"Petesin" wh@tthe**** wrote in message
I have only just this year decided to try growing some plants.
Didn't
really know what I was doing and now I think I need some help!

The garden beds are new (never had gardens there before) I dug up
the
existing soil added horse manure and more soil from a big hole I dug
behind
the shed to raise it up a little. Got the soil tested and I was
told to add
sulphur (found that interesting as around here we have a big red and
white
stack that pumps sulphur into the air all day long). I added the
sulphur and
the resulting tests seemed to show it did the trick.

I went and bought myself some plants from the local nursery that
seemed to
match the shade/sun exposure for my gardens and planted them along
with some
"5 in 1". He said it was good stuff and would help them along
nicely.

I put in a basic watering system that gives them plenty of water
(very
little watering restrictions here) and let them go. The results
were very
poor. I lost one and the others didn't grow much at all. Some of
the leaves
were turning yellow but I was willing to give them the benifit of
the doubt
as it was coming into autumn and I thought their growing season was
taking a
break. During winter I dug in some blood and bone and watered them
with
'trace elements' and they started to pick up a bit. Now spring has
sprung
and the geisha's have started to come good after a light pruning but
the
leaves on the gardenias and 'sweet love' out the back are starting
to turn
yellow again and the leaves on the other plants seem to be browning
off too.

2 weeks ago while fertilising the lawn with grow force 303 I decided
to
throw some around the base of the plants too. Was this a mistake?
It's
only since then that the plants have started to turn on me. Should
I give
them another hit of blood and bone and the trace elements that
seemed to
work last time? The bloke on ABC radio always talks about sulphate
of
potash. Can that stuff help me out? I really have no idea and just
want
some plants to grow.

I'm sorry this was so long but I just wanted to give you a good idea
of what
I have done so far.
Also I live in NW QLD and it's starting to get very hot very quickly
so I
want to use this spring and summer to really get my gardens going.

I dunno what geishas are and I can't grow gardenias where I live so
can't help there either so I'll be very general. My advice would be
to go for a walk and peer over fences. If you see a good local garden
then go in and ask the residents what they are doing that works for
them in your area. Garden centres often just try to flog what gets
them the most money and few of them these days seem to have a
horticulturalist on staff (or even know much about plants)

You may need to start off with plants that are a bit lower down the
diffficulty chain as a novice gardener.

And go a bit easy on the fertiliser to begin with. Blood and bone is
spread at the rate of a handful/metre and should be like a thin
coating of icing sugar on the top of a sponge cake and depending on
growth rate can be spred once month in hot moist areas or less often
in cooler slower growing areas. Trace elements are more like a
teaspoong over a metre once a year. You can poison your soil if you
overdo these.

Waht about the quality of your water?