A Berry Little Harvest Monday

Bit of a smaller harvest this week, with only a few staples left in the sun scorched garden. Beautiful berries of the strawberry kind went into my breakfast this morning. There were both wild versions of this little red wonder and some Hokowase strawberries. Usually I just snack on them as I garden but this time there were enough to go in my breakfast fruit salad.

Silverbeet is continual, even though I cut it to the ground just a month ago! It goes in many dishes and adds extra nutrients.

Eggplants, well I showed you them the other day and here they are harvested. These went into a wonderful little pasta dish.

Speaking of pasta, the last of the pumpkins I harvested a while ago was used up in a delicious pesto pasta dish.

And that is pretty much it for the moment. If you want to see other harvests pop on over to Daphne's Dandelions. I looks forward to harvesting chillies this week and int he future some figs and some more eggplants. The corn, the new corn that is, is a fair way off but I will post about that little experiment soon.

And on slightly different matters, if you can solve my friend's mutant tomato dilemma I posted about yesterday please, please, please add your advice. :)

Mutant 'matoes and Plan 9 from the Frankenspace

I love B grade horror films of the yesteryear. Not 1990s ones though I guess in 2011 we can almost count that yesteryear. While the zombie runs in the 1970s are almost there it is not quite the era I am meaning. These films, almost more z grade than b grade populated the screens in eras earlier, where black and white were the order of the day. These I find to be pretty good on occasions, particularly when watched in the dark on a stormy summer night with popcorn and a sav blanc for good measure. Viewing triffids invading the earth, or Bela Lugosi doing all that he can to be typecast in his most senior moment of life or going even further back to Boris Karloff in his Frankenstein turn. And it is with these types of films in mind that I bring you the attack of the mutant tomatoes. Late one night, in a garden not unlike your own, these creatures are lurking ...

Ok they aren't in your garden. They're not even growing on the balcony. They are in a friend, Miss R's garden in Adelaide. It was, at one point, a tomato seedling but now it is unlike anything I've ever seen. The other seedlings from the same punnet are growing fine, though suffering a bit from the heat whereas this little man, well, he is growing in a uniquely grotesque way. Miss R feared it was a disease and worried for her other tomatoes but I am pretty sure this is just a seed gone wrong, mutated into the frankenstein of tomato plants and harmless though fascinating. A mish mash of plants, supposedly a tomato but with the growing habit of something entirely different. The other option is that it is a triffid come to claim the earth, the first in a wave of many, but that might be wrong too. So who is right? Odd new disease or mutant 'mato? Does anyone have any other suggestions? Should she pull it or should she leave it to see what mutant offspring it will probably never have?

Fairytales in the Balcony Garden

I love eggplant. Be it cooked up in sauces or in pasta or turned into a dip, I find it such a treat. I even grew it over winter last year in the balcony garden and it did well. This year I went with a different variety of eggplant, fairytale eggplant. While these did not grow as large as their bonica mates, they certainly made up for their lack of size with prettiness. Just look at those purple and white stripes!

The taste is a bit milder but a bit crisper if that makes any sense. I'll certainly grow these again next year, in bigger pots if I am feeling nice. They like a fair bit of water, and the bugs get into them and cause damage but for the colour and taste alone I am smitten.

Harvest Monday Extravaganza

I finally found my camera cord and uploaded the goodies so here is a parade of recent harvests and this week's harvest. It even has some golden globes! These harvests date back to just before Christmas, even so this little balcony garden has produced a lot.

Here was the pre-Christmas harvest and it saw the last of the snow peas. I actually picked a lot more tomatoes than that, several punnets worth, all from 2 little tumbler bushes. They died once I got back from Adelaide, as happens each year from some disease, but not before producing one large crop. I will certainly keep growing these.

And the New Years harvest which was massive (a.k.a. bye bye tomatoes) Most of this went into various salad dishes for a little new years eve shindig I had at my place. It was 42 degrees that day, so salads were all we needed. I was just glad that the garden survived my 10 days away, but with the wonderful garden sitter I have it was no wonder it was bursting with goodies when I returned.

And the most recent harvest which included 3 pumpkins, who were too infested with white fly to reach complete maturation. If only I could find more seedlings I could do a second crop :( I also thought I planted leeks, to my utter surprise turns out they were white onions!.

If you would like to see more harvests from around the world head on over to Daphne's Dandelions. A lot of these plants got ripped out of the garden yesterday in a big white fly control clean up, so harvests may be a little lean for the next few weeks, but we will see.

Harvest Monday

Sorry I have been away for a bit and the blog has fallen silent. I spent Christmas in Adelaide with the folks, and have begun the new year by getting on with the thesis (which is due in August.) Despite the business the garden has not been neglected and it has been awash with a bountiful harvest. Wild strawberries, sweet corn, zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, eggplants, a pumpkin and more. They helped make new years eve a tasty evening and continue to keep me eating healthily. Problem is, you will just have to imagine them, because my camera cord has gone AWOL! If it reappears I'll add some photos, but for now here are some oldies to represent the harvest.

For more harvest posts visit Daphne's Dandelions.

Staking Tomato Plants-5 reasons not to

Although most tomato gardeners firmly believe in staking their tomato plants, as it often gives better crops, there are a few exceptions that you may want to consider. In this article I will share with you what I think are 5 plausible reasons to just leave your tomatoes to garden to grow naturally.

Some tomato varieties will do just fine without staking
One of the simplest and best reasons for not staking your tomato plants is that it is sometimes unnecessary. Certain varieties of tomato plants will do quite well without you having to support them. A more common example of this is when you are growing cherry tomatoes. These small sized tomatos will grow in abundance even if you don’t stake your plant.

If done incorrectly it can damage your tomato plant
If you are new to growing tomatoes outdoors, you will soon learn that many types of tomato plants have low resistance to damage. Although there are a few hardy varieties, most of them will damage easily. Incorrectly staking your tomato plants may damage the stem, which will cause your plant to not produce tomatoes to its full potential.

It is very time consuming
If you are just into tomato gardening for the love of it, you will realize that it can take up quite a bit of your time. Once you have staked your tomato plants, you will constantly need to maintain them. You will need to keep checking that the stakes are firm in the ground, and that the tomato steams are growing around the stakes.

Can be expensive if you purchase stakes
Many seasoned tomato gardeners recommend making your own stakes. It’s much cheaper than purchasing them and they are just as effective. The down side however, is that you need to treat the stakes first to prevent rotting. This can be quite costly if you don’t know how to it properly. If you simply decide to buy pre-prepared stakes, you will have to fork out some extra cash.

It’s a lot of long and hard work
Staking your tomato plants can take up to an entire day if you have many plants. Let’s face it, with modern lifestyles; one doesn’t really have that much of time to spend on their tomato gardens. Even if you have just a few tomato plants, the process can be quite tedious. Unless you have some help to do it, staking tomato plants will probably tire you out long before you’re complete.