WHAT’S ON
A must visit for
backyard tomato
growers is the
award-winning
Tomato Festival
Sydney, now in its
fourth year at the
Royal Botanic Garden
Sydney on the
weekend of 18–19
February. Here you’ll
find displays, cooking
demonstrations,
workshops, talks,
a taste test of
heirloom tomatoes
and a contest for the
best home-grown
tomato. Australian
growers and artisans
will sell their
produce and there
are plant sales and
free guided walks.
Designed as a family
festival, it includes
many attractions for
children. Entry is free
but tickets need to
be bought for certain
workshops, activities
and lunches. You can
find the details at
rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au.You don’t need to invest in expensive outdoor furniture
to create a wonderful outdoor spot to sit. A simple
wooden bench, dressed with a couple of scatter
cushions, is just as enticing as anything more elaborate,
and will have you retreating with your coffee (or glass
of wine!) at any available opportunity. Note the other
landscaping ideas here – a square stepping stone
pathway, scattered feature pots and lovely splashes of
cool white from a pair of hydrangeas. Cool summer style.‘Gardening is cheaper than therapy
and you get tomatoes.’ Author unknown
Path to relaxation
Hibiscus■■Share your love on
Valentine’s Day (14
February) with a gift of a
seductively scented rose.
A few to consider are ‘Elle’- soft pink or peach with a
bewitching scent of spices
and citrus; long-stemmed,
deep red ‘Mister Lincoln’;
the climbing, almond-pink
cupped ‘Nahema’; deep
pink and seemingly silver-
tinged ‘Parole’; delicate
pink ‘Sharifa’; and the dark
velvet ‘Papa Meilland’.
■■Add a blast of late
summe r and autumn
colour with baskets of
spreading petunias. For a
touch of elegance, note
the mounding Wave Silver
from Floriana, available from
Bunnings Warehouse. It
copes with both heat and
cooler conditions and has
a spread of 90–120cm.
■■Start building up vegie
beds with as much organic
matter as you can muster,
after summer crops have
finished. Come spring, you
and your future crops will
appreciate all the effort. You
could also look at starting
a green manure crop (such
as cow peas, mung beans,
soy beans or millet) to be
dug in later to improve
nutrient content and moisture
retention in the soil.
■■Smarten up flowering
perennials with a light prune
once blooms slow down.
■■Lightly prune and fertilise
repeat-flowering roses to
encourage autumn flowering.
■■Check azaleas for lace bug
(rusty brown underneath the
leaves and silvery on top)
and, if present, treat with
systemic spray once a month.
■■Give lemon trees a late-
summer dose of fertiliser
to prepare for their wintercropping. If the soil around
the trunk doesn’t seem to
be taking up water, apply a
soil-wetting agent such as
Yates Waterwise, water, then
top with 5cm of mulch.
■■Cut back hydrangeas that
have finished flowering. A
good routine is to leave
two buds below each cut.
■■Fertilise tropical
bloomers such as
frangipani and hibiscus.
■■Continue cleaning out
debris from gutters and
tidy up the boundaries of
properties as February
can be a bad bushfire
month in many places.
■■Revitalise strawberry
plants after their heavy
fruiting season by trimming
dead leaves and runners
that have spread too far,
and topping up mulch.
■■Keep watering up for
tomatoes during dry
weather and feed with a
liquid fertiliser to keep
crops coming through.
■■Prune NSW Christmas bush
to encourage growth and
promote flowering next year.This month...
Februa ry
IN THE
GARDEN
▲BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS, FEBRUARY 2017 bhg.com.au 47