Hi Gardeners,
I thought I would start this month’s article off with a quote I came across.
“The one who plants trees, knowing he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.” - Rabindranath Tagore
CREATING MAGIC WITH BULBS
Gregg Wallace from MasterChef and The Professionals (an English cooking program) has been doing a weekend away in different countries. For those who travel and enjoy going to gardening festivals, I hope this is of interest to you. As it is time for bulb planting, there is no place like the Netherlands for beautiful bulbs. First, Gregg went to the largest flower auction in the world - the Aalsmeer Flower Auction, where about 43 million flowers are sold daily, an amount which increases on special occasions like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
A friendly reminder - don’t forget Mother’s Day!
He then went to a famous Dutch flower parade in the Netherlands, which has a fantastic history. All the floats are made up of spring flowers (for them held usually in April) like tulips.
Plant some bulbs this season and see what happens. Here are a couple of suggestions. Freesias are part of many childhood memories. They are creamy-white, very fragrant and easily grown, requiring very little if almost no care at all.
Jonquils are cheerful blooms with each stem topped by a cluster of little golden flowers that are like miniature daffodils, but with a darker trumpet. Select your bulbs early in the season so you can choose from the full range. Make sure you buy enough of the same variety to make an impact, remembering that bulbs look best planted fairly close together.
In nurseries now are Garlic bulbs. Garlic is an excellent insect repellent and can be planted with roses and citrus as a companion plant to reduce aphids and other sap-sucking insects. Garlic is easy to grow and also related to the onion family, except that the bulbs are in clusters of small cloves. The plants grow to approximately 60cm tall with flat, long pointed leaves and bear clusters of white flowers. Plant in autumn to early winter in a well-drained soil.
In last month’s article I spoke about getting ready to plant seeds for Autumn. One of our seed suppliers offered to write an article on their family run business. May I present to you, Jonathan from Ericavale Seeds.
Ericavale Seeds is a locally owned and family run seed supplier of rare and unusual varieties of seed. What makes us different is our range of unique and in many cases not commercially grown varieties and our dedication to buying and supporting local. What does this mean? All of our seeds are bought from local growers, local seed houses or grown in house in south east Queensland. Our packaging is printed in Victoria, our display stands are manufactured on the Gold Coast and all of our varieties are hand packed in house on the north side of Brisbane. We visually inspect every spoon of seed put through our foiling machine to ensure that what we supply is quality seed and not husk or other non-seed fill. Further to this, we purchase our seed every season (for the season ahead) to ensure our product is as fresh as possible when foiled and packed to give gardeners the best strike rate and strongest seedlings.
Part of our goal is to keep expanding and tweaking our range based on feedback from stockists and our gardener base. We are often approached by people searching for childhood favourites or varieties that have, over the years, become obsolete due to new more commercially viable varieties.
In February we introduced four new varieties to our range. An ever-popular Passionfruit, Red Flamenco has been developed to provide unequalled flavour and a large fruit perfect for juicing. Passionfruit can be used to attract bees to the garden or grown to provide an attractive screen to frame your garden or block out unsightly views or neighbours. Seeds can be started in winter indoors ready for a spring transplant. They love full sun and a prepared bed.
Another addition to the range is Pineapple Gooseberry. This small bushy gooseberry is actually an heirloom variety from the 1800’s, which most have never heard of. The fruit is sweet with a hint of pineapple flavour and is perfect for jams and salads. Best sown indoors mid-winter for a spring transplant in a warm sunny position.
The third new variety to our range this autumn is a Bok Choy mix. This mix comprises of Choko Green F1, Cantong white and Early purple F1. This mix has been developed to offer home gardeners the best Bok Choy varieties available and a mix of colours, textures and unique subtle flavour differences. Bok Choy has been widely used in recent years in many Asian inspired cuisines and is perfect to grow here in south east Queensland almost all year round.
Finally, the fourth addition to the range is Snow Pea Oregon Giant. Not new to the market by any means, but a much sought after, high yield variety with great flavour and suited to a broad range of climates and soil types. Snow peas are perfect crops to start in winter and should be ready for harvest in as little as 10 weeks.
CHEERS AND HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
MINT MOJITO
1 lime
1 tsp granulated sugar
Small handful of mint mojito, plus a little extra
60mls white rum
Soda water to taste
Use the end of a rolling pin and crush lime juice, sugar and mint in a small jug. Pour into a tall glass and add a handful of ice. Pour over rum, stirring and then add soda water and a fresh sprig of mint leaf.
Happy Gardening,
Jill
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