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If you are like me, your fingers are itching to get the new seasons tomato plants under way. The earlier you start the sooner you will have ripe tomatoes to eat. I think most garden centres will have a few early varieties already to buy and grow on. This last week after the cold spell […]
Posts Tagged ‘wally’
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Using Neem in your garden & elsewhere (Wally Richards)
August 27th, 2022 
Awake Goy Azadirachta indica, commonly known as Neem, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to the Indian subcontinent and most of the countries in Africa. It is typically grown in tropical and semi-tropical regions. Each year the tree […]
Tips for Planting plants (Wally Richards)
August 10th, 2022 Awake Goy Gardeners are buying and planting plants now for the coming season. This may range from seedlings of vegetables, annual flowering plants, fruiting plants and ornamental shrubs and trees. There are a number of traps and tips which if known will make for a more successful growing season and thus more pleasure for yourself. Lets start […]
GARDENING: THE IMPORTANCE OF CALCIUM IN YOUR SOIL (Wally Richards)
July 31st, 2022 Awake Goy Calcium (garden lime) is a very basic mineral that is often overlooked by gardeners. Kiwi gardeners in the past would dig over their vegetable garden at the beginning of winter after the last crops had been harvested. The soil would be turned to the depth of one and a half to two spade depths, bringing […]
Dealing with ‘wet feet’ in your garden (Wally Richards)
July 26th, 2022 Awake Goy Recently I have been asked why some plants (and in particular citrus trees) are loosing leaves and look like dying? The problem is root roots and any plants, shrubs or trees that can not have their roots wet for any length of time will likely die unless some remedial action is taken during wet times.. […]
DEALING WITH CURLY LEAF DISEASE IN STONE FRUIT (Wally Richards)
July 18th, 2022 Awake Goy All too often I am asked questions about problems that have already occurred and its to late to prevent them. Its like the old saying, closing the gate after the horse has gone. Unless you are onto it, you will miss the vital times when your efforts will be worthwhile and make a difference for […]
Growing potatoes (Wally Richards)
July 14th, 2022 Awake Goy Once upon a time when the world was a much better place and people could afford to buy a quarter acre of land and build a house for their family to grow up in and enjoy the benefits of those days 50 to 100 years ago. (You only have to think back to see how […]
Deterring cats from your garden (Wally Richards)
June 30th, 2022 Awake Goy A deterrent is a thing that discourages or is intended to discourage someone or something from doing something. The word ‘Deterrent’ is not a word that is used much in gardening but it is a means to prevent something that you do not want to happen from actually happening. For instance; you don’t want cats […]
More magic for your garden (Wally Richards)
June 23rd, 2022 Awake Goy Last week our article was about Magic Botanical Liquid (MBL) and how this natural product made an incredible difference to your plants and gardens. Then a few weeks back we used information from a reader about how he greatly improved his fruit trees with another natural product ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’. Lets now add another Magic […]
What to do with those fallen leaves (Wally Richards)
April 10th, 2022 Awake Goy A reader from Southland emailed me this week and asked if I could write an article about what to do with autumn leaves. For some home owners, autumn leaf fall is a curse, just another chore to rake them up and clear the gutters. For gardeners, leaf fall is a blessing and they gladly collect […]
GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD (Wally Richards)
March 10th, 2022 Awake Goy You may ask why is it important to grow your own food? First and most importantly it is your Food Security. Not nice to be hungry 24/7. Second is that the food you grow yourself; if grown naturally without man made chemicals, will be healthier compared that which is grown with chemical fertilisers and sprays. […]
GROW YOUR OWN SEEDS (Wally Richards)
March 7th, 2022 Awake Goy Raising plants from seeds is a great sense of achievement for most gardeners and when the seeds are the ones you collected for free it is even better. All plants that you have growing in your gardens seed at sometime, with some plants that maybe years away but with annual plants it is at maturity […]
How to deal with powdery mildew and other diseases in your garden (Wally Richards)
