Gardenworld

Linaria - a flowering annual for winter colour.

The spreading petunias at the nursery had lasted about 8 months but they were looking straggly and tired. So we pulled the all out ! My dilemma now was what to put in their place. The usual replacement would have been pansies or violas, but that's what we did last year and it felt like time for a change. Pansies can also lack flower power in the dearth of winter and don't pack them on until spring. We want something flowering now and something that will hang down like a trailing lobelia. That was when we thought, lets try linaria.

Cheapskate's Hydroponics System !

An email from Dennis Ting:

Back in early November (around Cup Day) I got a couple of Tomato Plants – Tommy Toe and Red Fig varieties and a Chilli - Hot Red variety for my daughters to plant in pots.  I cannot keep the dry soil in the vegetable patch evenly wet so have had heaps of disease in the plants the last couple of years so decided to use pots.  Also probably need crop rotation as a build up of disease no doubt.

 

I used some 300mm plastic Terracotta coloured pots (like my fruit trees) and have not pruned out any of the side shoots at all.  The principle here is that spreading the vigour over many branches results in a shorter plants (as with fruit trees – e.g. Cherries).  I used Debco T&T and a Lucerne Mulch layer to protect the soil from the sun.  As you can see they are all fruiting and looking healthy.

 

On the last couple of hot days I just filled the large saucers with water in the morning.  The plants show no sign of wilting and have retained all the fruit on them despite being in the full sun on the hot days.

 

Not a sophisticated system but it works!