GTNI

We've now been in this house for almost 7 years and a lot of growing up has happened in that time. The kids are nearing teenager-hood, we're getting grey hairs and the suitability of the garden is changing - at least our needs of it are.

This is the service side, or dead-side, of the house. It's where most of our home's practicalities reside or traverse through. If you look carefully you can even see the washing still on the line!

While it's served our family well since we first landscaped it, it's also had a few quirks that needed ironing out. Firstly, this part of the paving previously had only one slab width and was skirted on both sides by rendered limestone bricks. This was fine until I cut off access on the other side of the house forcing the lawn mower to navigate between them - even though the mower was wider than the path.

At the other end of the house was where our trailer lived. It was perched atop a postcard-size lawn which meant moving it each time I needed to mow. Plus, it's shadow didn't allow much lawn growth and it would often die off in places as well.

So, this weekend was spent re-paving. I had previously ripped out the grass at the front and pulled the rendered brickwork apart at the back but now it meant laying some bricks and slabs. Hiring a brick cutter for the weekend was a great motivator and forced me to get it done.

The next phase of the alterations will be to rebuild the brick walls and then I can start revegetating the garden beds again. This will be the exciting part....

Beurré Bosc Pears, or Bosc Pears as they're more commonly known, are by far the best eating and most intriguing pear available. Their leathery, mottled skin often turns most people away from trying them - especially kids - but these appealing fruits hold a distinct flavour masked by their blemished packaging.

The most popular varieties, Bartletts, Red Bartletts and Anjous, will continue to dominate the pear market as their "normal" shape, size and colouring appeal to the fussy consumer more readily. However, if you've never tried a Bosc pear then you really are settling for second best.

One of the common myths of the Bosc pear is that they must be peeled, and cooked, before eating which simply isn't true. This fruit can be eaten straight from the tree and while the skin may feel like a different texture it is still very edible.

Once you've realised that this wonderful pear is far more delicious than the popular varieties you will soon discover that they are also reasonably difficult to source in the supermarkets. Due to their lack of populus appeal many grocers won't stock them, or if they do it will only be a limited supply. Therefore you may need to grow your own Bosc pear tree if you want to enjoy more than a few offerings.

How to Grow a Bosc Pear

A good starting place is to read this post on growing apple trees. Growing pears from seed - even seed from a Bosc pear - will not guarantee the production of Bosc pears. The best specimens are grafted onto rootstock and showing signs of good leader growth.

You can often buy grafted Bosc pears as bare rooted stock towards the end of winter and early spring. This is usually the best way to buy them because it allows you to investigate the root system before planting ensuring that no disease, or potential for disease, is obvious.

The next part is quite simple and just involves following this tutorial on how to plant a tree and then how to stake it correctly so that it's not blown around in the wind.

You should prune the leader, once it's in the ground, down to where the other outer branches are protruding from above the graft. This will assist your Bosc pear to push outwards rather than clutter in the middle allowing better air movement through the leaves and fruit. Then, before each spring, prune each branch by about a third and continue shaping your tree so that it opens outwards.

As the fruit begins to bloom, cut off any branches that are producing too many fruit buds. This may sound counter-productive but it will ease the weight on your branches and help the tree not to split.

Fertilise your Bosc pear at the start of spring with a rich, organic manure around its dripline.

There are two ways to look at this question; firstly from our (the gardener) point of view, and second from the dog's viewpoint. For while we may assume that what works best for us should also work best for our pets, our logic may differ from reality somewhat.

So let's start by looking at what is the best grass for dogs - from a dog's opinion.

Dogs love grass - almost as much as digging holes in our neatly manicured lawns. Firstly, it's a soft play area. Dogs can run on a turfed surface much more safely, and comfortably, than anything else we have to offer - even sand!

Second, they love to eat it. While we may assume that dogs are carnivorous animals and love to chow down on a gravy meat at any chance, they are actually more akin to an omnivore's diet and happily eat their greens with their proteins. Grass, while not naturally part of their food pyramid, is more like a health supplement to their bodies - much like multi-vitamins are to us. It aids in cleansing their vital organs and offering pain relief for infections as well.

However, from a gardener's viewpoint, is there such a thing as a "best grass for dogs"?

Naturally, gardens and dogs - especially juvenile pups - do not readily mix. Young dogs love to dig, have uncontrollable bowel movements in human-traffic areas and scatter their play things to the outermost extremeties of your yard. Their robust play can tear up a piece of sod quicker than you say, "Drop that ball!"

