Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
For the past few weeks, I have been advising people to hold off on planting their summer seedlings in both their veggie garden and floral displays, but I think we have all now waited long enough.
There is now a bit of warmth in the ground and enough sunny days to take a shot at an early planting.
Now that I’ve said that, I have probably jinxed us all, and we will have horrible, wet, cold weather for the rest of spring.
Spring is the time to get your summer seedlings planted, as it gives them time to establish and grow over spring so that they are ready to flower and crop over the summer months.
Most of the seasonal seedling plants are annuals or treated as annuals.
This means they germinate, grow, flower, seed, and die off all within twelve months.
Since they work hard over a short growing season, they need the right elements and conditions to thrive.
Starting from the ground up, the soil needs to be open, free-draining and friable, with the right nutrients present and available for the plants to use. This is more than just adding a bit of fertiliser when planting. The pH level of the soil will determine what elements of the fertiliser will become soluble and in what quantities, so that the plants can absorb them through their roots.
Build structure in the soil; don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.
Add some animal manure, like cow or chook manure — there's plenty available in bags to make it nice and easy.
Products like Neutrog's Cock and Bull are great for this.
Also, dig in some compost or coir peat, depending on how sandy your soil is.
Finally, check and adjust the pH of the blend you've created.
If you don’t have the means to do this at home, bring a small sample into the Garden Centre, and we can test it for you and advise how to adjust it if needed.
Once the soil structure is right, dig it over, add a light dressing of fertiliser like Blood and Bone or Rapid Raiser, and rake it in, leaving a level surface ready for planting.
In badly depleted soil, it’s also beneficial to add a probiotic biological fertiliser like Gogo Juice or Popul8 to replace the essential microbes that are no longer present.
There is a huge range of summer flowering seedlings to choose from, ranging from ground covers to plants over a metre in height, with some suited to full sun and others to heavy shade.
For full sun, consider Marigolds, Zinnia, Portulaca, Salvia, Cosmos, Bedding Dahlias, Alyssum, Snapdragons, Vinca, Lobelia, and Petunia.
For shady spots, try Bedding Begonia, Impatiens, or Lobelia, which will grow in either sun or shade.
In the vegetable garden, you can plant tomatoes, capsicums, chillies, sweet corn, cucumber, zucchini, eggplant, silverbeet, beetroot, lettuce, spring onion, spinach, onion, basil, parsley, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, radish, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and strawberries. Carrots and parsnips can also be grown for summer, but these are best started from seed, which can be sown now.
When you purchase your seedlings, they usually come in punnets of six to eight plants, which need to be gently separated into individual plants.
Some root damage is inevitable, but try to keep as much soil and as many roots as possible with each plant.
It’s easiest to mark out the plant spacings for the entire garden before you start planting.
Then, make a small hole in the soil to place the roots into without bunching them up, and firm the soil around them.
The finished planting depth should match the height at which the seedlings were growing in the punnet.
Once planted, be sure to water the new seedlings.
This will settle the soil around the roots and provide them with a much-needed drink.
It’s highly beneficial to use a root stimulant like Multicrop Plant Starter when watering your seedlings, as this helps reduce transplant shock and encourages new root growth to replace what was damaged during planting.
Follow this up once a week over the next few weeks.
Over the next few weeks, monitor the watering needs of your new plants.
They will likely need water at least every second day while they establish.
Keep the beds weed-free to reduce competition, and consider applying a light dressing of fertiliser again in about a month’s time.
It may sound like a bit of work, but most people find it quite relaxing and rewarding.
The effort is well worth it, whether you’re enjoying a beautiful floral display or feasting on homegrown produce just a stone’s throw from your kitchen.