GARDENING IN SPRING
Spring is the time when the new season’s growth really starts to happen which is a result of the extending day light hours along with the warmer temperatures.
One thing that you will notice is that the new growth on roses and other plants is very healthy.
There are a few reasons for this which includes; spring vigor after winter dormancy; no man made fertilisers applied over the previous months which means the soil life and worms have had a chance to increase their populations; no chlorinated water applied during the last few months. Chlorinated water kills soil life and harms worms. (Overcome this by placing a suitable filter on your tap if your water has chlorine in it, alternatively stand the tap water in an open container for a day to remove the chlorine.)
In simple terms; because you have not interfered with Nature, it has been able to get on with its natural job. The key is to work with Nature and don’t interfere with it by applying man made fertilisers, chemical sprays and chlorinated water…
I had a call recently from a lady who owns a large property with a Rest Home, she told me that the chap that does their gardens has in the past been using chemical sprays on their many roses and every year these sprayed roses have all sorts of health problems. As the property is very large there are a few roses that the gardener cant get to easily so they do not get sprayed.
The result is these unsprayed roses are as healthy as can be!
Spraying with safe to use products such as Liquid Copper and Liquid Sulphur as protection against some spring/summer plant diseases can be used to get some plants through disease times.
For instance with curly leaf disease in stone fruit you apply a spray of copper every 7 to 10 days while the leaves are emerging and till the time the disease cycle is past.
Having a fine firm of copper particles over the total leaf surface means the disease spores cant establish.
The type of copper used is important because of its particle size which means copper oxychloride should not be used as it has a large particle size. Where a very fine copper particle such as copper hydroxide as in Liquid Copper is preferred. The difference is like placing tennis balls on a table; there is a big gap between where the balls are touching and the table. Where Liquid Copper can be likened to placing smaller ball bearings on the table, the gap between them and the table is very small in comparison.
Fruit trees in flowers should be sprayed with the copper at the end of the day (prior to dusk) when pollination has finished for the day.
Liquid Copper and Liquid Sulphur can be diluted separately and added together to advantage as each of these is a better control of some diseases than the other. If you add Raingard to the spray then the particles protecting the plants will not be washed off by rain for up to 14 days.
The real key to healthy, disease free plants is to only use natural products such as compost, sheep manure pellets, blood & bone and animal manures along with wet sheets of newspaper or cardboard on the soil with compost to cover.
Minerals are important to plants just as they are to our bodies, so mineral rich products should be applied to the soil such as Ocean Solids, Rok Solid and Magic Botanic Liquid.
The later can be sprayed over the foliage every 14 odd days to great advantage.
Build up your soil food web by regular applications of Mycorrcin.
Not only will the soil benefit along with the health of your roses (and other plants), when applied to your food crops your body will also obtain the most needed minerals.
It is my old saying; healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy you.
I received a snippet by email I would like to share with you:
Lesson of the Week: School Lab mice Freak Out on GE Food.
Schools in Wisconsin are showing kids the dangers of genetically engineered (GE) junk food with some unique science class experiments. Sister Luigi Frigo repeats the experiment every year in her second grade class in Cudahy. Students feed one group of mice unprocessed whole foods. A second group of mice are given the same junk foods served at most schools. Within a couple of days, the behavior of the second group of mice develop erratic sleeping schedules and become lazy, nervous and even violent. It takes the mice about three weeks on unprocessed foods to return to normal. According to Frigo, the second graders tried to do the experiment again a few months later with the same mice, but the animals have already learned their lesson and refuse to eat the GE food. End.
Animals have more brains than us when it comes to health.
A number of plants we commonly grow detest wet feet and one of the problems that can happen is mulches applied to the soil in the root zone at the wrong time of the year.
For instance, mulches to conserve moisture and suppress weeds should be applied later in spring prior to the time when the soil starts to dry out too much. Gardeners that apply mulches in autumn, or even worse in winter, are trapping moisture in the soil and causing plants such as citrus to be affected with root rots. Leaves turn yellow then sometimes brown and fall off as the roots left, cannot support the foliage. In the worst cases the plant dies. If you have this problem rake back the mulch so the soil can breathe and apply Perfection to the foliage left.
Gardeners wanting to start off a new vegetable plot should consider making a raised garden using either timber, corrugated iron or concrete blocks. A raised garden is ideal to build over poor or heavy soils as you do not have to worry about improving the existing soil to grow successfully.
If using tanalised wood cut the timber to the right size and then give it a couple of coats (all over) of acrylic paint to seal in the chemicals.
Place the raised garden in a sunny spot and mow any weeds or lawn down low as possible. Cover the base with wet newspaper or cardboard sheets and then over this place pruning twigs, grass clippings and kitchen scraps. Next cover with your own compost and any spent mixes from previously used containers along with any animal manures you can get hold of.
Over this place some more wet sheets of newspaper and then cover with a purchased compost mix. In this last layer you can place any natural goodies such as sheep manure pellets etc.
Now you can plant up your seedlings or seeds and only water with non-chlorinated water.
When the crops are harvested do not pull out the plants instead cut them off at ground level and leave the roots in tack to rot down and provide more goodness. A fresh layer of purchased compost over this and a new planting can be done.
The mineral rich products mentioned earlier should also be used and the real key is never walk on the soil in the raised garden, instead always work from the sides.
It is easy to do and you should obtain great results.
This is just a sample comment that I’ve written