It’s a natural source of organic, slow-release nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which promote healthy leaf and stem growth and strong root development.
The concentrated organic matter in Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone aids soil moisture retention, enriches the soil and encourages hard-working earthworms and beneficial soil micro-organisms.
Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone is also boosted with sustainably sourced New Zealand seaweed, which encourages root growth and plant health and improves plant resistance.
Here’s how you can use Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone to prepare your garden for the warmer days ahead:
• In the vegetable and herb patch — mix into the soil in raised or in-ground garden beds where you’re going to grow delicious warm-season produce like tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, sweetcorn, basil, capsicum, eggplant and pumpkins.
• In flower gardens — mix into the soil before sowing flower seeds or transplanting seedlings or plants of vibrantly coloured petunias, calibrachoa, marigolds, zinnias and verbena.
• New trees and shrubs — when planting a new tree or shrub, mix some Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone into the soil in the planting hole.
Tomato head start
For homegrown tomato lovers in temperate areas it can seem like a very, very long winter. Have you been just itching to get your tomatoes going?
The arrival of spring means that you can start off tomato seeds on a warm, bright windowsill, so the seedlings are ready for planting out as soon as any chance of frost has passed.
For tomato-growing addicts that love a large juicy tomato with old-fashioned beefsteak flavour, try Yates Tomato Big Beef.
It is great for growing in vegetable patches and also pots. And if you love cherry tomatoes then try Yates Tomato Sweet 100, which is a prolific variety that produces clusters of sweet, bite-sized tomatoes.
Here’s how to get your tomatoes started:
• Fill some empty seedling punnets with a good quality seed-raising mix like Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix.
• Sow seed 3-6mm deep (check your chosen variety for the correct sowing depth), cover with seed-raising mix and water gently.
• Place the punnets in a warm, sunny spot. A brightly lit windowsill is ideal.
• Keep the mix moist and seedlings will start to emerge in about 10 to 14 days.
• When the seedlings are about 5cm tall, they can be transplanted into their final home, in either a garden bed that’s been enriched with some handfuls of Yates Thrive Natural Blood & Bone or a container. Only transplant seedlings out once there will be no more frosts.
• In a fortnight, start feeding each week with Yates Thrive Tomato Liquid Plant Food, which will provide the tomatoes with a balanced diet of nutrients to promote lots of healthy growth and encourage lots of flowers which will turn into delicious fruit.
Marvellous microgreens
Yates Microgreens are the quick and easy way to add the freshest taste sensation and gourmet touch to your culinary creations.
They’re fast-growing, being ready to pick in just two to three weeks.
You can grow microgreens year round in a warm, well-lit position indoors or outdoors during the warmer months on a protected patio or veranda.
Yates Microgreens Mizuna Red Gems are a pretty microgreen with a mild mustard flavour.
It is perfect for sprinkling over salads, pasta dishes, baked potatoes with sour cream and scrambled eggs, and also for adding to sandwiches, rice paper rolls and wraps.
Grow your own microgreens using these easy steps:
• Sprinkle half a packet of Yates Microgreen Mizuna Red Gems over a 10cm diameter pot filled with compacted and moistened Yates Black Magic Seed Raising Mix. For best results the seeds must be sown thickly.
• Cover the seed with a thin layer of seed-raising mix and moisten using a mist-spray bottle.
• Place the pots in a warm, well-lit position indoors (or outdoors during warm weather), out of direct sunlight.
• Keep the seed-raising mix consistently moist.
• Apply Yates Thrive All Purpose Liquid Plant Food at half strength once the seedlings emerge.
• Snip microgreens above the soil line once they are 3-5cm tall. — Courtesy of Yates
