Don’t over-water as this causes the seeds to rot.  

Snow peas can be tossed into stir fries, lightly steamed as a green vegetable or eaten while fresh and tender from the plant.

Snow peas are ideal healthy snacks for school lunchboxes. 

Potted soft and  berryfruits available at the moment include:  raspberry,  kiwi fruit, passionfruit, marionberry, gojiberry, blueberry, loganberry, jostaberry, tayberry, English gooseberry, silvanberry, boysenberry, blackberry, strawberry, currants and grapes. 

Varieties of figs are Brown Turkey and Black Genoa.

Leaf curl is a common disease on stone fruit trees like peaches, nectarines and plums which causes new leaves to permanently discolour and deform.  

The result is a less-than-attractive tree and, in severe cases, it reduces the tree’s ability to photosynthesise, which in turn can affect plant health and fruit yield. Leaf curl needs to be prevented by killing the disease spores before they infect the newly emerging foliage in late winter and early spring, as the damage done by leaf curl is irreversible.   

It’s easy to break the leaf curl disease cycle by spraying stone fruit trees during winter with Yates Lime Sulfur which will also control other diseases like freckle, rust and shot hole which hide on fruit tree stems during winter.  Spray all stems and the trunk thoroughly before new foliage emerges.  This will help give fruit trees a disease-free start to spring.

Cornus kousa var. chinensis, commonly known as the Chinese dogwood, is a popular small flowering ornamental shrub suitable for any cool district.  

Its beauty is in summer when the branches are smothered in white bracts which fade to pink as the flowering season progresses. 

In autumn, the leaves turn vibrant shades of bronze and crimson-red, and small strawberry-like inedible fruits appear.

This Cornus  is often used in Japanese garden landscapes and prefers fertile, humus-rich soil. It will tolerate other soil types, but the leaf colour is far less intense.

Requires no pruning to shape.  

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes in the garden as we all have and will continue do so. Gardens are an ever-evolving  process of change and renewal. l learnt this lesson from a lovely lady, Mrs Sculthorpe, who taught me to be bold and move plants about in the garden and to toss out  those that wereheext not working nor performing.