First cloudy day…Monday and a good chance to get those brassica seedlings into the ground, Not sure how well thy’ll do as there was alot of caterpillar damage and the lemon spray did not work. Have sown another lot of seed which have come through quickly, covered them as soon as the leaves appeared. We have ended up getting some ‘BT’ to spray on the brassicas. ‘Bt’ is a natural bacteria which the caterpillars ingest and is allowable under organics. It is not expensive. $10.50 at mitre 10 for four sachets, with one sachet prividing enough coverage 2x for a moderate garden crop. Several weeks ago we cut our green crop of buckwheat and peas so it was also time to plant into that, the previous crop had been brassicas, so root crops this time, very easy to pull the semi rotted green crop aside for our rows of carrots, parsnips and some leeks.
Still harvesting lots of courgettes, cucumbers, pears, basil and now the tomatoes are really starting. I am really enjoying this years tomatoes. ‘Black Tule’ is a lovely meaty almost black (green shoulders) tomato , fantastic sliced on toast, in salads or sauces (seedlings from Jo Duff at kahikatea farm) ‘Polish Red’ is from seedlings given to me by a local who had been saving the seed for a few years from an elderley neighbour. It seems to grow easily and good germination…Shared seedlings so hopefully there will be more available. The fruit is medium size with a pear/ oxhart shape, pinky red, green shoulders and a solid meaty texture. The only cherry tomato I planted this year is one called ‘whippersnipper’ again from Jo it is prolific with beautiful pear shaped red fruit with touches of green stripe. Again this has a more solid meaty texture (usually find cherry tomatoes particularly watery) so am saving seed from these too.
Best thing Happening in the garden this week….FROGS We have discovered two around our greywater pond…..Mystery is how they got there as the nearest water is at least a km away. will try and get a photo.
Polish Red tomatoes ripening
