of exciting fruiting plants, producing a backyard fruit hive has never been more fascinating.

Here are five ways to grow more fruit in smaller spaces.

1. Pot Planting

Pretty much any fruit can be grown in a tub or pot if it is given the right watering and feeding. Figs, citrus trees, pears, apples, berries and even grapes can thrive in the right environment. Typically, smaller trees thrive better in containers than large ones, but restricting the roots can actually promote fruiting. A container can often allow greater soil conditions than the soil in your garden can provide.

A container also allows fruit trees to be transferred around the garden or even between houses. It is a good idea to invest in top of the range planting mix and re pot every couple of years. When selecting a container, consider strength, size and its ability to hold nutrients and water. Drainage holes are essential, but overly porous containers often dry out quickly in windy and hot conditions. If your container is too small, it becomes difficult to keep up with the feeding and watering.

Barrel Berries

Blueberries are very beautiful flowering shrubs, and are valuable to grow on aesthetic alone. Depending on your location, planting blueberries in a container with the correct watering, feeding and potting provides better results than your garden soil. This comes down to the fact that blueberries are picky about soil pH. As opposed to most plants, they require an acidic soil of pH 4.5-5.5. They’ll thrive in a peat-based medium soil with good water holding capacity and decent drainage. Blueberries hold compact root systems and whilst some remain as small compact shrubs other varieties grow tall. In a big barrel, planting a handful of carefully selected varieties will ensure your berries keep picking over a few weeks.

Rainwater is great for blueberries. Be aware, however, of the effect on pH when utilising bore water, which often contains higher salt levels. They may need correct with soil acidifier. Provide blueberries with fertilisers necessary for acid-loving plants. If your bush’s leaves turn a yellow, reddish colour, especially near their edges, they might be lacking magnesium. Green veins and yellow leaves indicate iron deficiency. Your blueberry barrel is the ideal place to empty the mud from your coffee plunger.

2. Against the Fence or Wall

Growing your trees flat against a wall or fence is a pretty way to promote fruit growth in small spaces. Espalier trees grow along wires supported by posts, a masonry wall or against a fence. Even commercial orchards are now utilising the 2D method as it can optimise sunlight and produce more fruit per hectare.

3. Step-Over Apples

The step-over apple is a type of low, single layer espalier that is traditionally grown along a pathway or along the border of a vegetable garden. Begin with a dwarf apple tree. Install your wire 60cm above the garden floor with sturdy posts no more than 1.5m in distance. The principal works the same for espalier trees, but keep it to one layer of horizontally trained branches.

4. Mini Trees

Dwarf trees and trees planted along dwarfing root stocks are perfect for containers and small gardens. Many different dwarf varieties of pears, apricots, apples, peaches and nectarines are available. They produce a great amount of fruit in this size.

5. Multiple Plants in One

Double and triple grafted fruit trees elongate the harvest time and provide different flavours on the one tree. You can also achieve this effect by planting a number of different fruit trees in the one hole. “The Family Tree” is a variety of fruit trees that can be planted next to each other. The branches are pruned to grow outwards. You want to choose just one family of fruit for each tree as they require a similar growth habit. Think combining three to five different apple varieties, or create a family tree of nectarines and peaches.

There is simply no going past the delicious taste of home grown tomatoes. However, they can be subjected to disease and pests. Follow these simple guidelines for taking care of your tomatoes.

Begin with a Healthy Plant

Certain tomato varieties are able to withstand disease better than others. Depending on your location and which diseases or pests are more problematic, there will still be varieties which handle these problems better than others. Finding out which are best for your garden is a matter of trial and error as well as finding out through friends and neighbours what works best.

Ideally, choose a diverse selection of tomato varieties known to be disease resistant. Grafted tomato plants provide extra vigour and disease resistant roots. Early ripening varieties offer a crop before the worst disease and pests can become problematic.

