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Late April in the Garden

© Gary Buckley

Time is of the essence, how often we feel this, we who have aged overnight; or you the casual reader anxious to know the what could or even should be planted before the soils of our gardens here in the Southern Hemisphere grow cold.

The choices open to us now are staggering, here in the Southern Isle of Australia with a fairly even temperate the range of bulbs and other plants for that matter which can be grown, are staggering. Space and money are really the only inhibitors.

All gardens, regardless of size, can be dressed up by the planting of bulbs and perennials. A general rule I have found invaluable over the years is to know your time limitations.

There is nothing more disheartening than to see a garden bed fall into disrepair because of the restrains of time. This can be caused by our busy lives or an infirmity.

We all garden in different ways, and thus our expectations are different, yet at the end of the day, we all look foreword to the new flush of bud coming on the morrow.

I trust regular contributing readers will continue to send in their prized blooms to be posted off Alpines and Bulbs. This might be a good time for some of the silent readers to send in some pictures.

Gardening is graphic hungry, and perhaps your snap will turn a new garderner onto the joy of collecting and growing.

Here in Devonport, we have had crocus popping up almost on a daily basis. Most of us are familiar with the common spring flowering crocus, yet, and here is another G'ster generalization, a lot of new gardeners tend to over look the mid summer to early fall crocus.

For a list of these, please click on the following link. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/alpi...

The tall stems of Lilium bulbs which gushed so in early spring and into summer are just about spent. It is best to leave them still, if you can tolerate their fading vibrance. But if must make, try cutting back the stems to about half their length. This should keep your spouse happy and give a tidier look when the ladies who lunch come a calling.

Now is a good time to consider dividing up some of your Species Gladiolus. Now this in not intended to teach you bad habits, but I never remember where anything is until it begins to shoot; this is the time I generally move things, mostly without harm been done.

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