There’s no rest in JACKIE WARBURTON’s garden as our gardening writer gets to work planting vegetables, lots of vegetables. 

IT’S still a busy time in the vegetable patch getting as much produce into the ground or into pots as possible. 

Anyone aiming to have produce from the garden on the Christmas table, then all edibles need to be in and growing fast to give them time and hopefully some sunshine. 

If growing tomatoes, they will need to be staked as they are a vine and need support to climb on. Using a trellis of wire with strong star pickets will work to keep the fruit and leaves off the ground.

Sprinkle a little dolomite lime into the ground a few weeks before planting tomatoes. This adds calcium to the soil and prevents tomatoes from getting blossom end rot. After planting, fertilise with a good quality tomato or vegetable fertiliser. 

Easy-to-grow seed potatoes are still available at the nursery and worth growing as a staple food. This year I’m trying Dutch Cream, which is a good all-rounder, especially for mashing. 

Potatoes need a little space to grow and full sun. They like “new ground” and will break up clay soils very well. Potatoes planted out now will be ready for harvest in March-April. 

A LOCAL native called Indigofera Australis is a sweet plant that grows well in our region as a small to medium upright straggly shrub. 

Indigofera are flowering now with spires of pink to purple blooms and nectar that is attractive to insects, birds and butterflies. Its flowers are complemented with delicate soft fern-like foliage. Drought resistant when established, they are easy to grow and need little care. 

Indigofera is also a leguminous plant and it improves the soil by “fixing” nitrogen through the rhizobium nodules on the roots. 

Seed pods can be harvested when they have gone brown and dried as much as they can. Indigofera seeds store for a long time and, for more successful germination, soak overnight in boiling water to break dormancy when you’re ready to sow them. 

Sow in a seed-raising mix and keep watered. Seed can take four to six weeks to germinate, so be patient. 

ONCE the temperature gets above 15C it’s time to net apples and quince trees to prevent codling moth spoiling the fruit. Hopefully, by now the bees have pollinated the flowers and fruit set will begin for the season. 

If netting is not an option, then dipel can be sprayed when the moth is at caterpillar stage or using codling moth traps, which are designed to attract the male and get stuck on a sticky substance and break the life cycle of the moth.

HEDGE pruning is at its busiest now. Prune spring growth after flowering is the general rule. Once the weather warms, the growth will slow down. Try to avoid hedge pruning through the hot summer months.

THE deciduous Japanese rose (Kerria japonica “Pleniflora”) is a terrific plant that grows and flowers well in shade. It has a scrambling habit and can take over if not kept in check. But while it needs some room to grow, it’s a useful, hardy filler in a large garden. It survives in any soil and is relatively pest free.

Its arching stems can grow up to two metres tall (and wide), but removing suckers limits its size. 

Their flowers are the brightest yellow pom-pom flowers and last for a long time on the bush. As a bonus, Kerria’s foliage turns a golden yellow in autumn. 

They need to be pruned after flowering as they flower on new growth. Cutting back now will allow for new growth for next year’s flowering crop. There is a single-flowering version, but it’s not as spectacular as the double. 

jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au