It seems that to be a good gardener, you must practise patience, because once you have finished doing most things you do in the garden you have to sit back and wait to appreciate the full benefits of what you have just done.
That is apart from the initial satisfaction of a job well done and a “gee, that looks good”.
It is not until the weeks or even years ahead that, as the garden matures and the colours, textures, shapes, forms and the design layout all start to come together that you really see the results.
Even using mature plantings, it is still a waiting game, just a little shorter.
Then, as the garden evolves, you start tinkering with it, making adjustments to suit the changing uses of the area, removing things that are not co-operating with what you had envisaged.
Adding newfound favourite plants, or maybe even adding new features and structures that the maturing garden suggests you need, and so the waiting game continues.
It is all part of gardening; it is what makes it fun and interesting and challenging and frustrating all at the same time.
It is also what many new gardeners do not appreciate at first until they start to see results down the track.
We can encourage plants to grow, giving them all the right ingredients and conditions to do so, but we cannot speed things up any more than Mother Nature allows.
This is so often a sticking point when it comes to the availability of plants.
They can be between the growers’ potted up batches and unavailable for the next couple of months, or out of season and not available until next year or simply not suitable to our region and not likely to ever be stocked in the nursery.
It all takes time, patience and a bit of understanding of how plants grow.
The changing of the seasons is a time when plant availability can become an issue, as the growers’ batch lots start to run out and the next seasonal beauties are coming in to take their place.
Growers and garden centres alike do not want to be holding on to plants that are out of season and not going to be in demand for another 12 months, so stock levels start to dwindle.
At the same time, if the growing season has not been a favourable one for the new season plants coming in, then stock shortages will soon start to appear.
This availability issue happens in a big way with flowering and vegie seedlings, which is what I set about to discuss in the first place before getting a bit lost.
If you wander down to the seedling benches you will find them looking empty, uninspiring and rather disappointing.
This is because we are between seasons for a lot of these plants.
The spring and summer seedlings are finishing, and planting most of these varieties now is a waste of time and money.
At the same time, the autumn and winter seedlings, although already available from the growers, are not suitable to plant out yet in our hotter climate and will again result in disappointment.
But by waiting another three or four weeks, depending on the weather, you will have a much greater chance of success.
Varieties of flowering seedlings such as lobelia, alyssum, snapdragons and begonias can almost be planted all year round.
The same goes for vegies such as lettuce, chives, parsley, spinach, radish, silverbeet and beetroot, making them a viable choice for planting now.
Most of the rest of the seedlings will only grow through until the first couple of frosts or weeks of cold weather.
Which is fine, if all you are looking for is a quick short-term hit of colour or quick-cropping vegies.
The new season of flowers coming in will include pansies, viola, calendula, polyanthus, primula, stock, sweet pea, delphiniums, lupins and foxgloves.
Some of these will flower right through until December.
While the new season vegies will have all the Brassica plants, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, broccolini and kale.
Along with onions, beans, peas, broad beans, celery, leeks, parsnips and carrots.
Even though it is a bit early to be planting them all out, there is still plenty that you can be doing to be ready for when the weather is more suitable.
Remove last season’s plants and any weeds, dig the soil over incorporating some compost or manure as you go.
Form the garden bed up and rake over the surface, leaving a reasonably smooth level finish, test the soil pH and adjust as required.
Then, sit back and wait.
But don’t worry, it will not be for too long because we want to get them planted up as soon as the season permits, allowing us to take advantage of the warmth still in the ground.
It is all part of the patience of being a gardener.
21°C