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Legend
- Start Indoors
- Transplant
- Start Outdoors
- Care
- Harvest
- Succession Plant
Helen Mount
Helen Mount is a cultivar of a wild plant called
Jonny Jump Up
These tricolour plants are very simple
to grow. They bring cheer to any garden, and
never fall out of favour. Violas are somewhere
intermediate in size between pansies and violets.
They flower for long periods from early spring to
late autumn and are charming as edging and
rockery plants. They grow very flat
to the ground and are useful for bedding, as fillers
in borders and in pots, troughs and hanging
baskets. You can even add the flowers to your
garden salad.
They have an amazing scent that is truly
memorable but has the ability to shut of your
nasal receptors unless you come and go in order
to recharge your nose. This makes them ideal for
planting along pathways.
Violas are generally more tolerant
of heat and cold than pansies. They will grow in
most soils and flourish in full sun or half shade.
They will benefit from organic matter being added
to the soil as this retains moisture.
Liquid feeding and removing the spent
flowers will prolong the life of the plant and
the flowering period. They are best described as
a very cheerful, and cheeky looking annual.
Asteraceae Tagetes patula x erecta
This is an example of the timeline you would see based on your growing conditions.
Aphids
These small (1/16" - 1/8") creatures feed by sucking the sap from plants. In small numbers aphids aren’t a problem, but under favorable circumstances they can multiply rapidly and create large colonies. In such cases they remove so much sap from the growing shoots that they become stunted and misshapen. They may also transmit virus diseases. The various aphid species attack a huge variety of crops, but they are particularly common on the Brassicas.
Aphids have been called the mice of the insect world, because they multiply so quickly and provide food for so many creatures.
Control
The best way to control Aphids is to have lots of insectory plants (the Daisy and Carrot families are particularly good sources of food) around to feed their predators. If their numbers get too great you can wash them off the plants with a strong jet (I mean strong) of water. In extreme cases you could use insecticidal soap or pyrethrum.
Image: Clemson University - USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, Bugwood.org
Last Frost Date (LFD) refers to the approximate date of the last killing frost of spring.
Example first frost date on April 08.
First Frost Date (FFD) refers to the approximate date of the first killing frost of winter.
Example first frost date on November 01.
Current week.