August 2020 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

July was terribly dry, with mild nights. Today it is forecast to snow almost to sea level, with plenty of rain elsewhere. This winter at the bottom of the world will test the plants and seeds in our gardens as they try to work out if it is time to grow or best to stay dormant a while longer. One thing we can be sure of is that it is time to sow tomatoes, as far off as a summer harvest seems.

Tomatoes

I have written about sowing tomatoes many times. The gist of it is:

1.   They really do need bottom heat for good germination. Use a brewer’s mat or terrarium mat or silicone terrarium tube or lash out on a heated seed raising kit.

2.   Covering the seed tray with a sheet of glass before germination keeps moisture in and rodents out. This applies to all seed sowing.

3.   Once germinated, they need LOTS of sun plus the heat mat. Water sparingly. Use warm water. Water with a weak liquid feed every couple of weeks.

4.   Pay attention to how they look. Spindly = need more sun. Yellow = too much water. Not growing = need more warmth or food.

5.   When you pot up, add some blood and bone and sulphate of potash to the mix. Only pot up to tiny pots, then slightly bigger and so on, and ONLY when they look too big for the pot they are in.

6.   In Cygnet, I plant mine out in late Nov or early Dec. They should then be strong, dark green and flowering.

7.   Make sure you prepare the soil now, in your garden, for planting out. Get all your supplies now, including this next suggestion….

8.   I make 750mm rounds of sturdy, 100mm-square, wire mesh, 900 – 1200 high. It comes in 30m lengths. Cut lengths of 2400mm and you will get 12 rounds. Whites is the only brand I have found here. Chicken wire is too flimsy for this job.

9.   I now have 2 x 30m rolls. It’s a big outlay, but I put them around clusters of raspberries and any plants needing support. They will last forever and never get tangled or squashed etc. Helpful to reduce swearing in the garden!

10.                I plant my tomatoes 750mm apart and put a mesh circle over each one, joined one to the next, for strength. I bang in one stake at the edge of each, for more strength in our windy summers. In the centre, with each tomato plant, I put a twirly, metal stake (from Shiploads). I keep all the tomato growth within the circle. I have used this method forever and it is foolproof. You will find dozens of uses for these circles, after the tomatoes finish, I assure you.

 

 

 

Annual, biennial, perennial …. in the kitchen garden

Annual means grows to maturity and sets seed in one year = lettuce, basil, tomatoes, pumpkins. These plants readily self-sow if you allow the full life cycle to complete. Easy to save the seeds (but some will cross).

Biennial means it takes 2 years for the whole life cycle to complete = kale, sprouting broccoli, beetroot, celery. These will also re-sow, given time. Easy to save the seeds (but some will cross).

Perennial has 2 meanings:

1.   Always visible (but may be deciduous), doesn’t die down, lives for many years = fruit trees, currants, wasabi, herbs like rosemary, bay etc. These are generally best propagated by cuttings or grafts.

2.   Grows, dies back to the ground then comes again next season from the same roots = artichokes, asparagus, rhubarb, tarragon. This should be labelled herbaceous perennial. These are best propagated by division.

Curly Leaf

It is time to see that the early fungus that causes leaf curl on peaches, nectarines and related fruit trees does not get a hold, by spraying every nook and cranny of every branch, stem and bud with a copper spray. Peter Cundall recommends Burgundy mix, which you can make yourself, because it does not clog up the spray nozzle, like Bordeaux can.

Burgundy Mixture:

1. Dissolve 50 gram of washing soda (from supermarket) in 2.5 litres of warm water.
2. Dissolve 50 grams copper sulphate in a separate 2.5 litres of water.
3. Slowly pour the dissolved washing soda into the dissolved copper sulphate.
4. This is Burgundy mixture. It is at its most effective strength when freshly mixed so must be used immediately or within a couple of days.
5. Spray thoroughly over the bare branches of peach, nectarine and other stone fruit trees to help control leaf curl and brown rot disease. It is also useful when sprayed over raspberry canes in late July/early August for control of raspberry rust and on apple trees that had scab last year.

The mixture colours the sprayed plants blue. The spray can withstand light rain but should be re-applied after persistent rain and done at least twice before any buds open. Do not spray once the leaves and flowers open.

