It's amazing what a little bit of rain will do for your tomato and cucumber crops.
Greetings fellow gardeners,
Isn’t rain amazing? I think that I can hear the garden singing. Remember that if some of your containers lack drainage you must tip out the excess water. I put two tiny pots of bunny-tails grass in the two huge colourful teacups a friend gave me, so I make sure to empty them. Just as your plants do not like to be dried out, they do not like to sit in water.
This morning I picked the first tomatoes from my Scotia tomato plant. They are plump and red and juicy. Harvest season is now gearing up and all your hard work should start to pay off. Scotia tomatoes are a heritage variety, so they have been giving me a few issues. I planted them in the ground rather than in a pot as they are larger than my other little ones. They were planted out too soon and did not like that cold touch we had in late June. I should have covered them. They recovered but needed more water than I gave them thus a few tomatoes had blossom-end rot. Now after sufficient water and a dose of kelp fertilizer I have been rewarded with two lovely tomatoes. Because it is difficult to get the seed for this tomato, I will make sure to collect some seeds from it. I will cut open a tomato and scoop the pulp onto a paper towel and let it dry. I can pick the seeds off and if some paper towel comes with them, I shall plant that too!
I can see cucumbers forming on the vines and the zucchinis are showing up regularly. Lots of fresh food to enjoy. I have noticed, however that the earwigs are visiting. They love to spend their days lounging in cucumber and zucchini blossoms. Today I am placing my hose lengths around the plants as earwig traps, you can also use moistened rolled-up newspapers. Tomorrow I will go out first thing in the morning and tap the hose pieces into a bucket of soapy water.
Continue to monitor your garden for watering. The wind can dry out the soil and the sun is so strong. Have a wonderful week!
Judith (email: lapisdragonarts@gmail.com)
All Veggie Bites are on the website https://sites.google.com/site/sghortsoc/.
Perennial Vegetables and Fruits (Part One)
Lately I have had people asking me if the vegetables that they are planting will come again in the spring. Sadly, most of our vegetables are annuals although several will drop their seeds and those seeds will grow a plant for you in the spring. More about that closer to seed-saving time.
Let’s start with a perennial vegetable that is usually eaten like a fruit.
Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum)
Rhubarb is one of the first arrivals in the spring and does not like hot weather. If you want to plant rhubarb, you can plant a crown or root that you will find at the nurseries or from other gardeners in early spring. Don’t pick your rhubarb the first year as you can easily pull it out. It will be well established by its second year. Every spring give your rhubarb a good mulch of compost and well-rotted manure. Try not to pick more than a third of the plant each time. Sometimes you will see a tall stalk rise from your rhubarb with a creamy frond at the top. It used to be that you were to cut the stalks as soon as you saw them but now people are leaving these seed-heads. They do not interfere with the plant and are beautiful.
Jerusalem Artichoke or Sun Choke (Helianthus tuberosus)
This root vegetable is on the edge of invasive. If you have the room for a display of Jerusalem artichokes, you will find that they have sunny yellow flowers and the tubers can be cooked like potatoes. Jerusalem artichokes are not from Jerusalem and taste only a little bit like artichokes. They are full of fiber and inulin which is very beneficial for a healthy gut.
Currants, black (Ribes nigrum) and red (Ribes rubrum)
I have a friend who has rows of red and black currants. They are a delicious fruit for jellies and desserts. They have a tart taste and the red currant jelly shines like a bright red jewel. This is such a hardy fruit to grow; it does well in cooler areas, even in partial shade. The birds and various rodents love the little fruits so you might want to cover it as it ripens. In my garden I usually pick what I want and then leave the rest for the wildlife. In the early spring, remove any dead branches and trim back old branches to a fresh bud.
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