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Hello & Welcome to Autumn!
Well, it's officially here... while there's more hot days to come, we know day length is shortening, and the signs are there for the plants that a changing season isn't far away... And it's a fabulous time (the best time?) to garden in Perth. (As I write this - it's even RAINING!
And there's lots to do in the Autumn garden - we hope we can inspire you with this newsletter to get started; or at least - to get planning! Don't miss the window of opportunity that is opening in order to reap the rewards for months to come with delicious home grown winter vegies!
Paul recently attended a workshop presented by Dr Christine Jones -soil health expert. One of the main takeaways was to grow a variety of covercrops to encourage microbial diversity. She was talking of the value of green manure, and dense plantings. She also talked about human gut health, and the statement was made that we should be eating at least 30 different plants in the course of a week! (Based on vegies, fruits, pulses, nuts etc.) We decided to document this for our own interests, and are pleased that we made the mark (just). But it did highlight that we're not currently growing much of it; so our goal is for this winter to increase the variety of food crops we're producing ourselves. Fingers crossed - we'll keep you posted!
This coming weekend is the Kalamunda Garden Festival - Paul & I are giving a talk on healthy soil at 10.15am in the Treerings Marquee - so if you're at the festival, feel free to come on in! (Although there are three stages all running interesting programs - so we've got competition! - ha ha!) Wild Gaia Plants will have a few GLSC items to sell - including garlic, kelp fertiliser, fish hydrolysate and more. Limited supplies though, so be quick!
This weekend is a LONG WEEKEND - and we'll be open on the Monday (6th March) from 8.30 - 2.00pm (note early closing) so if you get all inspired at the Festival, come on in on Monday and get yourself all sorted for Autumn gardening.
Watch out later this month for a special week that our friends @ Guildford Town Garden Centre are organising for their 30th anniversary! Keep an eye on their socials for updates & announcements.
We look forward to seeing you soon...
Linda & the Team @ The Green Life Soil Co
In this newsletter:
Jobs for the March garden What to plant NOW Designing your brand new vegie garden Growing Garlic - top tips VIP special offer Photo competition winner Retailer update
Jobs for the March Garden
Prep your soil! Where you intend to plant your winter vegies, get some OM (organic matter) into the soil. This could be your own compost, or some aged manure, or you can try our one of our Concentrate products - which is made exactly for the purpose of enriching your sandy/depleted soil. If soil is particularly difficult to wet, use a good quality wetting agent (like Eco-wet), and look at incorporating more clay to assist with water holding next summer. Charlie Charcoal is also fabulous for helping gardens hold onto nutrients and moisture. We already use clay and Charlie in our mixes - but both are available as separate products if you choose to add your own amendments.
Check your compost. It's time to get it into your garden. If it's not quite ready (and you're not ready to use it) give it a good turn, maybe add water (if it's a bit dry) and get it cooking away for another week or two. You can dig in immature compost and it will continue to break down in the soil - but don't plant directly into it; instead use a few handfuls of a good quality potting mix to put around your seeds/seedlings so they can get established.
Grow a green manure crop. Early Autumn is a great time to throw in some green manure seeds, which you can allow to grow for as long as you like before turning it through the soil. This is an inexpensive way to add organic matter to the soil (just remember the longer it grows, the more OM you get to 'harvest'). Just remember to slash it or dig it through before it sets seeds. Our green manure packs contain a wide variety of plant types - the theory is no matter what the conditions are in your garden, something is going to thrive and produce for you. 1kg will cover up to 20m2.
Pumpkin & Zucchini might be showing signs of powdery mildew as the nights are getting cooler. This is quite normal and may signify the plant is nearing the end of its seasonal lifespan. You can spray with milk & water (1:9) every couple of days to help slow down the spread; but apart from that avoid overhead watering and keep nurturing the plant to help the last fruit reach maturity. At the end of the season, pick off new flowers to get the plant to concentrate its energy into fruit that is already forming.
