February 2019 Kitchen Garden Guide

 

It has been quite difficult to think about anything other than the fires these last few days. Air quality has ranged from moderate to hazardous and back again, as the smoke settles then shifts. (Check out aqicn.org for real time air quality world wide). What does this mean for our gardens? Many plants shut down during such conditions so if you are noticing reduced vigour and fruit set, this is probably why. Time will set them right again, hopefully! Some of our native plants respond by opening cones and seed pods, having evolved to respond to fire reducing competition and in anticipation of better chances of survival.

My tomato experiment

I planted 5 tomatoes in each of 3 different situations in my garden. Here are the results so far:

1.   Planted in a well prepared and deep hay mulched bed surrounded by self sown nasturtiums, calendular, sweet cicely and rocket, and edged by garlic chives, sage, horse radish and Chilean guavas. These tomatoes produced good sized, ripe tomatoes very quickly. I have had to water only a couple of times so far. The plants are healthy but shorter than I expect at this time. They are mostly laden to breaking point with tomatoes but the one near the horseradish is not so great. Difficult to water the whole bed because I cannot use the sprinkler on the tomatoes.

2.   Planted in a regular, unmulched garden bed where I had dug in weeds and other finished greenery well before panting time and added the same things as in the first bed. The tomato plants are tall and strong but have needed a lot of watering. Now I have mulched them this may improve. Only 2 ripe cherry tomatoes and one other but nothing more yet. Fruit are slow and quite sparse.

3.   Planted into a bed where I had tomatoes last year and with not as much preparation as I usually do but I ran out of time to do more just then. Lightly mulched. Next to 2 purple sprouting broccoli that I have left so I can gather seed. These are not very happy but have produced a few smaller than average ripe tomatoes. They have not drooped at all so I have not watered as much as bed 2.

What this tells me, in a rough and ready kind of way, is that, unlike my previous understanding, tomatoes love companions. Under the right conditions they will need very little water to produce excellent fruits, right from the start. What it also highlights is that it is good not to have all your eggs in one basket because, if there had been a lot of rain instead of being dry, then bed one may have suffered from so much wet foliage all around the tomatoes and bed 2 may have been the best 😊

Making use of old terracotta pots for watering

When it is hot and dry, it is time for the terracotta pot treatment. I seal up the hole in the bottom of some old, chipped terracotta pots by sticking something over it with silicon, put them into the ground up to their necks and filled them with water, then put on a lid and let the water soak out into soil that I have watered well, to get it started. Keep refilling the pots. In Adelaide, I planted lettuce seedlings around some pots then celery and beans around another. This kept 5 lettuce plants growing happily through a heatwave (2 weeks over 40C and humidity at 3%) and I even went out and could pick leaves in the hottest part of the day, and they were crisp......amazing. The beans grew fast and strong and the celery was the best I had ever grown and only went to seed after 6 months of eating the stems piece by piece, all through summer and beyond ...that's pretty good!

Cucumbers

I was very organised in one area of my garden! In a spot that is too shady in winter for brassicas, I sowed broad beans only for the purpose of digging them in just as they began to flower, as a green manure. (I had broad beans for eating, elsewhere). This I did in October, adding a whole bag of sheep manure and some locally made biochar as I dug. In December I sprinkled around some potash and planted out some Dragon’s Egg cucumber seedlings from the Seed Freaks open day. They burst into growth and have produced heaps of little, apple cucumbers which are crisp and delicious. Originating in Croatia, this variety is a winner for Tasmania even in slightly shady spots. I will be saving these seeds for sure. They would be lovely on a frame, with the prolific eggs hanging below….a perfect use for my winter bamboo harvest.

Pear and cherry slug

If you see tiny little black ‘worms’ on the leaves of your pears, cherries, quinces and even plums and the leaves are turning brown and crisp, you have this slug. A simple control is to spray the entire tree with a mist of water then throw ash or lime all over it. Do this a couple of times and they will be desiccated. Try to stand up-wind!

To water young trees

To water fruit or other important trees: Buy a roll of the porous, black hose made from recycled tyres. Run it around THE DRIP LINE of the tree (where the roots are!), not near the trunk (where the roots are not!). Join into a circle with a T-piece that has a click on fitting so you can connect your hose to it. Cover with thick, preferably woody mulch. These ooze very slowly so leave it running for 3 or more hours, until the soil is wet down at least 30cms because that is where the roots should be. Do this once a month to encourage deep roots.

