Follow Melissa King’s Top 6 Tips for having healthy plants and a bumper crop in the veggie patch!
1. Healthy Soil = Healthy Plants
You will find that a healthy plant is less prone to pests and disease. So, for better producing plants, it’s best to work from the ground up - literally.
Having good quality and productive soil is key in providing a healthy and nutritious growing environment for your plants.
A big sign of soil health is animal life! To test how healthy your soil is at home, simply dig a hole at least 15cm deep and count the number of critters you can see - the more the merrier! Earthworms, Ground Beetles or Centipedes are popular ones to spot.
The easiest way to boost your soil productivity and improve its overall health is to add Scotts Performance Naturals Organic-Based Soil Improver! It’s packed with 100% natural ingredients and lots of added goodies to help you grow fruit and vegetables that are up to twice as big.
Learn more about how you can improve your soil here
2. Prevent & Attack
Keep pests at bay naturally by introducing lots of strongly scented herbs like Basil, Coriander or Fennel. Flowering plants, like Lavender, also can attract friendly predators that prey on nasty garden pests.
A lot of veggies, like Cucumbers, Zucchinis and Pumpkins, rely on Bees and Butterflies to pollinate them. Fill your veggie patch with pretty pollinator attracting plants and yield a bigger, better harvest.
Plant blue flowering beauties like Catmint and Salvia and watch the bees buzz into your garden. Forget-me-nots and Nasturtiums are bee magnets too, along with fragrant herbs like Thyme, Basil, Borage and Sage.
Learn more about why we need pollinators in the garden and how to attract them here.
3. The Fight Against Weeds
Weeds compete with your veggies for precious water and nutrients and they can take over quickly (especially in hot and humid weather), so you want to get on top of them early!
Apply a good layer of Debco mulch to help conserve water and keep the weeds down through the season.
Remember, if you are hand-pulling weeds to ensure that you pull out all the roots as they can grow back!
4. Rewarding Rotation
Rotating your crops from season to season so that related plants are not grown in the same spot two years running is beneficial for a couple of reasons.
Crop rotation can help avoid disease build up, manage soil fertility and balance out the nutrients available.
5. Water Wiser
Water deeply less often to encourage roots to grow down into the soil, where it’s cooler and to promote a more dry tolerant root system.
Applying a soil wetting agent will also help you make the most of the water by increasing water penetration, improving water retention and reducing runoff.
6. Plant The Best
Plant high yielding varieties like Zucchinis, Climbing Beans, Capsicums and Cherry Tomatoes, so that you get the most out of your growing space.
To grow your veggies twice as big, feed them a good dose of Scotts Performance Naturals Vegetable & Herb Organic-Based Fertiliser. It contains NatureN, a fast-acting and unique natural ingredient, Seaweed, Bio Stimulants, and is high in Calcium to promote healthy strong growth - plus more!
