Episode: #6 7/10/2006
Presenter: Paul Hoffman

Spring is the start of a new season and the Plants are flowering, birds are singing the garden is full of bees and butterflies.

When you think of spring in the garden, don?t just look with your eyes use all your senses from smell to touch and even taste. It?s a great time to get out in the garden and get your hands dirty.

One of the best ways to bring some romance into your garden is with roses. Roses are everyone?s favourite. They have been grown thought out the ages from Greeks, Romans Egyptians and even China.

In the sub tropics roses can be a bit of a handful as our warmer climate is a great invitation for all manner or pest and diseases.

Spraying roses is generally considered a must but if you don?t what the hassle of mixing up chemicals check out the ready mixed trigger packs like Yates Rose Gun. To keep black spot and aphids at bay you need to start spraying now.

Remember it?s not only the flowers that smell. Perfume can be found in the leaves of native lemon myrtle and some ginger plants.

White fragrant plants release their perfume at night rather than during the day. Plants like gardenias, mock orange and even frangipanis and jasmine. So it is a good excuse to get up early and see or rather smell what?s in flower around your garden.

Snails and slugs feed at night and love to feast on newly planted seedlings. When you are next at your local nursery, check out the Yates Blitzem Snail and Slug Pellets. They will do the work for you, while you sleep. Just remember to spread the pellets evenly around your seedlings and if you have any inquisitive young children or pets then put the pellets in a pet proof container.

Featured Products

Yates Rose Gun

• Controls various insects, mites and diseases on roses and ornamentals
• Controls the most common rose pest & disease problems.
• Highly effective combination of a low toxic synthetic pyrethoid insecticide and a systemic broad spectrum fungicide.
• The insecticide works via both contact and stomach action, and the fungicide is absorbed into the plant's system and is translocated around the plant to control disease - works from the inside out.
• Controls mites and whitefly.
• Easy-to-use trigger pack - no mixing required, no measuring, no mess.

Blitzem Snail and Slug Pellets

• Kills snails & slugs by dehydration
• Economical - only requires 5 grams per m2.
• Contains a bittering agent to help prevent accidental consumption by children and pets.
• Pellets are mould resistant.
• Eventually biodegrades into carbon dioxide and water.
• Easy to apply straight from the pack.