Therefore, the best grass for dogs is one that grows quick, can tolerate being covered with faeces and urine and regardless of how deep it digs will rebound once it's given some relief.

Some gardeners assume that this means artificial grass but nothing could be more further from the truth. In fact, fake grass could be classed as the "worst grass for dogs"! They can't chew on it, to aid their internal systems, but they can still dig through it - yet it doesn't replenish itself. Plus, in the middle of summer your synthetic grass can get 2-5°C hotter than concrete - hardly conducive to pet play!

No, the best grass for dogs is a fast growing kikuyu or couch. It's not necessarily the best lawn for a garden, because of its deep root system which constantly penetrates your garden beds, but where dogs are involved it will handle itself with aplomb.

Obviously, maintaining a lawn for a dog is different to keeping a neat garden lawn growing as well. The fertilisers MUST be organic and pet-friendly, watering will need to be more regular and mowing may become more of an obstacle course.

If you've been reading this blog for a few years you may have remembered a post I wrote on Vegiforms, styling veggies with plastic moulds as they grow. Well...one young Aussie has taken it to the next level and is now producing strawberries shaped as hearts...that will be harvested just in time for Valentine's Day.

The 22-year old engineering graduate from Melbourne has teamed up his invention with a Tasmanian strawberry farm and plans to have these out within the next 3 weeks. Could this be the ultimate gift idea for Valentines?

However, in the true essence of Valentine's they will be suitably priced at $2 each. For the frugal romantics, buying a punnet of strawberries and some dipping chocolate may prove a little cheaper.

Kathy Thomas from VADirectory.net, who also blogs about her garden here, sent me an email recently extolling the virtues of this site - BotanicPhotos.com.

The site offers garden and botanical photos for sale where members can either offer their own images or purchase and download others. It's a great repository for bloggers, garden websites, authors and publishers wanting to enhance their work and will be used by magazines, greeting card manufacturers and the list goes on.

While this is not a new idea, by any stretch of the imagination, it is quite novel in that it only caters for horticultural images. It doesn't take a genius to realise that image stock sites such as iStockphoto, Shutterpoint and Fotolia already have many botanical photos within their lists. But, many of their images are predominantly "eye-candy cliches" instead of the novel nuances of unfamiliar flowers and plants.

Botanic Photos are priced to compare well with these other image houses and if you're handy with a camera, and people are willing to buy your photos, you could earn up to 40% of the image's sale price.

So if you're looking to buy, or sell, garden photos then join other horticultural enthusiasts at BotanicPhotos.com.

Stop what you're doing, move away from the keyboard and head outside into your garden. Can you hear it? Close your eyes if you need to focus and let the garden surround your senses. What's it saying to you?

Obviously it depends on what season you're experiencing right now. But if you're in the middle of spring/ summer and you can't hear anything then your garden could be telling you a whole lot. Absence of sound in the garden during the peak growing periods is a sure indicator that your yard isn't as healthy as it should be.

So what should you be hearing? For starters; birds, bees, cicadas, crickets, frogs should all be chorusing the bounty of warm weather. Heck, you should almost hear the corn growing individual kernels if you listen hard enough.

Dry leaves rustling against a gentle breeze may indicate that you're not watering your plants enough and grass leaves scraping against a sandy soil may be telling you that a layer of mulch is needed - soon.

The void of children sounds might warrant an inspection of the gaming console room and finding outdoor activities for the young'uns may become a priorirty for today's TO-DO list.

If you can hear the lawn moving then the next sound might be the starting of the mower but if the compost heap is making sounds then it's a good indicator that it needs turning first.

While we often advocate "taking time to smell the roses" as a way to enjoy our yards, taking some time to LISTEN to your garden may prove a helpful option in keeping it healthy. What sounds are you hearing in your garden today?

Most home gardeners buy garden canopies to add some shade into their yards. They erect them over the deck, patio or paved area hoping to flee from the boiling sun that threatens to malign their sensitive skin. With shade overhead, the sun no longer has its bite and people can sit all day under these canopies without being seared to death.

Yet the obvious benefit of a garden canopy is also its downfall. Shade = no sunlight. While this may good for the purpose a canopy was intended invariably we forget to pull them down once we no longer need them. A day or two ...or three... months passes and before you can blame the kids for leaving it up the lawn has now perished due to lack of sunlight and the plants subjected to its cover appear impoverished and neglected.

You stop and consider your predicament realising that while shade is good for you and your family, your plants and garden aren't as wildly positive about it. In fact, as you soon realise, they suffer because of it.

