Suburban Tomato

As anyone who; lives in Melbourne/reads a blog set in Melbourne/has been watching the Australian Open etc etc etc knows, Melbourne had a heatwave last week.  For the first time ever temperatures were over 41 for 4 days in succession.  Now in world heat wave terms this is probably not particularly remarkable but for us it was worth talking about, and talking about, and talking about.  Melbournians do like to talk about the weather and none more so than us gardeners.  So here is my wrap up of the week:

Firstly the crops that clearly didn’t cope with the heat:

 The celery struggled.  The plant on the left subsequently died as did all the other celery plant I had around the garden.  I would be interested to know if anyone had celery survive the heatwave – it may be my variety that is particularly heat averse. 

Whilst the runner beans aren’t dead they are looking pretty sad and scorched.  I did notice some happier new growth when I inspected yesterday so  hopefully they will recover.  The wall they are growing on gets afternoon sun so is probably the hottest part of the garden.

I have lots of parsley scattered around the garden.  The most exposed plant was the worst affected.  Which suggests to me that it is not really the heat per se that impacts on the plants but the combination of direct sun damage and the amount of moisture lost from the soil on hot days.

Direct sun damage is clearly responsible for this sunburn on my Yugoslav tomatoes:

In general though my tomatoes did pretty well. There was some loss of foliage around the base of the plants and the occasional singed growing tip but all the plants survived pretty well considering.

The plants with the least damaged were, unsurprisingly, the ones that were mulched the most heavily.  The mulch was great at both keeping moisture in the soil but also keeping the soil comparatively cool.    I don’t think I  mulch my veg enough in general and this is perhaps my biggest learning from the heatwave.

The heat didn’t just bring damage, in some cases in also brought growth.  The eggplants looked happy with the arrival of summer.  Some of the chillies started to ripen and perhaps most remarkably the red cabbages hearted up nicely:

Other plants just went about their business as if nothing remarkable was happening.  I have finger limes developing nicely on the tree (although I did have many more flowers than I now have set fruit) and the first of the Ebisu pumpkins has set nicely on the vine.

But those are both crops that do well in warm climates.  The things I was most surprised by were my kale, cucumber, mint and other climbing beans.  No sign of distress whatsoever:

All of these plants are shaded by my neighbours eucalypts from about 2pm onwards.  Whilst this shade seems to reduce flowering levels, and resultingly cropping levels, it did give the plants valuable protection during the heat wave so perhaps I’ll have to stop whinging about them for a while.

The weather has now returned to more liveable temperatures (in the 20s and 30s) and there aren’t any days over 40 on the horizon.  I am grateful for this and also that all my chooks made it through.  For a commentary of events that goes beyond scorched vegetables check out what Foodnstuff wrote about the heat wave.

As part of a bid to make this blog a better record of my activity in the garden I plan to post regularly (and as part of L’s Succession Planting Tuesday series) on the seeds I have sown each week.  I am hoping that this will also assist me identify which crops are the best value for my garden and also how often I need to sow specific crops to ensure an ongoing supply.  I seem to be running out of things like Bok choi all too regularly at the moment.

My first seed sowing this year was actually a couple of weeks ago.   On the 9th January, before embarking on a short break at the beach, I sowed my first seeds for 2014.  As well as attempting to ensure good succession crops of lettuce, spring onions, bok choi (although I haven’t actually had any bok choi in for a month or so) I also started sowing winter crops –  kohl rabi, calabrese, and some cavolo nero.

I thought about sowing some cabbages and cauliflowers but I don’t think I will have sufficient bed space at the right point if I sow now so they will have to wait until February or March.

Seeds sown:

• Lettuce – ‘Salad Bowl Green’
• Leeks – ‘Jumbo’
• Spring Onions – ