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Nearly the end of June already

© John Bottomley

As I write this, there are only five more days left before the beginning of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Australia. Good luck to you all. I came across a couple of useful gardening products during the week. One of them, a relatively new pair of gardening gloves, on the maket, called "Gardener's GREENnGOLDS. They are very strong and are washable, also quite comfortable to wear. The other item was an organization that produces and sells organic odourless worm activated garden products. They produce Vermi-cast, Vermi-mix, and Vermi-mulch. This range supplies essential nutrients and trace elements to the soil, improves the soil structure, encourages the return pf the natural earthworm populations, increases the present microbial populations, improves the emergence rate of seeds, and stimulates root developments. The manufactures say the comprehensive processing system makes for a large percentage of the worm casting is manufactured as humus. Humus, as we all know, improves the physical soil properties, has a high growth promoting effect, has a high base exchange capacity, improves trace element nutrition through chelation, and holds exchangeable plant nutrients. They tell me that June should be a month of contentment and ease in the garden. It is the start of the winter. We have already had the equinox out here. Strong winds and a lot of rain will be the hope for many of us. We are still well below the average rainfall for the year and hopefully the last few days of June will top up the average. Like myself, you will also have a lot of leaves scattered around the garden from the deciduous trees. These will make an excellent addition to the pile of mulch you keep in some quiet spot. I am still waiting to transplant a couple of the citrus trees that seem to be not getting enough sun. Yesterday I dug the holes for them. There has been quite a heavy fall of rain this week so I think it is time to try the move. An old gardening friend of mine used to say, never cultivate under a lemon tree - mulch instead. And, don't forget, there is no need to fertilise citrus until the spring. If you are intending to plant fruit trees next month, it is preparation time for this event. Holes could be dug to about 1 metre (3.3 feet) wide and 80 cms (32 inches) deep. You can also add some mixed fertiliser, about 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs), to the bottom of the hole. A large barrow load of animal manure can be added to the soil taken from the hole before you replace the soil.

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