Save seeds! If plants have been great performers in your garden this summer, leave some fruit to mature and collect the seed to use next year (provided of course you have grown non-hybrid varieties). Remember to allow seed to dry (remove pulp, etc) and store in something like a paper bag or recycled envelope and correctly label it (your future self will thank you!). Store seed in a cool, dark place where mice can't find it! Seeds are very precious - so why not use the resource nature is providing you.
Sow your seeds. While it's time to save your summer seeds, it's time to be planting your winter crops. Use seedling trays (or recycle punnets/small pots - just give them a really good scrub first and leave out in the sun to dry). This gives you a little more flexibility to move trays around and nurse them if we have any hot/dry spells. We carry arguably Perth's biggest range of heritage & organically grown seed in Perth - come on in and check out our range. New orders are coming in regularly. Check out our top tips for growing from seed right here.
Order bare rooted trees. If you're looking at planting either fruiting or ornamental trees over winter, now's the time to get some advice, and order what you're needing. Our friends at Guildford Town Garden Centre will be able to help you - they bring in a massive order each year; and by putting your name down now, you won't miss out on popular varieties. A good nursery will be able to advise you on ideal location, whether you need a pollinator (for fruiting trees), how suited the variety is to your local conditions, and how large the tree will eventually grow. All things you need to consider BEFORE you buy. A tree is a fabulous asset to your home, and should be treated as an investment - something to treasure, but not rush into without due consideration.
What to Plant NOW
Oooooh, so many things to choose from in Autumn! Check out our when to plant guides (there's one on vegies and one on herbs), plus there's also an extended e-guide 'Top 12 Edible plants for Autumn/Winter' - all are FREE to download. If you're new to gardening, the Top 12 guide has come very useful info; looking in-depth at popular winter vegies. Plus there's heaps of fact sheets on Perth growing - see the 'Learn' tab above.
To access our free downloads - you must sign up to become a member. Once you've signed up, you MUST check your email and activate your membership in the link sent to you in order to gain access. (It is a required security default.) Any trouble with downloads? Let us know if you have any issues, and we can help. The member's section has a quick monthly guide of what to grow, plus a reminder of the moon phases for optimal planting out - so why not give moon planting a go and see how it works for you? (We still have 2023 moon planting calendars available for sale if you want to get a jump on the season.)
A quick list to consider planting includes:
Artichokes (globe), Asian greens, Beetroot, Beans, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Coriander, Endive, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leek, Lettuce, Onion, Parsley, Peas, Parsnip, Radish, Rocket, Silverbeet, Snow peas, Spinach, Spring onions, Swede, Turnip. Pictured right is a Romanesco Broccoli - a cross between a Broc & a Cauli - and definitely a pretty amazing plant to grow!
Plus - it's sooo close to Garlic & Potato planting season! We have garlic in stock already - Certified Organic Rojo and Purple Stripe, and local spray-free Elephant Garlic. So come on in and don't miss out! Potatoes are about a month away - watch this space!
Designing your brand new garden
Autumn in the garden is an exciting prospect - we get many customers in who are keen to begin their gardening journey, and are looking for a little help and guidance along the way. Often they're SO excited they want to rip out their entire back yard and get started. Our advice is always to start SMALL. While it doesn't sound exciting, there are so many good reasons to take an easy-does-it approach to starting growing your own food. While many of us dream of self sufficiency, the reality is with our busy lives (and for some - lack of space) it really isn't possible to grow everything you eat. But it IS possible to eat everything you grow - if you plan it out. So if you're wanting to get growing, here are our top tips to think about before breaking ground (or breaking the bank!).
What do you like to eat? And is it the right time of year? Concentrate on what you (or the kids) enjoy ~ or at least will eat! While it's great to expand your culinary repertoire, for beginners, work with what you know you'll eat. Then research it - is it the right time of year to grow that vegie/plant? (Consult our when to sow guide for more info.) It is vital to your success to grow with the seasons. Perth and most of the south west of WA counts as 'warm temperate' if you're reading gardening books; but keep in mind there are always variables depending on your property's aspect. Which leads us to the next tip...