Plant and sow in August   Plant rhubarb, strawberry runners, raspberry canes, asparagus and get all deciduous trees and shrubs in before they leaf.   Start sowing summer vegetables with bottom heat: ·         Tomatoes ·         Capsicums ·         Chillis ·         Eggplants…. Good luck! And while you are waiting for them to mature, why not grow some sprouts in the kitchen for a nutritious and delicious treat for your taste buds and body…. lentils, chickpeas, fenugreek, buckwheat   Sow now in trays to plant out later: ·         Onions including red, salad, spring and most others ·         Broad beans (it is not too late) ·         Coriander ·         Brassicas ·         Asian greens ·         Lettuces ·         Peas to eat as pea shoot microgreens

August 2016 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

Making water work

The wettest 3 months on record means everything is saturated and most soil will be unworkable for a while yet. Working the soil when it is in this state can damage the structure and upset the soil life, never mind about damaging your back! I recommend we all take a while to observe what is happening in our gardens by plunging a spade or fork to its full depth, wobbling it back and forth and, on your hands and knees, looking at and feeling the soil. Once it is no longer solid, like slicing a cheesecake, but rather more like breaking open a muffin, then you can go ahead and work the soil.

If you have land but no garden yet, this winter will have shown you how your land has handled constant rain. Were there boggy areas that were constantly wet? Were there patches that remarkably stayed bone dry (like under large trees)? Perhaps you have a slope that turned into a sheet of running water or a creek that became eroded or overflowed? Take notes, draw a rough map and mark out distinct zones with sticks because you will forget!

One way to modify the land is to make your garden interesting with cleverly designed mounds and shaped low areas that lead excess water to a pond or already existing creek. My garden has such a design, directing water around the garden in shallow, grassy depressions which end up either in my pond or in the creek. There are paths crossing the dips, with small “bridges” which keep a walker’s feet dry, which are anything from a few, short planks embedded into both sides to a metal grate or some nice rocks. These features make land into garden and plants can be selected for their habitat requirements.

This is Tasmania so make use of our climate and our diverse native Tasmanian plants, many of which are edible and which will result in frogs, insects and our gorgeous, tiny, native birds and small mammals inhabiting parts of your garden.

Choosing and sowing tomatoes etc

If, like me, picking tomatoes from the garden is a favourite sport of yours then now is the time to get your seeds started. Last summer a lot of people grew the best tomatoes ever but we have no idea what this season will be like. So we need to hedge our bets and choose a range of tomatoes; some that will produce in a cool season, some for a hot season, some that will thrive even in the rain and some that can tolerate wind etc.

I always grow some Rouge de Marmande because, no matter what, they will provide you with a prolific crop of medium sized, red tomatoes on sturdy, bush plants. I always grow some Black Cherry as they are the most flavoursome of the cherries, in my opinion, and are reliable. After that, I go for a dense, luscious, tasty tomato like Black from Tula which may not perform as well in a cool summer but last summer was the highlight of my garden. Next I would choose San Marzano, as a cooking tomato as they go on and on for months. I don’t much like yellow or pear shaped tomatoes as I have never tasted a good one in Tasmania. Kotlas is by far the earliest and is worth growing for that reason.

Basically, fruiting plants like tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants need the longest growing season as they have to first get to a good size, then flower, then the fruits must grow and finally they need time to develop flavour and to ripen. Sow these now, preferably with even, bottom heat. I use a 6m long, 50 watt, thin, flexible, silicon cable taped to the underside of a 3 shelf, metal rack from the tip-shop. The metal shelves ensure good heat transfer to my seed trays and 50W just keeps the soil at a nice temperature, without costing a lot to run.

Each seed tray fits inside a foam box from which I have cut out the bottom, so the tray sits directly on the metal shelf. Over the foam frame sits a sheet of glass. This is for 2 reasons. Firstly, successful seed germination depends on high humidity but constant watering can be too much, causing low germination. Once the seeds are gently watered at sowing, covering with a glass sheet keeps in the moisture without any further watering needed before germination. Secondly, mice love seeds and this is a fool proof way of keeping them out. I once lost a whole tray of assorted pumpkin seeds to mice and quickly learned my lesson.

Seeds you would be best not to sow yet include basil. I grow wonderful basil, sowing as late as November. This way they do not run to seed, but grow fast and strong in the longer days. No matter how warm your shelf or hot house, day length cannot be easily altered and some plants just insist on longer days to grow well.

August 2015 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

Like many others, I was out early on Monday morning, taking photos of the snow and enjoying the rare treat. Many plants were weighed down with snow but this is nothing new for most of vegetables and fruit trees we grow this time of year as they hail from climes more severe than ours.

 The Chill Factor

In fact, the cold can add sweetness to vegetables such as chicory and will ensure a good crop of apples, cherries and pears which have a chill factor which means they require a certain number of hours below 7C to ensure an even bloom period. During mild winters the chilling requirement may not be met and will result in uneven bloom, and hence uneven pollination and less fruit set. The table below suggests the chill hours required by various fruits. Of course within, for example, apples, there are hundreds of varieties, each differing slightly in its requirements but this table gives a general guide.

