Christine and Bob (Manly West, Queensland)

Christine and Bob Brimson are passionate about their garden in Manly West, Queensland.

Bob describes Christine as the green thumb and at Neutrog, we hear that a lot. One partner describes the other in that way; but at Neutrog, we know it’s team work. Someone dreams and plans and someone brings those ideas to life.

Christine is an ardent follower of Graham Ross, listening to him every weekend, taking on board his advice and also travelling on Graham Ross Garden Tours with either Graham or his crew. Last year they visited the Chelsea Flower Show and also visited some wonderful gardens around the south of England including Prince Charles garden at Cornwall. Christine also enjoyed a visit with Graham early this year, to India.

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Planting Strawberries

Strawberries are such a wonderful fruit with a very diverse range of uses. Here at Neutrog, some of our favourite ways to enjoy them are freshly sliced over pancakes, mixed into a smoothie, or bobbing around in a glass of champagne.

One of our Neutrog team shared with us a story that we felt you all deserved to hear. This team member received a surprise delivery on their doorstep from a very kind neighbour, a whole bag of strawberry runners ready to be planted. Sadly, after recently losing their beloved family dog, our team member was a little down in the dumps and the idea of planting out these strawberries was a little overwhelming.

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Balanced nutrition & feeding

Neutrog’s Microbiologist and R&D Manager, Dr. Uwe Stroeher talks about balanced nutrition for your plants.

We know that a balanced diet is required for us to be healthy and to perform at our peak, and for plants it is no different. Plants need balanced nutrition.

Often people look at a packet of fertiliser but only look for levels of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, but plants need so much more. Other critical nutrients which are required in relatively high levels are things like sulphur, magnesium and calcium as well as a whole range of trace or micronutrients such as iron, zinc, manganese – the list goes on. There are a plethora of plant issues related to the incorrect feeding of plants, but these can be overcome by using a nutritionally-balanced fertiliser and feeding your plants on a regular basis.

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Feeding Citrus

This is Helen Lovel here from Neutrog, with a sad tale and even sadder photos of my potted citrus. At garden clubs and training sessions, my colleagues and I are always talking about the importance of feeding on a regular – at least seasonal – basis. One of the group of plants which we particularly emphasise the importance of feeding, are citrus. They are very heavy feeders, and an application of Gyganic for Veggies Fruit and Citrus every 8 weeks, along with GOGO Juice fortnightly will make a huge difference to the growth of your citrus. You will see an improvement in flowering, as will fruit size, quality and flavour.

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All About Tomatoes

The not so humble tomato is at the top of the “must grow” list for many gardeners. In most years, the challenge is to see who is the most successful in harvesting a crop before Christmas. There are so many varieties to choose from and there is such a great range of colour too.

The Neutrog team told us what they’re growing in their home gardens this year. We have Green Zebra for its wonderful green colour and yellow stripes which indicate when it’s ripe. Several varieties of cherry tomatoes in different colours. The fabulous and ever reliable Grosse Lisse. Plus, a couple of unknowns. One of the team had their property under flood in June 2016. In the summer of 2016-17 a tomato seedling popped up on their river flats. It was a delicious little truss tomato which was never watered, had cows trampling over it and it survived right through until the worst of the frosts the following winter. Seed was saved and it has been affectionately named Flood Red. Another is growing a tomato known as Mr. Curry. Known as Mr Curry, because that’s the old bloke who provided the original seed. This is a huge fleshy and extremely tasty tomato which fruits right through until late May.

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Controlling nematodes in your garden

Nematodes or roundworms are almost microscopic worms – the majority of them can be beneficial as they help break down organic matter and control pests such as insects. However there is one group of nematodes which are real troublemakers – they attack and feed on the roots of plants, and if their numbers explode, the damage to a plant’s roots can kill young plants and stress older plants so they become prone to diseases.
So how can we control these damaging nematodes?

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Reducing the need for crop rotation

Many gardeners, particularly those that grow roses, would know about sick soil or replant disease. In essence, if you put a plant into a hole where the same type of plant was previously, often the new plant does not perform well, and can wither and die. However, when you replant from a different family of plants, it does well. So the question is, what causes this?

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