38
Garden Care for February
Managing the Summer Vegetable Garden
Melons & Pumpkins – Be sure to protect growing crops by a paver or some straw beneath developing melons and pumpkins. This puts a barrier between them and the moist dirt and prevents them from rotting. Dealing with powdery mildew – This can quickly devastate zucchini and cucumber plants, as well as hydrangeas: mix up 1tsp of baking soda, 1 cup of milk and 1 litre of water and you’ve got a great remedy to spray on the foliage of these plants. Pick unripe tomatoes: If you’ve got a lot of holes developing in young tomatoes, pick them when they’re only orangey-red and ripen them on the kitchen window sill. Plus, go after those pesky green caterpillars by inspecting the undersides of the leaves of your tomato plants. Flavour homemade (or bought) mayonnaise with fresh herbs of the moment – a good way to use up abundant parsley, basil and coriander. Regularly water feijoas – They produce bigger fruit if they get reasonable moisture over the dry period. Cover new seedlings – Of cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower with netting against white butterfly damage Last chance leeks – Plant them into well-composted soil by making a hole a finger width’s thickness, 10cm deep. Drop in the leeks, but don’t fill in with soil. Water regularly and dream of leek & chicken pie…
And it’s time to harvest seed from plants you’d like to grow again – here’s how: Gather seeds of favourite flowering plants and vegetables(1), when they are dry and rattling in their pods. Collect on a sunny day when conditions are nice and dry. For tomato seeds sieve the pulp until you have only the clean seeds left, then dry them for a couple of days. Place in paper bags or envelopes or in wooden trays. Store in a cool, dry and dark area. (1) Remember that F1 hybrid vegetables and flowering annuals will not necessarily be the same plant next season. They may revert to the stronger parent in their cross. Collect from heirloom vegetables and perennials.
Good seeds to collect from flowers in the garden: the umbelliferae – Queen Anne’s Lace and bronze fennel, plus poppies, cerinthe (honeywort), asters and Echinacea.