Planning & Position Take the time to observe - really observe - your garden. Maybe even take photos, or make notes in a journal of how far the sun reaches at different times of the day. Obviously this will vary with the seasons; so if you have the patience and you've just moved to a new home, wait a year!! (Ok so maybe you can grow stuff in pots in the meantime?) The range of sunlight available will vary greatly - so this information will be very handy for you when planning where to plant what. It will help you decide where to put a trellis (for example) to help plants climb to the light and/or to provide shade to other plants. Which direction should the beds run? Should they be away from a fenceline that casts too much shadow? Then there's other important things like proximity to a water supply. Do you need to get retic installed or plumbing lines extended? All this stuff is easier to do if you've planned for it than trying to retrofit after things are already in place.
Build or buy? Many people in Perth choose to use raised garden beds for growing. It can be easier to start from scratch with fresh, good soil; or there may be other reasons why you'd like a little bit of height to your garden beds. So think about what works for you. Sure - you can improve soil in situ and plant into the ground - but you'll definitely need to do some work to improve your soil (based on typical Perth sands!). We're happy to help with advice if you want to come in and have a chat. If you want a raised bed - what kind are you going with? You can build them from limestone blocks, bricks, timber - or go for ready made corrugated iron or a number of pre-made kits like our Foodcube. What matches your taste and the outdoor environment you have. Assuming you'll be living with the beds for some years - will they last, and will they make you happy?
Build or buy Mark II This refers to your soil. Unfortunately, unless you have access to a number of resources - you are very likely to need to either buy in a complete soil or buy in soil improvers in order to prepare your garden bed. This is particularly important if you're growing food crops - because the vegies you grow are only going to be as healthy as the soil they're grown in. The right soil for any type of garden is the foundation for success. Feel free to bring in a sample to GLSC - we can have a look at it, do a free pH test, and give you some advice and suggestions on how to make it work for what you're trying to grow.
Start small If you've never had a vegie patch before, set up 1m x 1m. That's not a big area, but it's enough to produce a number of different food plants and to work as your practise patch! You'll learn a lot in a season. If it works - and you still love it - build a couple more next season! If you don't believe me that you can grow much in a square metre, look up our FREE Square Foot Gardening Guide here on our website. Square Foot Gardening is a whole methodology for intensive growing in small spaces - and I'm sure you'll like the fact that there's a whole lot less weeding and management involved (for the most part). Plus you've always got options of growing things in pots and planter bags. The latter are great little add-ons to seasonally expand your growing. Move them around, or empty them into your garden once spent, and store the flattened bags in the shed until needed again next year. You'll get better results generally from planting several plants into one large pot than from trying to grow individual plants in small pots. They simply don't thrive, and run out of nutrients and steam. Just make sure you use a good quality potting mix - which is NOT garden soil; so don't be tempted to fill your containers with some shovels of dirt from the garden. Potting mix is made for the correct mix of aeration and drainage and should supply a good range of nutrients for growth.
Get growing! Even if you decide to try a punnet of salad greens or a couple of herbs - start with something you like, and something you'll use. Gardening is a lifelong skill which you're always developing - so don't worry about getting it "right" - we all get it wrong plenty of times; and that's part of the fun! Nature is always teaching us all, if we choose to listen. Plant away, give it some TLC (water, sunlight in the right amounts!) and you'll soon be enjoying the growth of your new plant babies, AND if you look carefully, the growth of your own green thumb!
It's ALMOST that time of year - and GLSC has now got garlic in stock! Garlic is a great crop to grow at home - it's quite easy to grow, and rewarding too! Fresh & organic garlic is often quite expensive in the shops. Cheap garlic is sourced from overseas; and is sprayed and treated before it hits the shelves; so not really a great thing to be eating if you can avoid it.
