I have been growing vegetables since I was about 9 years old and you would think in that time I would have learnt a thing or two, and I thought I had, but this season has taught me that just when you think you have got everything under control Mother Nature has other ideas. I once made a comment to Max B that climate change is forcing us to relearn how and when to grow our food. This season has sent me back to veggie preschool I am afraid.
Amongst the varied food groups that I have grown, tomatoes have always taken pride of place and we grow approx. 50 different varieties each year from our seed bank of around 200 types. Because we make all our own tomato sauce, passata, pasta and chutneys we grow around 200-300 kg each year……….but not this past season! We would be lucky to have produced 50 kg at best. Everything I did was the same as in previous years, timing was the same, fertilizers applied at the correct time etc but when the blossoms were first out it rained and rained. The temperature dropped keeping my bees in their hive where it was nice and warm and not out doing their job. Now I appreciate that bees don’t pollinate tomatoes but they do pollinate most other plants. In fact bees pollinate 3 out of every 5 mouthfuls of food consumed in the world (refer WHO) which is why we need to do everything we can to protect them.
The combination of hot /cold then hot /cold conditions created the perfect medium for tomato diseases, as you can see from the photos, to the point that I just gave up trying to eradicate all the fungal problems that I had and just let the plants do their own thing because everything I tried didn’t seem to have too much effect. I always save my tomato seed but not this year as I was not prepared to save seed that may have inherited the same fungal genes. Most gardens seemed to have mixed results. A friend grows his food on a nice northerly facing sunny bank at Old Beach and he has had a better year than I. My brother lives on 5 acres at Sandfly and he doesn’t seem to have had anything like the problems I had. Interestingly those who planted their tomatoes late seemed to have had more success than those who planted after the aged old indicator of “after show day”. Perhaps we could ask them to move show day back a month or two.
Amongst the varied food groups that I have grown, tomatoes have always taken pride of place and we grow approx. 50 different varieties each year from our seed bank of around 200 types. Because we make all our own tomato sauce, passata, pasta and chutneys we grow around 200-300 kg each year……….but not this past season! We would be lucky to have produced 50 kg at best. Everything I did was the same as in previous years, timing was the same, fertilizers applied at the correct time etc but when the blossoms were first out it rained and rained. The temperature dropped keeping my bees in their hive where it was nice and warm and not out doing their job. Now I appreciate that bees don’t pollinate tomatoes but they do pollinate most other plants. In fact bees pollinate 3 out of every 5 mouthfuls of food consumed in the world (refer WHO) which is why we need to do everything we can to protect them.
The combination of hot /cold then hot /cold conditions created the perfect medium for tomato diseases, as you can see from the photos, to the point that I just gave up trying to eradicate all the fungal problems that I had and just let the plants do their own thing because everything I tried didn’t seem to have too much effect. I always save my tomato seed but not this year as I was not prepared to save seed that may have inherited the same fungal genes. Most gardens seemed to have mixed results. A friend grows his food on a nice northerly facing sunny bank at Old Beach and he has had a better year than I. My brother lives on 5 acres at Sandfly and he doesn’t seem to have had anything like the problems I had. Interestingly those who planted their tomatoes late seemed to have had more success than those who planted after the aged old indicator of “after show day”. Perhaps we could ask them to move show day back a month or two.
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I did have one success this year with a variety I discovered growing up near Liffey. It was given to me by a gentleman called John Wilson and so I called it Wilsons Giant, of course, and this one weighed in at just over 625 grams. It tastes quite nice and I grow it for its bulk and zest that it adds to our passata etc.
Due to poor pollination I had 12 apricots from two mature trees, no peaches or nectarines, two plums from 3 varieties, very few apples or pears, no cherries and no strawberries (despite planting 25 new plants, a gift from my friend at Old Beach. He on the other hand always produces trailer loads.)
I must listen to my own advice and relearn how and when to grow our food.
The year wasn’t a total disaster however as I grew a fantastic crop of carrots. I tried 3 varieties and the most successful was All Seasons. Mollie our dog has taken a liking to carrots and now picks her own…… GRRRR !