 

 

Seeds to sow now Broccoli raab Kale Beetroot Shungiku Lettuce Asian greens (late Feb.) Carrots Spinach & silver beet Spring onions Hakurei turnips Tas. swedes Parsnips Radishes

Plant out now, yes now, not later Brussel sprouts Cauliflower Broccoli – regular, sprouting and raab Lettuce   Jobs for February Plant or move citrus Summer prune stone fruits Prepare beds for autumn plantings Save seeds for next spring Enjoy your garden!

February 2018 Kitchen Garden Guide

Today, 800 million people around the globe are engaged in urban agriculture, which can produce up to 15 times more food than a rural plot of the same size, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In addition, the FAO notes, urban farming “generates employment, recycles urban wastes, creates greenbelts, and strengthens cities’ resilience to climate change.”

Not only that, but doing something productive like growing some of your own food is satisfying and getting your hands into the soil can bring a glow to your cheeks, microbes to your gut and consequently a smile to your whole body!

Did you know that Australia has the longest history of food growing in the world? I recently read an eye-opening book called Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, about how the Aboriginal peoples of Australia were not just hunters and gatherers but also successful, innovative farmers; saving and sowing seeds, dividing roots and making extraordinarily complex fish traps way before any other civilization on earth. You may have seen Bruce Pascoe on Gardening Australia’s first show for the year, last week.

Pear and cherry slug

If you see tiny little black ‘worms’ on the leaves of your pears, cherries, quinces and even plums and the leaves are turning brown and crisp, you have this slug. A simple control is to spray the entire tree with a mist of water then throw ash or lime all over it. Do this a couple of times and they will be desiccated. Try to stand up-wind!

Watering tips

Yes it is lovely to stand about and day dream while spraying water with a hose, over the leaves of hot, dry plants. I do it often but it benefits mostly me, not the plants, as water needs to soak all the way down (and out) to the root tips, which may be 20cms below the surface and at least the same out from the stem.

1. Buy a rose (ie a hose fitting) that cascades like a watering can head and simply adjusts the flow by turning the head or operating a lever with your thumb. I bought mine from Bunnings. Never use a gun style or those dreadful ones that only change the shape of the jet. I think people who design watering attachments should have to be gardeners!
2. For hand watering in the garden, water each plant for a few minutes. What I do is walk around the garden beds several times because it is quite hard to stand still and water one plant for very long!
3. Use a sprinkler, if you are on town or dam water or have another plentiful supply. Leave it on for an hour. Reduce the frequency of your watering. The roots will grow deeper and withstand much hotter weather.
4. Use a deep hay mulch, lightly shaken over the soil. The water will penetrate and not just water the roots but also keep the microbes happy where the hay meets the soil.
5. For my tomatoes, which can suffer with diseases if watered overhead, I have installed a line of 13mm irrigation pipe and inserted finger drippers between each tomato plant. These have adjustable little knobs that distribute water out to the size of a spread hand, like fingers. I attach a hose once a week and leave it on for at least an hour. This way every tomato plant receives a deep watering over both sides, a good 30cms or more from the stem. As the plants mature and when the weather is cooler, they need less water. This is also good for cucumbers and zucchinis which prefer not to be watered on the leaves too much.
6. Group plants together that have similar water requirements.

Side dressing time

Side dressing means a supplementary feed once the plants are well established. A good thing to do for hungry plants in our short summer season to keep them powering along before the weather changes.  Now is a good time to side dress fruit producing vegetables, such as tomatoes, zucchinis, pumpkins, capsicums and eggplants (if you are clever enough to grow them here). A dose of potash, well watered-in with a watering can of fish fertiliser (preferably the one that uses carp which is a nasty pest fish in the Murray River) and seaweed extract is my recommendation.

Early February is the last chance to feed your citrus because new growth stimulated to grow later, when autumn is approaching, will result in the tips being burnt off, even if the plants are in a sheltered place, simply because of the cold on tender citrus shoots. I use poultry pellets and the carp fish fertiliser.

Seeds to sow now Broccoli raab Kale Beetroot Shungiku Lettuce Asian greens (late Feb.) Carrots Spinach & silver beet Spring onions Hakurei turnips Tas. swedes Parsnips Radishes

Plant out now, yes now, or before! Brussel sprouts Cauliflower Broccoli – regular, sprouting and raab Lettuce   Jobs for February Plant or move citrus Summer prune stone fruits Prepare beds for autumn plantings Save seeds for next spring Give pots and the veg. garden some seaweed and fish liquid feed in a hosable spray.

 

Books of the month Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe The Mix and Match Guide to Companion Planting by Josie Jeffery Australian Herbal by Penny Woodward