Promote Vigorous Growth

Regardless of variety, a vigorous, well-watered and well-fed plant has a far better chance of resisting attacks from pathogens and pests than a poorly-maintained one. Healthy plants require healthy soil to thrive. Dark, deep and spongy soil, replete with organic matter ensures nutrients and water are easily accessible to your tomatoes and, regardless of the way in which you feed them, they require a continuous supply of water and nutrients to support rapid, ongoing growth.

Infrequent soaking promotes young roots to expand deeply into the soil where there is a plentiful supply of nutrients and moisture. Regular shallow watering promotes shallow root growth that is more susceptible to struggle in a dry spell. Ensure the water is applied directly the soil. Avoid sprinklers wet leaf surfaces promote disease. Mulching with a layer of fine bark or straw will help keep the water in the soil it is required.

Tip: Plant seedling tomatoes a few centimetres deeper in the soil than where they were in their pots to promote new feeder roots for nutrient uptake and extra anchorage.

Fresh Air is Imperative

Tomato bugs multiply and thrive in warm, damp humidity. Keeping the above ground parts of the plant well aerated and dry is essential. Provide plenty of space for air and keep them weed-free. Too much air, however, is detrimental as wind damage is a great place for disease to thrive.

Crop Rotation

You want to avoid planting tomatoes and their relatives (capsicum, eggplants, chillies, potatoes) in the same spot ever year. The longer a garden bed has a break from any one plant variety, the better. If it is too difficult to change the planting location, think about planting tomatoes in containers or changing the soil.

Hygiene

Be cautious as disease spores can be transferred between plants via fingers or tools. Also, do not prune tomatoes on a humid or wet day as moisture promotes disease entry. Furthermore, seed saved from an infected tomato crop may transfer the disease to your new crop. Ensure that your source is clean or purchase fresh seedlings from a respectable supplier.

When lower leaves begin to display signs of disease, remove them. Do this with sharp, clean tools. It is often necessary to take out the entire plant. Refrain from placing infected crops to your home compost heap, as they may not get hot enough to kill off all the insect eggs and disease spores.

Look After Nature

Each and every pest has natural predators. Carefully consider before spraying pesticides and attempt planting a variety of flowers and herbs to attract a variety of predatory insects.

Know Who You’re Going After

Regardless of the crop, awareness and early intervention are imperative to taking on bugs. Close observation can be an incredibly effective weapon so keep a look out for the first signs of infestation. This is especially so for when the weather gets warmer. It is easier to produce creative solution when you know how your pests thrive/how it breeds and lives.

Preventative Measures

Spraying the crop with protective fungicides including copper provide efficient control against fungus diseases. Apply them early in the season before a possible disease cycle can take ahold. If this hasn’t work, there are plenty of low-toxic (harmless to humans and even for some insects) that can save your crop from disease. Mesh crop fabric cover is great for keeping out unwanted pests.

Jim’s Mowing 25th Anniversary – During 2008 Jim’s Mowing reached a major milestone of 25 years service to the gardeners of the world. With over 1,800 mowing franchisees spread over Australia, New Zealand, Canada and now the UK. Jim Penman the owner and founder are proud to say that Jim’s is the largest Mowing and gardening business in the world. The Jim’s Mowing model has now become the foundation for many other successful businesses within the Jim’s Group. These include Jim’s Dog Wash, Jim’s Bookkeeping, Jim’s Computers, Jim’s Test and Tag just to name a few. During February 2009 the total number of franchises within Jim’s has now exceeded 3,000 and still growing daily.

Jim puts the success down to creating a customer service based business that guarantees to call people back within two hours and provide guaranteed satisfaction, and he is passionate about this on a daily basis. The Jim’s Mowing 25th Anniversary is a very significant milestone and supports the theory that Jim has got this customer service focus right. Nevertheless, Jim continues to lead the business and involve himself in the day to day issues as they arise. The Jim’s Mowing 25th Anniversary is no mistake with Jim advising that he looks forward to many more years of customer service and success.