Borage - food for bees

The bees are out, the raspberries are flowering and so are the pak choy which haven’t been eaten. The broccoli and romanesco heads are forming, all we need now is some rain. My mushroom harvest has come to an end, my verandah oxheart tomato is halfway through it’s fruiting and I’ve mulched and weeded the vegetable patch to make a little watering go a longer way.

Last year’s tree plantings, walnut, oak and tea camellias from the Diggers Club, are slowly establishing – I am glad they survived the very wet summer and hope that they get a good growth spurt this spring. It is time again to have a close look over the property and update any urgent tasks and prepare for the next growing season.

In the meantime I will sow the seeds for this year’s summer vegetables, herbs and flowers as the weather warms – first in trays, then punnets, then wait for some good rain to plant them out next month.

Gardening Guide (following Moon Planting)

☻ New Moon 31 July at 4:41 am & 29 August at 1:05 pm.

Sow direct: grain crops, mizuna and statice.
Sow or plant out: dianthus, snapdragon and verbena.
In a cold frame, sow: celery, leek, lettuce, sweet basil, motherwort, ageratum.
After frost risk, sow or plant out: headed and open Chinese cabbage, rocket, silverbeet (pre-soak seed), spring onions, tatsoi and coriander.
Grow a green manure or cover crop of: clover, field pea, barley or wheat. In suitable soils grow alfalfa.
On damp soil, apply fertiliser tea to: mature pawpaw, camellia, (dilute by half for C. reticulata), also lettuce, silverbeet and young rhubarb, if necessary. Apply to anemone and ranuncula as buds appear.
Apply seaweed tea to: avocado, apple, cherry and potato bed for September planting.

☽ Waxing Moon 6 August at 9:09 pm

Sow direct: grain cops and statice.
Sow or plant out: dianthus, snapdragon and verbena.
In a cold frame, sow: capsicum, cucumber, leek and tomato.
After frost risk, sow or plant out: spring onions, chamomile, cosmos, everlasting daisy, Livingstone daisy, African and French marigold, nasturtium and phlox.
In colder areas also sow: dwarf peas.
Prune: bush and standard roses, except species, hydrangea and crepe myrtle in frost areas. Dead-head camellia after flowering. Lightly prune mature blueberry.

☺ Full Moon 14 August at 4:59 am

Sow direct: Jerusalem artichoke and potato.
Sow or plant out: echinacea, yarrow and shasta daisy.
Plant: herbaceous perennials and daylily.
In a cold frame, sow: asparagus seed, beetroot (pre-soak seed), burdock, catnip, hyssop, meadowsweet, rue, valerian, gerbera and dahlia seed.
After frost risk, sow or plant out: carrot, lavender, rosemary, thyme, avocado, potted grapes and roses, and pelargonium.
In colder areas, also sow or plant out: bare-rooted roses.
After watering, fertilise: kiwifruit, almond, apple, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, all established roses in frost areas, crepe myrtle, daylily and rhubarb.
Lightly fertilise: blueberry.
Harvest crops for storage on non-fertile days.

☾ Waning Moon 22 August at 7:56 am

No sowing or planting this phase, but weed, dig or plough, prepare beds and prune back unwanted growth, if required. Remove citrus gall wasp before end of this month. Start weeding early.
Prepare beds for leek.
Mulch as required to keep compost damp. Mulch strawberry bed with clean straw or pine needles.

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