I live in Adelaide Australia where the summers are long, hot 40 degrees C for a week at a time and dry, while the winters are usually wet.
The pictures are of my own plants (except three) having been taken with an OM10 and scanned in with a SCITEX SMART SCANNER 342L available from CreoScitex Australia Pty Ltd (02) 98794744 on the default settings.
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1) Collect seeds- Seeds such as cineraria and primula are easily collected by placing the seed heads upside down in a bucket. Tea strainers with various sized holes can be used to seperate the seeds form the charf.
2) No room for sowing seeds, then plant Seeds around existing pot plants and prick out.
3) Seeds raising is easily done in perlite with an upside down drink container. The upside down drink container is used to keep the perlite moist.
4) Sowing seeds. To sow seeds in cells, use folded paper and a kids small paint brush to brush a few off at a time. To make sure the seeds go into the right spots, make a series of little funnels that lead to the right location retrofitting an existing punnet that has cells.
5) Cut flowers, if someone gives you a lovely bunch of flowers, and you want to grow some: cut off a few inches from the bottom when still fresh and place in coarse sand. Even if only a few grow that's a few more plants than you had before.
6) Don't leave seedlings in punnets, at least plant in pots. Seedlings in punnet's at the nursery are watered with fertilizer, if left in the punnets they may become stunted or forgotten about
7) Soil level in punnets- keep a little low so water will not run off.
8) Keep seeds in film cassette cases. Film cassette cases are fantastic for storing seeds.
MIMULUS
SUN FLOWER
10) Vacuum valve. A vacuum valve at the side is good as an external source of water.
11) Flat ground looks boring- try a slope with grooves to stop water run off. Water only the grooves.
12) Orchid fertilizer- check the side for what's in it.
13) Hydroponics: Stocks are easily grown with hydroponic methods. Here is a stock grown in a bucket with only scoria as the growing media. A flood and drain system was used here.
Stock grown in Scoria
Sweet peas grown in perlite
Show and tell at school about a sunflower grown in Scoria
CHRYSANTHEMUM A good friend of mine Ken knows all about Charm Chrysanthemums � � � � Some pics to show the trimming required. � � also likes hydroponics
A good friend of mine Ken knows all about Charm Chrysanthemums
also likes hydroponics
CELERY
Celery will grow on a raft floating on water
The roots are immersed in water and nutrient.
15) Pots cold in winter, compost around the pots to keep them warm.
16) Large plants: In order to obtain the largest exhibition plants, I like to plant them in pots and see which ones are going to be the largest. The largest are then planted out in the garden.
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Watering
17) Water Wonder: is a device that goes on the end of a hose to convert a gushing stream of water into a gentle flow.
18) Three outlets on the one pipe for watering pots.
19) Watering can rose- put the rose into the watering can to avoid losing
20) Sprinklers- $2 unit and soft spray
21) Fire man's Hose, around 80 cents/metre from the fire station.
22) Extension arms for hand held sprays: use a rake to hold the hose and the hand held spray.
23) Garden bed sprinklers-place around the edge to avoid damage to the hoses.
24) Tank cleaning; Siphon out water before tipping over to avoid cracking the soldered joints .
25) Petunias - grow them up with plastic for planting out. I like to have petunias that are in flower for planting out. Growing them under plastic allows this.
26) Ag drain uses- acts as a drain in winter, and under ground irrigation in.
27) Air conditioner- collect water or a tube to water garden.
28) Hand held Garden spade on the end of a stick for small plant holes.
29) Scoop from old containers. We have 2 litre plastic milk containers, and with the handle they make a great scoop for potting mix.
30) Tree logs cut out for plants. A chain saw is required for this one.
31) Hills Hoist wire; Thread down the vertical down pipes. If the pipes become full of leaves shaking the wire loosens the leaves.
32) If you live on low side of road - clean the road drains before any floods. At least check the drains if its an offence to clean them in your area.
33) Labels from milk container to write details- time planted. Make lines like this , and cut to each apex cut out the labels.
A little diagram to show the triangle wave in the middle for making labels.
34) Builders mesh for hot house, shade house and trellis.
35) Rotating compost bins from large used containers.
Rotating Compost Bin made from a large dis-used container available at fodder stores. The whole thing costed around $30.00 email me for details about how to make it. The lid is a clip on type
36) Compost bins out of pallet. These are available free from some factories. They make great picket fences for children's gardens. To make the picket fence cut out a segment from the pallet.
37) Worm farms from foam boxes. Foam Broccoli boxes with Avocado boxes stacked inside make ideal worm farms. Once the worms have eaten the contents of the bottom level they move up a level to the fresher scraps. I find the Worm Farm Material is a great source of plants in the vegetable garden. Seeds from all sorts of vegetables that have been scraped in the past germinate, thus eliminating the need to plant seedlings.
The foam broccoli boxes insulates against our hot days and cool nights. Don't forget to make a hole in the bottom of the brocoli box for the liquid to drain out. Check out the animated gif file. ( I'll have to include pictures of the worms in the future.) When using horse manure, don't use manure from a horse that has been wormed. ( Find a talking horse like Mr Ed so you can ask him if he has been wormed.)
38) Contrasting colours in the flower bed - like a TV set dark and light colours. An example is white and purple petunias. The purple makes the whites look brighter.
39) If your cups of Tea taste terrible: empty the kettle once a week.
40) Library books, and plants from trading tables at clubs.
41) Kids plastic beach spades for cleaning gutters.
42) Indoor Light levels - Place a white board next to the plant in doubt. With an automatic camera with 100 as a film check. If an automatic camera flash is going to go off then the light level is too low where the plant is.
43) Trolley cart for plants and heavy items. Don't hurt your back, use a trolley or a sack truck.
44) Small scales to check weight of granulated fertilizer in shops. Some people open the lids and pinch a hand full of the granules in their pockets.
45) Compost - At garden centres the fresh compost at the front is usually still hot. I get compost from the back of the heap where its cool.
46) Use old pallets for making pot plant carry trays for dunking pots in Kids play shells.
47) Pot Bibs-I like to make the most of the rain in summer when propagating cuttings in pots. This is easily done by fitting bibs to the tops of the pots. The bibs are made of sheet plastic that's available from graphic arts reproduction shops.
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