Over the years I have suggested many different ways of improving or making your gardening efforts more successful and so now is a good time to repeat some of these as a refresher and introduce a few new ideas as well.
My family in recent times have opted to buy Tongariro Natural Spring Water in 15 litre bottles.
Myself I prefer to distill the horrible tasting tap water to remove the chlorine, fluoride and any other chemicals likely to be in the tap water, such as nitrates which I have heard are a suspected cause of bowel cancers.
I then remineralise the 4 litres of distilled pure H2O with 10 mils of Wallys Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) which makes the water a health supplement as well as being totally free of harmful chemicals.
The downside is the water is not crystal clear and so the rest of the family buy the 15 litres of Tongariro Natural Spring Water and as they go through one or two of these containers every week, there is a pile of empty big plastic jars hanging around.
The manufacturer of the Tongariro water says crush the container and recycle.
I have a better idea you cut the bottom off, 9cm from the base (where the first ring is from the bottom).
A sharp knife or box cutter makes easy work to do this.
So we now have the top of the container which when we remove the cap and have a perfect little plastic house to put over a brassica such as a mini cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli.
I prefer the mini types as they are quicker to mature and nice size for a small family.
Because of the size of the 15 litre container they are a good size to have a row of them sitting side by side, pushed into the soil with one brassica inside each one.
They will not only create a micro climate for your brassicas to grow inside of, but also protect the plants from butterflies, wooly aphids, army worm, birds and cats.
So here is the plan; make a planting hole about 10cm deep and at the base of the hole sprinkle some animal manure such as Tui sheep manure pellets or even better, Tui chicken and sheep manure pellets.
I like the chicken and sheep manure pellets as you are getting chicken manure which has the best NPK rating of any animal manures; on top of that you have the sheep manure from sheep dags which contain not only the manure but also the wool of sheep, which has a nice nitrogen component, slowly breaking down.
Also into the planting hole for brassicas a quarter teaspoon of Wallys Calcium and Health which is fast acting serpentine lime with added benefits such as selenium, boron and sulphur.
Also place a few grains of Wallys Ocean Solids to obtain the 114 minerals collected from the blue waters of the ocean.
Lightly cover these with a little layer of soil then plant your brassica seedling into hole.
Prior to planting check the leaves for the little yellow eggs of white butterfly and any other insects pests such as aphids. Any thing found should be squashed or wiped off.
Then soak the roots into a solution of Wallys Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) made up in a suitable container. This will promote rapid root establishment.
If you prefer to grow directly from seed then sieve some soil or compost to fill the planting hole and then place two seeds in the middle and spray them with Wallys Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) before covering which gets the seed starting to germinate very quickly.
If both seeds germinate then later you will cut the lessor plant off with a pair of scissors at ground level.
Now place your 15 litre Tongariro container positioned central over the planting hole and push the bottom cut rim into the soil so it is stable.
For watering the brassias we are going to use the old way of trench watering which is used in the most successful vegetable gardens.
To Recap: So we now have a row of Tongariro containers, touching each other with one seedling or two seeds in the middle of the containers.
Along side we will make a trench about 10 to 15 cm deep and about 10cm wide with a garden trowel or garden hoe. This can be done on one side or both sides of the row.
If we are going to have another row of Tongariro planted brassicas running parallel to the first row then the trench between them will be 20 to 25 cm wide which will also be used as a walk way.
To water we simply water into the trench to soak the soil.
The feeder roots of the brassicas will collect water from the trench as needed.
Seed growing may need some overhead watering while establishing; turn your hand watering hose to a fine mist and put that into the open mouth of each bottle.
When seedlings are about 10cm tall then they will have their roots out to collect moisture from the trench.
Trampling the base of the trench is also an advantage as it allows a reservoir of water for the plants to draw from.
To weed or to spray the foliage of the brassicas with Wallys Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) you simply lift each container up and then place back from where it came from.
If using a wand sprayer to apply the MBL then no need to remove the bottle just put the nozzle of the sprayer inside the mouth of the bottle and spray.
If you want to further speed the growth of the plants then add Wallys Mycorrcin to the MBL spray.
Ensure you remove the cap off the Tongariro container so the plant can breath and allow condensation to escape.
If you don’t have Tongariro drinking water containers then put an ad into your Neighbourly website and I am sure there are people that do have empty ones that would love them to go to a good home to get rid of them.
The beauty of the Tongariro drinking water containers is they can stay over the mini type brassicas till maturity. These could also be used for lettuce plants such as ‘Drunken Woman’ (my favourite), silver beet, a few spring onions or onion seedlings/seeds in each, sweet basil and other small growing herbs and other suitable vegetables.
Or used to start other plants off till established then removed.
The bottom of the bottle that was cut off the bottle, is ideal as a saucer under pots of plants.
Another use for Tui’s great manure pellets is; take a plastic bucket with a lid and put a couple of handfuls of the Tui pellets (either type) in to the bucket and then fill to three quarters full of water.
With a paddle type stick such as a big wooden spoon from the kitchen; use to stir.
Stir every day or two and then after a week you can do several things; after stirring ladle off liquid manure water and water onto soil in root zone of preferred plants.
Also when you buy punnets of seedlings you can plunge the punnet into the liquid and wait till it stops bubbling and then lift to allow surplus water to drain back into the bucket. This not only gives the seedlings a good soak before planting but a feed as well.
Even better than a bucket get a plastic 75 litre rubbish tin with lid and then put a whole bag of Tui chicken and sheep manure pellets into the container and fill to three Quarters with water and sir often with a big wooden paddle.
(Wooden spoon securely fastened onto a wooden stake or thick bamboo stake will do.)
Keep lid on container when not using to prevent mosquitos. If mosquito nymphs get active just spray the surface of the liquid with Wallys Super Pyrethrum, kills them when they come to surface to breathe.
You can find those excellent Tui pellet products in garden shops and Mitre10 stores and for those gardeners that do not have their own chickens or a farm with animals, they are the perfect townie solution.
Strawberries; you should be harvesting now and if you want to harvest longer and have bigger sweeter berries then spray the foliage with Wallys Mycorrcin once or twice a week. It will increase your crop by 400%.(Made up in trigger sprayer will keep ok out of sun light.)
A gardener told me recently how he keeps his cabbages etc free of caterpillars.
Every 3 or 4 days just on dusk he makes up Wallys Super Pyrethrum at half a mil to a litre of water in a 1 litre trigger sprayer and sprays the foliage all over.
What spray he does not use, he puts the trigger sprayer into a dark cupboard so it is ready and still active next time to use.
Powdery Mildew is rife on foliage of many plants this time of the season, it will shorten the production life of pumpkins and other plants, so simply take Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil at 10mils per litre of warm water into a trigger sprayer and spray as a bit of a jet; the foliage with the white powder on it and it will turn back to green instantly. Only do this late in day when sun is off the plants.
Image credit: Lisa Fotios
Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz
Problems ring me at: Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz
