• Cover sensitive plants with frost or shade cloth. You may need to construct a supporting frame out of wooden stakes or wire to hang the cloth over and ensure that the cloth reaches the ground. Bricks or pavers are a handy way to weigh down the edges of the cloth on the ground.
Protect small seedlings on frosty nights by creating cloches out of plastic softdrink bottles which have been cut in half.
• Keep the soil moist, as moist soil is better able to absorb and store heat during the day. Dry soil can exacerbate frost damage.
• Apply Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic over and around plants to help improve plant resistance to stressful events like cold and frost. Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic contains 100 percent cold composted seaweed and is certified for use in organic gardening by BioGro NZ.
• Don’t prune off any damaged foliage until the risk of frost has passed, as damaged foliage can help protect the growth underneath.
Bright baby beets
Beetroot is a versatile and delicious vegetable that’s low in fat and is a rich source of folate and fibre. The red pigment in beetroot is also reported to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant health benefits, so there are lots of fantastic reasons to eat beetroot.
The root part of beetroot can be grated into salads, roasted, used in relish, hummus, soups and sandwiches and the colourful leaves can be mixed into salads.
If you love homegrown beetroot but don’t have a big vege patch, then Yates Baby Beets is an ideal space saving variety. They’re perfect for growing in pots or troughs, are tender and sweet and are ready to harvest only 6-7 weeks after sowing.
Here’s how to grow your very own baby beetroot in a pot:
• Choose a pot or trough with good drainage holes and fill with a good quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix. Position the pot in a spot that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day.
• Each seed is a cluster of 1-4 true seeds in a corky outer coating. Soak the seed for two hours before sowing to ensure water penetrates to the seeds.
• Sow the seeds directly into the potting mix, 12mm deep.
• Seedlings will emerge in 10 to 14 days.
• Once the seedlings are established, feed each week with Yates Thrive All Purpose Soluble Plant Food, which is a complete and balanced fertiliser that contains nitrogen for healthy leaf growth as well as phosphorus and potassium for strong root development.
• Baby beets can be harvested after 6-7 weeks. A few young tender leaves per plant can be picked earlier for use in salads.
Winter rose excitement
It’s bare-rooted rose planting time! A bagged, leafless bare-rooted rose bears little resemblance to the magnificent flowering plant it can become. Cast your mind forward to spring and summer when it will be delighting you with masses of blooms. Early to mid-winter is the time to get your bare-rooted roses planted so pop on your gardening gloves and get digging!
When you get your bagged rose home, here are some simple steps to give it the best possible start:
• Unwrap the plastic from around the roots and then immediately place the plant in a bucket of water with some Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic, so that all the roots are covered. Leave to soak for at least 15 minutes. Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic will help reduce transplant shock and encourage new roots to develop.
• In a sunny spot that receives at least six hours of sunshine a day, dig a hole around 30cm wide and deep. Mix some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food into the soil dug from the hole.
• Create a pyramid shaped mound of soil in the bottom of the planting hole.
• Place the rose in the hole with its roots sitting on and around the mound of soil. Ensure that the graft union (bump on the stem) will be sitting at least 5cm above the final ground level.
• Backfill around the roots gently with Yates Dynamic Lifter enriched soil and then water in well.
• Apply a layer of organic mulch, like bark chips or Lucerne or pea straw, around the new rose, keeping the mulch a few centimetres away from the stem.
• Keep the soil moist while the new rose establishes.
Sometimes a rose will produce new shoots prematurely during winter. These are vulnerable to damage from cold and frosts. If your roses are developing tender new growth, help protect them by draping some shade or frost cloth over the plants.
Wintery goodness
Spinach is laden with fantastic antioxidants and is high in health benefiting carotenoids. Spinach is also a good source of vitamins, fibre and protein.
Yates Spinach Winter Queen is a tasty, prolific and early maturing spinach variety with large deep-green leaves. It’s as easy as sowing a few seeds in a clump, direct where they are to grow in a sunny spot in the vege garden. Seeds will take 1-3 weeks to germinate and you can be harvesting leaves in as little as 8-10 weeks. The beauty of loose leafy veges like spinach is that you can harvest individual leaves as you need them.
No vege patch? Not a problem!
Yates Spinach Winter Queen can also be grown in pots filled with a good quality potting mix. Choose a sunny spot on a patio or balcony and rotate the pots 180 degrees every week so that as many of the spinach plants are exposed to as much sunlight as possible.
To keep Winter Queen spinach productive and flourishing, feed each week with Yates Thrive Vege & Herb Liquid Plant Food and pick the leaves regularly.
Here are some spinach recipe ideas to inspire you to grow this super healthy vege:
• Delicious spinach and filo spanakopita
• Spinach and cheese bombs
• Spinach, pumpkin and feta quiche
• Spinach and basil pesto
• Spinach and ricotta pull-apart.