Apple 300 - 1200	Chestnut 400 - 750
Apricot 300 - 1000	Almond 400 - 700
Cherry – 500 - 800	Walnut 400 – 1500
Fig 100 - 500	Avocado NONE
Grapes 100 - 500	Citrus NONE
Kiwi 400 - 800	Pear 150 - 1500
Peach 150-1200	Persimmon 100 - 700
Pecan 150 - 1600	Plum 275 - 1000
Nectarine 150 - 1200	Quince 100 - 500
Pomegranate 100 - 300	Olive 400 - 700

Now is your last chance to buy and plant out bare-rooted fruit trees this year.

Tomatoes

It seems ridiculous to be thinking of tomatoes while it is snowing but August is the best time to start tomatoes from seed. Basically, fruiting plants like tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants need the longest growing season as they have to first get to a good size, then flower, then the fruits must grow and finally they need time to develop flavour and to ripen.

 Many of us have fires going all the time right now and setting a tray of sown tomato seeds on the mantel is perfect for germination but immediately you see green shoots emerging, they must be given full sun or you will have spindly seedlings, with no strength from which they struggle to ever recover.

Bottom heat is best for germination and I always put a sheet of glass over the tray to increase humidity and to stop mice from eating the seeds (if they are in a hothouse) as late winter is a hungry time for mice as they prepare for litters of babies. Into my little green house is where the germinated seedlings go in order to get enough sunlight. I use a 6m long, 50 watt, thin, flexible, silicon cable taped to the underside of a 3 shelf, metal rack from the tip-shop. The metal shelves ensure good heat transfer to my seed trays and 50W just keeps the soil at a nice temperature, without costing a lot to run.

Contrary to some advice, it seems to me that it is perfectly possible to grow excellent crops of big, delicious tomatoes, as we did last summer at the Cygnet Community Garden. Now is the time to begin soil preparation. We chose a sunny spot, covered in horrid grass. About this time last year we laid a sheet of weed mat over the area and threw prunings, weeds etc on top. Then we left it for a month or maybe 2, after which we dragged off the whole lot and put in a couple of concerted human sessions to remove the couch runners. Once spring leapt into action, huge amounts of runners shot again so then we put the chooks to work, digging and scratching. Late October-ish we went over the whole area, loosening the soil to a good fork’s depth. After more runners shot, we could then easily pull them as we saw them and by mid- November we had a beautiful bed into which we dug our favourite 5-in-1 organic fertiliser mix and a heap of our home made compost.

By now our seedlings were well established in the poly tunnel and some were flowering so they were put out to harden off, after all reasonable chance of frost had passed. We also bought some unfamiliar varieties from the Botanic Gardens Spring Sale. We laid out the plants, leaving 1m between each, which seems like a lot but which is so important. Remarkably we had a few ripe tomatoes by Christmas! We supplied all of us for months, with the best tomatoes I have seen or eaten in Tasmania!

I hesitate to mention varieties as every variety has its qualities, climatic preferences and variabilities. So these are my suggestions, with which many may not agree J….. Early: Kotlas, Flavour: Black from Tula (large and dense), black cherry (small) Reliability: Marmande (medium, plentiful), Mama Mia (constant supply, lovely shape) Cooking: Italian gold (large roma, very prolific, long season). Of course there are many others. We saved seed from the best plants with the best tomatoes and will be sowing them soon.

Oxalic Acid

Many leafy vegetables have large amounts of oxalic acid in them, rhubarb being the highest concentration and everyone knows not to eat rhubarb leaves or to give them to your chooks. Next comes anything related to beets; silver beet, rainbow chard (which is multi-coloured silver beet) and beetroot, for example. My mother always told me that these need to be cooked in lots of boiling water and drained well. If I want some greens to put in soup or to stir fry etc, I use leaves from the brassica family such as kale, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, or radish leaves or chicory. I eat a lot of greens so I like to vary what I eat. This table explains what I mean.

Raw Vegetable	Oxalate content milligrams per 100 gram serving
Spinach	750
Beet greens	610
Okra	146
Parsley	100
Leeks	89
Brassicas	74

 

Jobs for August During early August it is important to spray Bordeaux or Burgundy mix, before bud burst, on: All peaches and nectarines, for curly leaf prevention. Repeat in 2 weeks. Apples which had scab last year Raspberry canes which had leaf rust

 

Plant and sow in August   Plant or divide rhubarb, strawberry runners, raspberry canes, asparagus and get all deciduous trees and shrubs in before they leaf.   Start sowing summer vegetables with bottom heat: ·         Tomatoes ·         Capsicums ·         Chillis And while you are waiting for them to mature, why not grow some sprouts in the kitchen for a nutritious and delicious treat for your taste buds and body!   Sow now in trays to plant out later: ·         Onions including red, salad, spring and most others ·         Broad beans (it is not too late) ·         Coriander ·         Brassicas ·         Asian greens ·         Lettuces ·         Peas (sow direct and protect from birds and snails)