Currently, we have 3 types of garlic available - purple stripe, rojo and elephant garlic (also known as Russian garlic - pictured right is ONE clove weighing in at 169gms!). Garlic is available online here - and you can also pay for a postage satchel to get it to you; wherever you are in WA! Here's some info about each variety we have available:
Purple Stripe (certified organic) This is probably the most popular variety of garlic grown - a genetically diverse group; this year's supplier Boorara Organics advises this is from the Duganski strain of garlic - one of the most common commercial strains.
Purple Stripe is a great all rounder due to it's combination of good yield, great flavour and presentability. It has a flavour that is rich and strong with a fusion of different flavours. Often a nutty flavour when cooked. Each bulb usually has 8-12 good sized cloves, and will store around 6 months from harvest.
Rojo de Castro (certified organic) Sometimes called Cuban Purple, this garlic also comes from Boorara Organics - a certified organic grower. This strain of garlic originated in Spain. It has a hotter/stronger flavour than purple stripe (some say it's their favourite). However, cloves tend to be smaller and the plant is ever so slightly less robust - so it's not a variety grown commercially. The bulbs take about 2-4 weeks longer in the ground to mature, and often 1-2 weeks longer than the purple stripe to emerge after planting. The garlic bulbs are covered with a white skin, which when peeled away reveals deep red coloured skin on the individual cloves. Rojo garlic has great storage qualities - lasting 6-12 months from harvest.
Elephant Garlic (spray free) Elephant garlic is more closely related to leeks, but does produce a very large bulb that is eaten and used like garlic. It has a much milder flavour, and doesn't give you 'garlic breath' - one of the other names for Elephant garlic is "kissing garlic"! Elephant garlic takes 2 years from growing small cloves to produce the whopping size it can reach. In the first year, the garlic will produce a 'round' which doesn't have the individual cloves formed. This is still edible; you can either replant it, or leave it in the ground. The 2nd year it will flower, and the bulb will produce individual cloves. Elephant garlic is a robust plant to grow, and bears striking flowers on stalks - which are useful in floral displays fresh or dried. The plant can remain in the ground year after year and forms a good edition to a cottage or vegetable garden.
How to store garlic If you aim to produce a year round supply of garlic, you'll need a fair bit to plant. After harvest, it can be a problem keeping it stored without it going soft or beginning to sprout. Personally, I like to freeze it. For me - this involves setting aside an afternoon to clean off the papery skins, peel the outer skins, and popping the clean individual cloves into small batches in the freezer to use as required. They can be crushed frozen and make a great pulpy goo to add to your recipes! You probably don't need to clean them perfectly - the skin comes off quite easily when frozen - but I like to make sure when I need them, they're good to go. For the last couple of years, we've been self sufficient in garlic. I've planted out about 150 cloves at the start of planting season and the resultant crops have kept us going. Of course - depending on how heavy you use garlic; that may be either too much or not enough for your family. You'll need to do some math! The good thing is that garlic can be planted quite close together (10 - 15cms) so you can intensively plant a bit over a m2 and achieve this volume.
How to grow garlic Prepare your soil a few weeks ahead of planting if you're digging through compost and manures (our vegetable concentrate is ideal!). Water well, and keep the soil moist. Plant garlic pointy side up with tips about 2-3cms below the surface. Throw around a few handfuls of blood & bone, and maybe a quick dose of kelp - and that's about it. While you can top up fertiliser if you need to in early growth stages - avoid high nitrogen fertilisers after about September onwards - this encourages leaf growth when you want it to begin to bulb up. Give the plants a feed of potash at the start of spring/end of winter. Keep plants mulched & weeded (garlic doesn't like competition). Tops will begin to yellow off & eventually fall over. When to harvest can vary each year with the weather & crop development. Before pulling, carefully dig down with your hands and make sure that the bulb is forming cloves. While you can still use garlic picked too early; it won't have good cloves. Garlic picked too late will begin to separate like in the photo above - also perfectly useable, but less good to store. When you lift garlic, dust off excess dirt and leave the whole plant (with leaves attached) to hand somewhere with good airflow for around a month before cleaning and storing how you choose to. Avoid humidity as garlic will go mouldy.
