Growing Gardens

with Anita Morton

Ready, set...

Now is the ideal time to prepare for the autumn leaf-fall. The usual light shedding of the evergreens will be augmented soon by the dropped leaves of all the deciduous trees, and these can be turned into a garden asset.

Dead leaves break down in a different way from ordinary compost. They rot in a slow, cold process due to fungi, rather than the hot, bacterial action of the compost heap. So find a shady, out of the way corner and drive in four star pickets in a square at least one metre across. Wrap chicken wire around the stakes and tie it off securely. If you have lots of leaves to deal with, make a larger square or circular enclosure and use 120cm wide wire. Line the base with weed-mat to keep out invasive roots, as the heap will be there for a year.

Rake up the leaves and pile them into your enclosure in layers, spraying each layer with water as you go. If you have access to a small, energetic child, she will be a real asset here - lift her into the leaf bin (wearing gum-boots for protection against possible spiders), and let her trample down the leaves as you collect them. Try to compress it as much as possible.

Once all the leaves are in the bin, cover it over with old sacks or a piece of shade cloth and leave it alone. Don't turn it or disturb it in any way, but leave it until next year. After 12 months, the leaves will have broken down into a crumbly, acidic substance known as leaf-mould, which is an excellent top-dressing for all acid-loving plants. It is free of all weed seeds, so it also makes an excellent soil conditioner when dug into the vegie garden.

Lismore Garden Club News

The Lismore Garden Club's April meeting was held at Charlie and Dot Cox's home at Boorie Creek with 27 members and visitors attending. We enjoyed an afternoon tea almost fit for royalty and a walk in the Cox's beautiful two-acre garden.

Hasn't the rain been good for the garden? My wife keeps a record of rainfall. While February and March were well below average for our region, for the first 10 days of April she recorded 170mm here at our home in Goonellabah. A perfect start for all those seedlings and other plants that you have just planted. Given the way the rain fell (showers at first, then heavier) it should have penetrated to a depth that will benefit established shrubs and trees. The warm days and high night temperatures are giving us very good autumn growing conditions. So let's enjoy the perfect gardening whatever and keep at it.

What you can plant now:

Flowers - Spring flowering bulbs, alyssum, calendula, candy tuft, carnation, clakia, cornflower, delphinium, dianthus, everlasting daisy, forget-me-not, godetia, honesty, larkspur, linaria, Livingstone daisy, lobelia, lupin nemesia, nigella, sweet pea and wallflower.

Vegies - Wong bok cabbage, cabbage, lettuce, parsley, onion, pea, radish, silverbeet, turnip, broadbean, carrot, parsnip, potato, rhubarb and tomato.

Gardening Tip: Raising plants from seed can be rewarding and simple. If you use egg cartons filled with seed raising mix, the seedlings can be transplanted without shock (the little cardboard sections are easily pulled apart). Place the containers in a shallow tray, pour in water and let the cartons take up moisture as they need it. (Yates Garden Guide, page 102).

Happy gardening
Ron Burns