Plant Gardens 101

Silverbeet

Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris cultivar

One of the easiest to grow of all the vegetables, Silverbeet, also known as under the names Swiss Chard and for the coloured stemmed variety Rainbow Chard, gives a huge harvest in a short amount of time. Two plants would be enough to feed one person with silverbeet for every meal of the week

PROPAGATION You can grow these plants directly in the ground from seed, or you will get 6 to 8 seedlings in a punnet for around $3.00 at your local nursery. Seeds can be sown in early spring and late summer, early autumn. Put two or three seeds in the one hole about 40cm apart and 1cm deep. Keep the seeds moist, but not wet. I prefer late autumn plantings, as I find they are less likely to bolt to seed than spring plantings. (more…)

Sweet pea Lathyrus odoratus

The scent of these exquisite flowers lingers in your mind long after the flowers have faded. Beautiful, romantic and soft. Sweet peas are a delight to grow and enjoy in the garden and as cut flowers.

Sweet peas have always been one of my favourite plants. I remember my Nanna having them growing in her huge vegetable garden for cut flowers when I was young. I could never understand why she didn’t just have them in the vast flower garden on the large Western District property where she lived. These beautiful blooms outshine most other annuals when it comes to fragrance and blooms. Sweet peas are thought to have their origins in Sicily, China or Malta. But the first seeds bought to England for cultivation were imported from Italy. They have been cultivated for hundreds of years and thus there are thousands of cultivars that have been developed through the centuries. Henry Eckford is credited with the development of what we know today as Sweet Peas in the late 1800’s, having cross bred the original small and mainly purplish, sweet fragranced flowers to create a range of various colours with larger flowers. By 1900, he had introduced a total of 115 cultivars of Sweet Peas. Many people since then have tried their hand at breeding Sweet Peas, with amazing frilly or striped varieties being created. Unfortunately, this has often been to the detriment of the fragrance. Sweet pea breeder Dr Keith Hammett did a lot of work in the 1990’s to retain the fragrance of Sweet peas while providing a range of bicolours, frilled and the ever elusive yellow Sweet pea. His passion and perseverance paid off, with a range of his seed now being available through outlets that stock Yates Seeds. Most of the plain colour, old fashioned varieties have retained their fragrance and are available through most nurseries and garden centres now for planting. If you don’t have room for the tall climbing varieties, there are dwarf forms suitable for garden beds and pots. One of my favourites of the dwarf form is Bijou, I am particularly fond of the pale colour mix. (more…)

Please feel free to use this article, as long as it is not reproduced out of context or the content altered. I also ask that you keep a link to http://www.plantsearch.com.au somewhere.

Any soil type-clay, sand or loam-will benefit from the addition of organic matter. In a clay soil, the addition of organic matter opens up the tightly packed particles, allowing for water and air to penetrate easier. In a sandy soil, organic mater adds nutrients and body to the soil, improving its capacity to hold water. Loam is what is considered the ideal soil. The addition of organic matter will keep it in the best shape, attracting worms into your soil and keeping it rich and healthy. So what sort of organic matter is best? Any and lots of it. Manure, straw, hay and compost. When it comes to manure, unlike vegetables, fresh is not best. Fresh manure might not do much harm to your soil but it can burn or kill your plants. Be especially careful of fresh chicken manure, let it age for at least 12 months to let out some of the ammonia and uric acid. Also be careful of applying large amounts of chicken manure to sandy soil, as it can possibly cause potassium toxicity. (more…)

Please feel free to use this article, as long as it is not reproduced out of context or the content altered. I also ask that you keep a link to http://www.plantsearch.com.au somewhere.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But would there be confusion on what plant you are talking about? There is with Geraniums. Does the idea of a Geranium conjure up an image of a quaint Greek fishing village with window boxes planted out with pillar box red flowers? Guess what, they aren’t really Geraniums. They are Pelargonium zonale hybrids. Ok, so most people know them as Geraniums, and they are both in the family Geraniaceae, I will give you that. But it is probably going to be a long time before we can get everyone in the gardening community to understand that Geraniums are a distinct genus from Zonale Pelargoniums. Even Linnaeus (who invented the plant classification system that we use) put Pelargonium spp. and Geranium spp. together in the same genus originally, along with another genus Erodium spp. It wasn’t until 1789 that the classification of these distinct genuses was changed in an article published in a Horticultural Journal by William Aiton. (more…)