VIP Special Offer
It's time to ge growing! To kick start your autumn/winter crop propagation - we're offering HALF PRICE Seed Raising Mix this month to our VIP's.Spend $60 and pick up a bag of our Certified Organic Seed Raising Mix for $7.00.
Limit of 2 per customer, while stocks last. Valid until close of business, 31st March 2023.
In Store shoppers (or if placing an order over the phone) - please ask our team for the VIP pricing. Online VIP's must be logged into the members-only section to view the special pricing and add the product to an online order.
So come on in soon! Grab your garlic, stock up on seeds, get your VIP March deal and get growing!
Photo Competition
Thank you to all those people who sent in photos this month. It's great to see that your gardens and lawns are hanging in there over summer! Remember every month we pick a winner of a $50 store credit to spend with us - so maybe it will be YOU next month? Send in your photos (subject line "photo competition") via email, or via our Facebook page and you're in the draw!
This month, we've selected a very happy blueberry grower - this is what Monty had to say:
Hi All
I’m just thrilled with the success of my blueberries this year. I realize it’s been a mild summer, but you eat fresh fruit while you can. This is their second year, and they have been bearing since the first week of November and it is now mid February and they are just trailing off. 150grams to 200 grams every two or three days. On days over 32 I put a shade cloth over the top of the bird netting.
I couldn’t find any information about what to do with blueberries in pots in the second year, so with my hands I dug out what soil was not attached to roots and replenished it with your beaut Blueberry Mix, which is what I planted them into in the first instance. Seems to have done the trick. Keep up the good work.
Monty in Yanchep
Here's his photos to prove the results!!!
Retailer Update
Please support your local independent retailer who supports us! The specialist retailers listed here will be happy to give you gardening advice and help you with our products - please call to check what lines they carry as they can't stock all of our products (but may be willing to get stock in for a custom order - if you ask nicely!). Some of these fabulous retailers also offer a home delivery service (marked with *) - so why not go local? (Please contact the store directly for details.)
Daisy Field Organics - Fremantle Garden Elegance - Subiaco 9381 2197 Guildford Town Garden Centre* - Guildford 9279 8645 Harbour Plants*- South Fremantle 0439 967 034 Hydroponics Guru (Living Soil only) - Wangara 0430527575 Kambarang Garden Centre* (formerly Waldecks Bentley) - Bentley 9458 5944 Lighthouse Fruit Tree Nursery - Parkwood 0411 166 034 Miaflora - Inglewood 9343 6334 Newstead Outdoors* - Greenwood 9334 6334 Nibali Stockfeed* - Hamilton Hill 9433 2211 Richo's 4 Hydro - Joondalup 9301 4462 Stackwood - Fremantle 9335 9835 (Square Foot Mix only) Stanbee Stockfeeds* - Barragup 9581 2390 Swan Valley Station - Swan Valley 0427 371 001 Tass1 Trees - Middle Swan 0419 988 344 The Nourished Pantry - Golden Bay (Rockingham area) Urban Revolution* - Victoria Park 6102 1068 Utopia Nursery - Bullsbrook 0455 659 622 Waldecks Kingsley* - 9309 5088 Waldecks Melville* - 6317 0939 Waldecks Stirling* - 9254 6730 Zanthorrea Nursery - Maida Vale 9454 6260
Ardess Nursery (Albany) 9842 9952 Australind Landscaping Supplies 9796 1720 Blossoms Nursery (Denmark) 9848 2014 Boyup Brook Co-op (Boyup Brook) 9765 1001 Great Northern Rural Services (Geraldton) 9964 1274 Hillview Garden Centre (Bridgetown) 9761 1672 Margaret River - Nutrient Ag Solutions 9758 7677 Soils Ain't Soils (Busselton) 97515 322
THANK YOU for being part of our Green Life family! We hope to see you in store soon. Check out our newsletter next month & stay up to date with our Facebook and Instagram pages for announcements, stock arrivals and general good gardening vibes!