The Growing Edge – August 2015

This Month's Featured Trees

This month's featured tree is the Senkaki Maple, also know as the Coral Bark Maple.  This tree provides a fantastic splash of colour in the otherwise bland Winter Garden. We are also spotlighting the Tangelo tree, a less common but fantastic fruiting citrus.

Acer palmatum sango-kaku

Coral Bark or Senkaki Maple

A sensational Japanese Maple cultivar, it exhibits red young stems and lime green foliage. This feature and the superb yellow to apricot autumn foliage make it an elegant tree ideal for protected areas of gardens and parks. The exposed red stems are an attractive feature of the garden in winter.
It reaches a mature height of 6 metres and a width of 5 metres.
It has a slow to moderate growth rate with a vase shaped, multi stemmed habit.

The Senkaki Maple prefers a shaded area in hot summers.

Citrus x Tangelo

The Tangelo is hybrid cross between a Mandarin and a Grapefruit. The flavours of its parents are noticeable in the fruit, having a sweet taste, then a tang. It is by far the juiciest fruit of all citrus and makes a refreshing drink.

The fruit ripens July, August to a deep orange, almost red colour. The amazing fruit colour, contrasting against the glossy dark green foliage makes Citrus tangelo a great specimen tree. 
It reaches a mature height of 6 metres with a width of 4 metres and has a moderate growth rate.

Why People Tell You To Use Gypsum In Your Soil 

Natural gypsum is a highly beneficial and easy to apply addition to your garden. Gyspum is a soil conditioner that helps to break up heavy clay soils, and make them more workable.

• Improves the soil structure and drainage of heavy to clay soils.
• Also adds calcium and aids aeration to the top soil.
• Ideal preparation when planting or renovating lawns and garden
beds.
• Lasts for years

To use gypsum, follow these simple steps:

1. Dig the soil to a depth of 10-15cm, making sure to break up any large clods.

2. Apply Gypsum at the rate of 1kg per square metre, and rake or dig into soil. If soil consists of very heavy clay you may need to apply 2kg per square metre. If the soil is dry, be sure to water in well after application.

What's Been Happening On The Farm

This month has been extremely busy with deliveries all over Victoria. Our driver took this picture at Jindabyne on the way to deliver some trees to Thredbo Village.

What's Looking Great

We have piles of field grown Lemon trees available for purchase now. These are bushy, tall plants full of fruit.

They will only be available during the Winter months so get in while stocks last.

The Cottages 

Snow conditions have surpassed expectations this year and many of our guests who have stayed at our cottages have been taking full advantage of the conditions on local Mt Baw Baw during the day.