Susan Haas

Hello. I’m Susan and I will be your new garden correspondent, if everything turns out well.

We have had lots of rain this winter and we will continue to have a wet spring and into summer. 

What you might have noticed is that some plants, trees and shrubs in your garden, especially roses, have grown a great deal from when they were pruned.

With spring arriving, the soil has warmed a little. Spring has delivered some lovely bulbs, flowering shrubs and perennials in the garden. 

It’s a good idea to maintain the growth if at all possible. This can be done by supplying your favourite plants with a good fertilizer in the form of aged manure or good compost.

Lavenders are flowering and it is important to cut the flowers off. This will enable the lavender to grow and to flower again. 

It is ideal to remove the flowers when all the activity of bees and other insects has ceased and they have collected all the pollen they need. 

Removing flowers from long-stemmed lavender is easy, as stems are easy to hold. Hold the bunches and clip off in sections. Just make sure it is all the same height.

Lavenders do not like wet feet. They hate sitting in water and if they do, you may find that some of them will have pieces that are dead, not green and dry. 

Planting on a slope is ideal or in a pot. The plant will be damp but not wet and very happy because all the water can run away.

Happy growing.

In the vegie garden

It is time to plant French beans, strawberries and tomatoes. 

With tomatoes, add some lime, to reduce ‘bottom rot’ of the fruit and to add calcium to the plants. Try putting pine needles around your strawberries. It keeps them away from the soil and they love it!

This month, as Nell Carr has stepped down from her role as the Gazette’s garden guru, the Gazette is very pleased to have found Susan Haas, a Deloraine local and keen gardener who will be trying on the role for size.