February 20th, 2022 Awake Goy This is the time of the year that the disease called Powdery Mildew will attack a number of plants in your garden. Powdery mildew is a common fungus that affects a wide variety of plants. It is easily identified and appears as light grey or white powdery spots usually found on infected leaves, but can […]
Gardening for January: Healthy crops, healthy you (Wally Richards)
January 3rd, 2022 Awake Goy First column for 2022 Happy New Year (at least hopefully happier than 2021) The first subject is an important one and one I published 2016 (remember 2016? it was a far better country then and if you had been told back then that you had to wear a muzzle and have a special permit to […]
Gardening tasks for December (Wally Richards)
December 22nd, 2021 Awake Goy December, the first month of Summer and at this time our thoughts are more on Christmas rather than the garden. If we neglect the garden completely this month then much of our previous efforts will have been wasted. Spend a few hours making the garden Xmas ready, so you can relax over the festive season. […]
Which vegetables to plant right now (Wally Richards)
December 13th, 2021 Awake Goy That is, in the Southern Hemisphere, this being a NZ blog. I was asked the question this week about what we should be planting vegetable wise at this time of the year. A lot depends on how much room you have and how keen you are on growing your own vegetables. If you are fortunate […]
The importance of Phosphorous to the soil in your garden (Wally Richards)
December 3rd, 2021 Awake Goy Phosphorus stimulates budding and blooming. Plants need phosphorus to produce fruits, flowers, and seeds. It also helps make your plants more resistant to disease. Phosphorus doesn’t dissolve like nitrogen. The soil will hang onto phosphorus, not releasing it into water. Phosphate is needed by all life forms but if taken in too greater quantities it […]
Encourage your children to garden (Wally Richards)
November 26th, 2021 Awake Goy We need to encourage our children and grandchildren to appreciate Nature by including them in some gardening activities. I believe that young children have a natural affinity with plants and insects when they are allowed to explore our gardens. Children learn many things by mimicking their parents and are often keen at a young age […]
Those plant gifts that keep on giving (Wally Richards)
November 20th, 2021 Awake Goy Christmas is getting very near with only about 6 weeks till Xmas week. Many of you will have already started putting a lot of thought into what gifts they would like to give and some will have completed most of their Christmas shopping already. Others like myself are still thinking what to give to someone […]
IT STARTS WITH SEEDS … and how to save them (Wally Richards)
November 15th, 2021 Awake Goy We’re a week behind with Wally’s newsletter. This is from last week, so this week’s will follow shortly. EWR Nearly all plants start with seeds and the main functions of any plant is to reproduce itself by all means possible, which with many plants means flowering and seeding. Think about that for a moment; the […]
Protecting your fruit crops from Codlin & Guava Moth (Wally Richards)
October 31st, 2021 Awake Goy I wrote this article a few months ago but as several gardeners recently have been asking how to protect their fruit crops from both Codlin Moth and Guava Moth I think it is well worth repeating this information. Guava moth is mostly in the upper north island but there has been a few cases in […]
Things to do in the garden right now (Wally Richards)
October 20th, 2021 Awake Goy GARDENING TASKS Now that we are halfway through Spring and quickly heading towards the first month of Summer (December) there is a fair bit to do in our gardens so lets run a check list in case some things are missed. It will depend on what you have in your gardens as to whether any […]
‘Going to Seed’ – When your plants bolt and what to do about it (Wally Richards)
October 11th, 2021 Awake Goy Plants have one objective in life and that is to reproduce. Reproduction is mostly done by seeding (spore in ferns) but can be also achieved through division, suckering, cloning, producing bulblets or pups. The desire to reproduce is their strongest attribute which is one that can make gardening very difficult at times. (weeds, suckers, oxalis). […]
Gardening & Plant Immunity (Wally Richards)
October 4th, 2021 Awake Goy Wally Richards is a longtime Kiwi gardening guru. I used to post his useful and excellent material earlier in the piece … I’ve neglected the food growing aspect for some time now though aside from the odd article. It seems an appropriate time now to return to it with the much announced coming food shortages. […]
