Archive for the 'How to plant' Category

A new book was launched today at the South Australian, Australian Plants Society Autumn Plant Sale. This book is a tool, rather than a list of plants. It provides a process whereby the gardener can establish whether a plant could be grown in their garden given the natural rainfall, soil pH, soil structure and whether […]

Having written about the frost hardiness of Banksias, I thought I would look at the general growing conditions.
There is a number of species which do very well in the alkaline soils locally and once established, manage on the local rainfall of 334mm a year, falling mostly during the winter.
The first requirement is good drainage. This […]

I have been finding plants in the nursery that need to be planted out while the soil is still reasonably warm. There are quite a few, including some very neglected Eucalypts. Thought I would do a list in the blog of plants for our dry situation here. The average rainfall here is 330mm or 13 […]

Was sorting plants today, removing from the system the overgrown plants that I want to plant out the front to form a “Mallee Heathland” of sorts. It doesn’t matter that they are a bit scruffy as I will chop about an inch (2-3cm) off the roots when I plant them, and prune properly when new […]

I sowed seed of Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa) last week and now have them germinating. I nicked the side of the seed with nail clippers and placed the seed in small individual pots. There may be a few failures, but at least I am avoiding root disturbance.
I find nicking the seed to be more […]