Garden canopies are intended to be erected for short periods of time - for example, the weekend at most. But, human nature being what it is we often forget to dismantle them until the next gale force weather warning interrupts our TV viewing.

So how can garden canopies co-exist with the garden?

I'm glad you asked. Understanding our own human laziness when it comes to erecting/dismantling a canopy we have to explore other avenues. Putting it up and pulling it down every time you want to spend some time relaxing in the garden is not a plausible option.

Instead, try achieving one of these options:

1. Make a family rule that when the first person sits under the canopy at the start of the day that they move it to another location. Even moving it the same distance as its width will give your sun-loving plants a little relief.


2. When the last person leaves the canopy get them to turn it upside down. This won't be great for your lawn, if that's where it resides, but it will allow the rest of your garden some breathing space.


3. Set yourself a reminder that it always comes down on a [fill in a specific day of the week]. This way you're guaranteed that the canopy is destined to be packed away at least once per week and will only go up again when needed.


4. Dismantle the legs only. Some types of garden canopy will remain intact, yet lowered, if you remove the legs. As in #2 it does have problems for your lawn but can save your plants some grief.

With a few rules in place, summer and garden canopies can co-exist and your garden won't struggle from the increased shade.

Plug plants are often better known as seedlings. They are termed plug plants due to the shape of the seedling, and its roots, when pulled out of the punnet and how they resemble a "plug". Many annuals are sold in nurseries as plugs and these include bedding plants such as petunias, pansies, marigolds and the like plus vegetable seedlings as well.

Gardeners use plugs for two reasons; 1). they are often much easier to cultivate than traditional seed raising, and 2). they give the gardener more control over their planting arrangements than sowing seeds. However, while they may have some benefits over their seed counterparts they do have some drawbacks as well. Firstly, they're not cheap especially if you're planning to buy a bucketload. Plus, when planting plugs they can suffer from transplant shock - a condition that makes the seedling keel over until it they're comfortable in their surroundings.

The good news is that both drawbacks can easily be overcome so here are some gardening tips to get you growing plug plants successfully.

Grow Plug Plants - Cheaply

If you want to grow plug plants cheaply then you have to do it yourself. Buying them from the nurseries in bulk is going to cost a small fortune and if you plan to do that every year then you're throwing away money that could be used in your garden for other purposes.

The best time to start is in winter when all your plants are dormant and you have heaps of time on your hands. You will need a cold frame or greenhouse to keep your plug plants warm, some clean plastic punnets (you can reuse these provided they have been cleaned well with bleach between plantings), some seed raising mix and a small mist sprayer.

Fill the punnets up with the seed raising mix and then tap down to remove any air bubbles. This should now give you some clearance of a few millimitres at the top. Lay a few seeds in each plug and when they're all done cover with a light layer of the seed raising mix. Spray with the mister and then label before placing into the cold frame or greenhouse.

Over the next few weeks monitor your plug plants as they begin to grow. Once the first few leaves break out of the ground they can be misted with some fish emulsion to help provide some much needed nutrients but this should probably only be done every 2 weeks or so.

Once your plug plants have grown two sets of leaves, at least, and the ground has begun to warm up with the first few weeks of spring you can begin transplanting your seedlings out into their garden beds.

Grow Plug Plants - Successfully

Once you plant your plugs they are no longer safe and secure and are open and avialable to a heap of problems and attacks - none more discouraging than finding they were the meal of some garden pest. However, there are ways to protect your plugs from snails and even woodlice and sowbugs. Barriers are much more effective than chemicals.

Another evil that your plug plant may suffer from is transplant shock. Plugs will go into shock once they are taken from their comfortable punnets and placed into their new location and the key is helping them recover from it. Giving them another dose of fish emulsion will certainly help as will covering them with a garden cloche, mainly overnight.

Amending your soil prior to planting also offers your plug plants a greater chance of success and well-rotted compost and manures can be an incredible welcoming party to any new seedling.

The first two weeks of any seedlings life, after being transplanted, is the most critical time for them. Once they've passed this time period their chances increase and they should continue to grow quite happily in your garden and provide the benefits you were hoping to achieve.

Berries come in all shapes and sizes yet the only thing that seems relevant to each is the term "Berry". They come from different genera, have vastly different growing conditions yet somehow they've been lumped into this category of "berries" that blindly pigeon-holes them for us.

The botanical definition of a berry is: a simple fruit produced from a single ovary. This includes grapes, tomatoes and the assortment of fruits which we colloquially bundle into the berry cart.

