October Gardening Goodies
We’ve got some brand new gardening products to help your garden this October.
New Bushel & Berry Blueberries
You don’t need a large garden to grow your own berries. The brandnew Bushel and Berry Collection is completely changing the way we think about berry plants. The varieties are compact, making them ideal for container gardening with the first two varieties launched being ‘Peach Sorbet’ and ‘Pink Icing’
‘Peach Sorbet’ sports stunning peach, pink, orange and emerald green leaves with white bell-shaped flowers appearing in spring leading to an abundant summer crop of blueberries. In most climates, this plant will keep its leaves throughout winter and turns a rich eggplant purple.
With ornamental foliage and large, sweet berries, ‘Pink Icing’ looks incredible in all seasons. This stunning blueberry has leaves that are shades of pink, deep blue and green. The leaves turn a turquoise blue in winter.
Look out for theses beauties at your local nursery or garden centre to plant in decorative patio pots or in the landscape.
Grow strawberries from seed
Since last summer, when strawberry seed was made available for the first time in South Africa, growing strawberries from seed has proved to be a hit. Not only are strawberries easy to grow from seed, but they offer up an abundance of sweet, plump fruit. MayFord’s strawberry ‘Florian’ offers up delightful, bright pink blooms that are followed by a heavy crop of perfectly sized, aromatic red fruit with a distinct Japanese-style flavour to them. Sow in spring and harvest the delicious fruits from early summer right through until autumn. Seed is available from selected garden centres and retailers.
New Amaryllis book out now
Our long-time expert contributor to The Gardener Magazine, Graham Duncan, and botanical artists Barbara Jeppe and Leigh Voigt have finished their Field Guide to the Amaryllis Family of Southern Africa & Surrounding Territories, and it’s now available from Penguin Random House publishers online and at bookstores countrywide.
Southern Africa is recognised as a major centre of diversity for this intriguing family, and this compelling guide features all the species found in the region, conveniently grouped according to the biome of their natural habitat. It also includes a useful key to genera and species. This book is an invaluable addition to the library of any plant or nature lover and makes a great gift.
Making pest management easy…
Spring is the season for scouting your garden and inspecting plants and edibles for sucking pests that love to feed on young plants. Save yourself from a pest infestation by using Yellow Sticky Cards to monitor and manage aphids, leaf hoppers, thrips and whiteflies.
When a plant is stressed, its leaves and stem can turn yellow. Millions of years of evolution have taught these insect pests to head for these weaker plants. The Insect Science Home and Garden range uses a specific wavelength yellow to provide a simple, eco-friendly solution to responsible pest management, using nature’s ways and leaving no harmful residues. Check out these new products available online and at nurseries and retail stores.
Potted life
Visit www.hobbylifeafrica.com to view their lovely range of top-quality plant pots. With a variety of colours and styles to suite your environment and preferences, you will find just the right products to enhance and beautify your surroundings, adding peace and tranquillity to your home or office, both indoor and outdoor. Available from Hobby Life Africa.
Give someone a sunflower
This month all our subscribers will have received a packet of sunflower seeds that can be planted now in spring or summer. In 70 – 90 days you will be able to cut your sunflowers and give them to a random person in the Sowing Smiles campaign from Kirchhoffs Seeds. See page 56 in his issue to see how you can subscribe or visit www.thegardener.co.za. For more about the seeds visit www.kirchhoffs.co.za
Protek’s nitrogen fixer
Photosynthesis is essential for normal plant growth. While we all know that the chemical behind photosynthesis is chlorophyll, we might not know that an important component of chlorophyll is nitrogen (N). This is why if plants have enough nitrogen, they have a dark, bluish-green colour, and where nitrogen is lacking, the leaves have a light green colour and can even be yellow in extreme cases. In these cases, plant growth is suppressed due to insufficient photosynthesis. Protek’s Nitrogreen KAN/LAN (17%) provides nitrogen for chlorophyll, promoting active vegetative growth of shrubs, vegetables, lawns and fruit trees.
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