Archive for the 'Soils and Potting Mixes' Category

I’ve been to a Women’s Craft Camp this weekend indulging myself in some relaxing hand sewing while making a small sewing box called an etui. There were 72 women booked in at this camp called ‘El Shaddai’. The site is not far from the River Murray at Wellington SA and has been made attractive over [...]

We had unseasonal fierce, hot winds and temperatures last week and a few of my stock plants were scorched badly. A couple of pots had become non-wetting so that when I watered the water passed straight through the pot in channels and also ran down the sides between the pot and mix. This water repelling [...]

Kevin Handreck’s book, ‘Gardening Down Under’, is another publication of the CSIRO in Australia. Its ISBN is 0 643 05511 8. I found a lot of treasures in it that I had forgotten about. Some are:- different potting mix recommendations for different sized pots, fertilisers for soils and potting mixes, watering regimes, gardening and salty [...]

I had the opportunity to hear Kevin Handreck speak about soils at the Australian Plants Society Flower Show and Plant Sale. Kevin is a well respected soils scientist and author of a number of small books for the CSIRO. He also wrote the book ‘Gardening Down Under’-Better soils and Potting Mixes for better gardens. I [...]

One of the most frustrating things about propagating plants and growing plants in pots is finding the right ingredients for potting mixes.
In the previous post Make New Plants… By Taking Cuttings, I mentioned obtaining a propagating mix. I have had to compromise with what is available locally. The basic idea of a propagating mix suitable [...]