So, if they're so vastly different can any single rule simplify the process of growing these delicious fruits? Sure, they do have some common traits and requirements;

• Sun - all berries require full-sun to grow and produce their fruits during the warmer months


• Water - berries contain more than 90% water as part of their make up. So, it makes sense that regular watering is an essential element in successfully growing them


• Well-Nourished Soil - this may not be as important once the plants become established (for example, mulberry trees, once mature, can source many of their own nutrients and require very little on-going care). However, for smaller plants such as strawberries this is a must.

Types of berries

As mentioned previously, there are a myriad of berries available that offer both nutritional and flavour benefits. Here is a list of some of the more common ones;

• Strawberries Probably the most common berry, strawberries have been enjoyed throughout the centuries. Synonymous with love, they are often symbols used to accentuate Valentines Day and other embracing moments. They are quite easy to grow and maintain and I have previously written a post on how to grow strawberries that may be helpful for you.
• Blueberries
  Blueberries grow on bushes and are also a favourite type of berry. Their plump, juicy flesh pops on your tastebuds with subtle ascetic flavours and they are wonderful to consume with bucketloads of double cream (not helpful for the waistline though). Growing them requires a few pointers and these are best pointed out with this earlier post on how to plant blueberry bushes.
• Blackberries, Raspberries, Loganberries (Tayberries) and Boysenberries
  These berries all grow on canes that can be pruned in their dormant season much like a climbing rose, cutting out the dead canes and allowing the new ones to be pruned for future fruit production. They are a feast for local birds and often become invasive plants in the wild due to birds carrying seeds away from the garden.
• Mulberries
  A childhood without a Mulberry tree is like snow without a snowman. These large shade trees produce the most wonderful fruit and many a mulberry war has been started underneath their big boughs. Today, many gardeners opt for weeping mulberry trees due to size limits on their gardening space and these still produce the delicious fruit without having to climb ladders to obtain them.
• Elderberries
  These are an interesting berry as everything else about an elder tree or bush is toxic and contains high levels of cyanide. Even unripe berries can be detrimental to your health or that of your children. However, ripe elderberries are delicious and can be consumed in abundance.
• Goji and Acai berries
  These two berries have been growing in popularity over the past decade due to their many health benefits. If you haven't heard much about these two then you can get up to speed by reading these earlier posts; growing goji berries and What is Acai fruit?.
  

Common questions about berries

Q: How you tell the difference between edible berries and poisonous ones?
A: There is no easy way to determine whether a berry is poisonous or edible. There are some ways to test edibility but they require some effort to conduct properly, and still not always conclusively. It is far better to educate yourself of the edible varieties before exploring.

Q: Why does my berry plant have more leaves than fruit?
A: The soil they are growing in is too high in Nitrogen (the major chemical element needed for leaf growth). Take a soil test and amend your growing medium with increased doses of Potassium (K) - required for fruit production - and Phosphorous (P) - required for fruit set.

Garden coaches have only emerged on the gardening scene in the past few years but already it seems as though they're passing their use-by-date. With a new generation of gardeners blooming due to the "I-want-to-grow-my-own-organic-veggies" trend - but wanting that to happen within the next 30 seconds, or else - is the game up for garden coaches? Will the real growth trend this year be the need for garden babysitters?

Garden coaches are gardening guru's who consult and mentor newbie gardeners to care and understand for their plants and their yards. They will give advice, offer suggestions and assist the newbie in specifics as set out in the agreed TOS (terms of service). They offer a special set of skills and should be able to demonstrate, at least, these 8 qualities of a good garden coach.

But, is this really what newbie gardeners want? The impression that I, and others, get is that novices from the upcoming generation are all about having it done for them. In other words, they're not looking for a coach per se, but would happily employ the services of a cheap plant babysitter if someone were offering the service.

For this generation, gardening is something that happens once and if it fails is then relegated to the "too-hard" basket. They are still inspired to grow their foodstuffs organically but aren't willing to put the time and effort into mastering the "art" of gardening.

Instead of being coached, these upcoming novices are really looking for a service where they can plant their own garden yet leave it for someone else to make it look good. As the plants progress, and succeed, their enthusiasm may increase but until that happens it really needs to be taken care of by someone else - similar to a wet-nurse for celebrity mothers.

So, while garden coaches may still find a niche to explore, the real growth trend for gardening professionals probably hasn't even been started yet. But, the opportunity is beginning to expose itself.