Episode: #8 21/10/2006
Presenter: Paul Hoffman

There is nothing like the sight and sounds of running water to really help you to relax, unwind and escape our busy lives and you can create the feeling of this in your own garden.

Simply adding a water feature to your garden will really activate all of your senses. Water has a cooling and calming effect on people, but can also be a great place to grow plants and invite the local wild life into your garden.

Queensland is blessed with a huge range of aquatic plants to grow. From Waterlilies and flowering Iris, to lotus and large papyrus grass, which the Egyptians used to make paper.

One of Paul?s favourites is the water lilies. Water lilies come in 2 main types Tropicals and hardies and it is easy to tell them apart. Tropicals flower on a stem above the water line. While hardies flowers look like they are floating on the surface.

It is a challenge to try and fertiliser your aquatic plants. Paul has a little trick he uses to start his water lilies in spring. It is called a fertiliser Bomb. All you need is good quality slow release fertilizer and some newspaper and your trusty garden rake.

Grab a handful of fertiliser and rap it in newspaper. Then using an old rake handle, make a hole in the mud and drop in your fertiliser bomb.

When fertilizing around your pond it is always best to use a slow release organic fertiliser like dynamic lifter or even blood and bone. Any Fertilizer washed into your pond will create higher than normally nutrients levels, which will cause excess algae to gown and turn your pond green.

A good trick is to fork your fertilizer into the soil to get the nutrients were their needed in the root zone; this will eliminate any nutrient running of into the pond.

Now if you want to spray any insects which are attacking your plants growing around your pond, you need to be careful which products you choose. Always look for as gentler spray as possible, as you don?t want to harm your fish or frogs. A good organic alternative is to use natrasoap, which is very low toxic and can even be used by organic gardeners.

So you see with not to much effort at all you can bring an extra dimension to your garden, which will really relax your soul.

Remember if you are looking for some gardening advice then jump on the net and join our garden club and you could have your questions answered by one of the gurus team.

Featured Products

Yates Blood and Bone

• An organic fertiliser suitable for all gardens including Australian natives.
• Provides nitrogen for healthy leaf growth and phosphorus for stron root development.
• Organic nutrients are released slowly to the plant, improves soil structure, promotes beneficial soil micro-organisms and encourages earthworms.

Natrasoap Mite & Insect Spray

• For control of mites, aphids, thrips, mealybug, whitefly.
• Can be used on vegetables, fruit trees, ornamentals, and pot plants.
• Low toxic soap based spay, suitable for organic growers.
• Soap coats the insect causing suffocation and desiccation.
• Minimal risk to beneficial insects.
• Easy to use.

Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food:

• This is a versatile feed for all garden, potted and Australian native plants.
• Slow release nutrients improving structure and retention of the soil.
• It also encourages earthworms and is beneficial to soil micro-organisms