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.