Summer is nearly over

Summer is dying away, at last! So are some of the plants, and I am very sad - particularly as one of the poorly looking plants is a rhododendron, the Percy Wiseman. One of those I wrote about a few months ago. This being so, I looked around the local garden centre and found a bottle of Seasol, a seaweed concentrate. The product is a soil vitaliser and a plant tonic. The blurb on the bottle says it will improve all soils and promote healthy plants; stimulate soil micro-organisms and root growth and thereby encourage more disease resistant and healthier plants. The active constituents are Durvillaea Potatorum, at not less than 50 grams per litre. The product has been around for about 22 years. Now, back to the end of summer. We are getting the usual run of very hot days, even though summer has only 3 days left to run. Yesterday was 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees F); today it promises to be 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees F). This after a few weeks of temperatures in the 30-32 Celsius (86-90 F). With these temperatures, this part of the state gets very strong easterly winds, at this time of the year, which play havoc with any delicate plants one may have tucked away in some quiet corner. At least one hopes they are safely tucked away. The average rainfall for February is 13mm, about 0.5 inches. As a matter of fact, despite the lack of rainfall over the last few years we are ahead as far as the 1999 rainfall is concerned. The estimated January/February average is 22 mm (0.88 inches); so far Perth has had 48.2 mm (1.9 inches). This was due to freak rainstorms early in January. Hasn't made any difference to the soil though; it's still as dry as a bone. It looks as if we will be using this newfound friend Seasol on some of the more delicate plants for a few weeks yet. Some of the Azaleas are looking a bit sick, as well as the rhododendrons. It has done great things for plants - those that I know of - which are in some of the gardens I have seen around here. It does look, though; that I will have to put lots more mulch on the rhododendrons before next summer. I have started building a pile of mulch in a shady area of the garden. Mulch is quite plentiful, the tree loppers often offer free mulch, if you cart it away yourself. This mixed together with leaves, sheep, chicken, and/or cow manure, with a little blood and bone, can provide an excellent source of mulch for all parts of the garden. I find that if I make a hole in the middle of the pile and place a large stick or pole in the hole, it is possible to let the whole pile breathe. The collection will tend to get warms after it has been there for some time. I add a little water as well, not too much of this precious resource at this time of the year.

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