June Gardening 

There is little that is more rewarding than harvesting from your own garden. The harvests are fresh, tasty and full of natural flavour and goodness. Winter is the time to plant many of the fruit trees and small fruits that delight us with their healthy produce when the time is right. With new season’s trees now arriving, this is the best time for value and selection of your new home grown fruit supply with all the advice and products required for success.

Looking much same as the fruit trees at this time of year, our range of magnificent ornamental trees are also arriving now. Ornamental tree delight us in a different way as they as reward us with either a stunning flower display or outstanding display of graceful foliage splendour. There is an ornamental tree for almost every situation and now is the time to plant.

June is the time to plant asparagus, artichoke and rhubarb crowns. Unlike most vegetables, asparagus plants are perennial, which means the same plants grow in your garden year after year. The spears that we enjoy are the new shoots that emerge in spring. It takes a couple of seasons for new plants to begin to produce an edible crop but be patient and they will reward you with healthy garden grown asparagus for many years to come.

Choose a sunny position with well drained, organically enriched soil as asparagus hate boggy wet soils. A raised garden bed is best. Asparagus are heavy feeders and Moo Poo (cow manure) gives them a good start and then feed a couple of times a year. As tempting as it may be, it's best not to harvest the asparagus during the first planting year.

Now is a great time to plant spinach, Jerusalem artichoke, winter lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower. To ensure as much growth as possible on leaf vegetables before the cold of winter sets in feed regularly with a liquid plant food such as Thrive or Power-feed. Peas can also be planted in frost free areas and time to prepare your onion bed for planting next month.

Kale is also fantastic when grown through winter and the flavour improves when harvested after a frost. Kale is packed with nutritional benefits and a great cabbage or spinach substitute. Certainly one of winter's super foods!

Pristine Tasmanian certified seed potatoes are now available and can be planted throughout winter. (Be sure to protect the potato foliage from frost by applying mulch; avoid planting potatoes too early in frost prone areas).

• Spray roses and fruit trees with Lime sulphur to control over-wintering fungal diseases.
• Strawberries and Raspberries are due this week and can be planted during winter.
• Prune deciduous fruit trees, berry fruit bushes and vines in winter.  Best to avoid pruning cherries, apricot and Kiwi fruit vines until the warmer weather. All three of these popular edibles tend to bleed.
• Reduce the water to indoor plants, a great time to remove any old leaves or debris from the surface of the potting mix and feed with Aquasol or Thrive.
• Treat for the attack of lawn grubs.
• Pick up and destroy old leaves from fruit trees and roses.
• Feed spring flowering bulbs with potassium enriched bulb food
• Apply Multicrop groundbreaker to increase drainage in clay soil and improve overall plant growth.
• Gladioli corms can be treated with pyrethrum to deter Thrips.
• Prune Hydrangeas just above the double buds and apply potash in late winter.  They will explode into life in spring.  If you get frost, hold off pruning until late winter as the new growth may get burnt.
• If resting an area in your veggie garden, it's a great time to add green manure crop. Green manuring will help your soil in many ways.
• Prior to planting newly purchased fruit trees and roses, soak in a diluted solution of Seasol to maximise root development and reduce transplant shock.