Flower Power

17/05/2016 - 00:00

Brendan Baele, responsible for the gardens at the City of Greater Bendigo’s, Victoria, Australia, explains why TerraCottem allowed him to take his flower beds to the next level.

If you’re in the hort industry, you know that each green space has it’s own character and quirks – and some spaces are more quirky than others. Take the green space smack at the epicentre of Victoria’s Bendigo. Drive up the Calder Highway and by the time it’s calling itself Pall Mall you can’t possibly miss the fact that this City was built in Victorian times by people who had managed to find a fair amount of gold. It’s a Victoriana-fest, including the green spaces between these gorgeous buildings. It’s these gardens that are the responsibility of the City of Greater Bendigo’s Brendan Beale and his intensive horticulture team…

“We had problems with the soil in the beds. We’d tried various composting regimes and these had left us with nutrient rich soil – overly so – but with pH issues and weeds. The seedlings were struggling.” The fix came from an unexpected angle – a dose of TerraCottem – which interestingly sorted things on several fronts.

“Our aim was to add the soil conditioner to the beds to balance the pH and the rest would hopefully work itself out over time. I didn’t expect it to be a quick fix but we noticed the results instantly. Our first planting of petunias, which we’d planted very early, lasted a full five months and looked great. And I think the beds are looking better year after year.”

Brendan isn’t calling TerraCottem a wonder treatment, but rather something which shifted the balance so that things could work themselves out.