In the foreground is a variety of onions called Dominica. Do yourselves a favour and get onto them as they are SOOOO SWEET. They are a largish variety but I can’t tell anything about its keeping qualities as we keep on eating them all as soon as they are mature enough.
Despite the season we also had a great year for corn. Over the years I have grown a number of varieties from seed sourced from Seed Freaks (who are now located somewhere down South Arm way) but I always come back to the same variety called F1 as I find it the sweetest and most reliable of all. I get my seed from the Diggers Club but I am sure there are other places to obtain the seed. I did try saving my own seed but it never seems to be as successful the following year so I now grow it only from sourced seed.
Another success story this year was potatoes. I grow a variety called Lexia but don’t go looking for the seed as they are not available anywhere except from my old mate who only gives it to me. It was imported by Simplot for the chip market but it grew too inconsistently as they will only accept a standard size. My friend purchased the remainder of the seed from them once they decided to no longer use them. He knows I am going to share it with my Food Garden members so that is all I can tell you until I have harvested all my seed except they are the creamiest sweetest potato I have ever tasted and I thought Dutch Creams were good. I will never grow them again now that I have the Lexia. I ran out of room to grow them so I started an experiment to see if I could grow them in pots. I planted out 12 pots and placed two seeds in each. Each pot produced about 2.5 kg so I was pleased with that result. I used soil from my chook pen mixed with my own compost and a little Biochar generously donated by another friend in our group.
If you need any more evidence of a season totally out of whack have a look at this photo. It was taken in February of blossom on my Snow White apple tree. How do you learn to grow with the changing of seasons when this is happening?
We grow a zucchini called Tromberto or Trombertino. It is an Italian variety that my Italian mate got me onto. I have grown them 4’ long and the seeds are in the bulbous section on the end. This year they have gone mad (more biochar) and they are still producing. We grate them into Zucchini Slice sized packets and freeze them until required. We love it so cook one meal a week with it and it can be a vegetarian meal if you would like but we add a bit of bacon just to add to the flavour. I also grow Lebanese Cucumbers so I can make Bread and Butter pickles out of them.
This is a small sample of the beetroot we grow. A large bread knife standing up between the two varieties gives you an indication of the size. The one on the left is called Detroit Red and on the right is Bulls Blood. I added biochar to the Detroit Red but not to the Bulls Blood. After much experimentation I probably will only grow the Detroit Red variety as Lady Elizabeth (my wife) loves them and we bottle about 50 jars a year.
A while back I had a conversation with a few ladies within our club who told me that you can’t call yourself a gardener if you don’t grow flowers as well (thank you Jan and Maree) (and you were right!) Up until that time flowers were grown in Lady Elizabeth’s garden and food in mine. We have since changed things about a bit and food and flowers are now grown in both. Flowers in my garden are grown in pots except for the sunflowers which I intermingle with veggies and Lady Elizabeth also now grows food in her garden. I used to grow Giant Russian but I now only grow the variety in the photo. It is called Teddy and it has very soft attractive petals and I can’t stop myself from rubbing my hands over the petals. I am sure the plants love the affection as I am gentle with them.
This is an example of the winter crops that have been planted. I believe that we are going to have an early and harsh winter (good for blossom in spring) so I planted them all out by the end of March whilst we still had a bit of sun and heat in the soil. I soaked the broad bean and pea seed for 12 hours in a solution of seasol and, you guessed it, generously donated biochar and planted them in shallow rows. In just 9 days I had the plants coming through. I have never had such success as this before so I was rapt. The peas are Greenfeast and the broad beans are Aqua Dolce, a sweet Italian Variety. The original seed was purchased through Hollander Imports but I now grow my own. All new seed/seedlings are covered in recycled tip shop baskets. This stops the birds from digging them up but has limited success with keeping the cabbage moth out.
I never leave a bed empty over winter as I always plant green manure crops in them. This protects the beds whilst at the same time supplying wonderful fertilizer for the next crop.
Although I had a disappointing year with fruit and tomatoes the remainder went fairly well so…..”always look on the bright side of life” phewut phewut !!!!
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