With spring just around the corner, it’s seed-sowing time. This is an exciting process to produce a lot of plants at very little cost, says gardening columnist JACKIE WARBURTON.
Seed can be sown in seed-raising mix and kept on a heat pad for fast growth or on a sunny window sill indoors but as a general rule, the larger the seed the larger the pot and the bigger the seed the easier to raise.
A pot for raising seed should be shallow. It shouldn’t have fertiliser in it and have quick drainage.
Vegetable seeds that can be sown now include beetroot, leeks, lettuce, peas, silverbeet and snow peas. Sprinkle seed lightly over wet seed-raising mix and press down so the seed is in contact with the media.
Lightly cover with washed sand and water lightly with a watering can. Water little but often. Be careful not to overwater.
Summer flowers that can be sown now include zinnias, cosmos, nasturtiums and sunflowers.
Zinnias’ flower colour range is vast and vibrant. Available as large flowers, they offer contrasting colours that give any corner of the garden some bling.
The range of cosmos has also improved over the years, and the shapes of the petals are just so pretty. My favourite new-release cosmos with saucer-shaped flowers is called Cosmos Fondant Fancy.
The softness of the pink is really lovely and it flowers for many months. Like all cosmos, it’s terrific at attracting pollinators.
Nasturtium and sunflowers are easier to sow as the seed is much bigger. As a general rule, plant it twice the depth of the seed and cover lightly.
They both need water in the warmer months but if kept well-watered they will flower right through to autumn and, once sunflower seeds are ripe, they will attract rosellas to the garden to feast on them.
Sowing a punnet of seed every few weeks will extend the flowering and fruiting time in the garden over the summer and autumn season.
Using heirloom seeds will be an added bonus as the seed can be kept for sowing next season. Most seed bought in packets that are displayed as a “F1 Hybrid” means that the seed is sterile and will not re-produce the same plant.
CEANOTHUS, a small tree that went out of fashion for a few years, is back as a drought hardy plant and in more varieties.
It has the most intense blue flowers in spring and will survive with little or no water once established. It doesn’t mind the full sun or a bit of shade.
A small, evergreen, quick-growing tree, it grows to about three metres tall and wide. Its lifespan is only 10-15 years.
There are many shades of blue ceanothus now available as well as white and pink, but the cobalt blue Pacific is my favourite in the tree form.
New to the species is the dwarf and ground cover ceanothus Pacific Wave that only grows to 60 centimetres tall. It has beautiful, soft, light-blue flowers.
Ceanothus don’t like lime so keep them growing with camellias and azaleas with lots of compost and feed once a year with acid fertiliser.
CAMELLIAS that are in bud or in flower will benefit from a little bit more water as they are shallow-rooted plants and can dry out quickly.
If there are big clusters of buds on camellias, disbudding can be done, and some can be removed to allow room for other buds to grow and prevent fungal issues. This practice also encourages the other blooms to grow larger and of better quality.
Jottings
- Fertilise peaches and nectarines as they wake from winter.
- Prune hydrangeas for summer flowering.
- Sprinkle some lime on peonies to keep the soil sweet.
- Spray stone fruit trees with copper to avoid peach leaf curl.
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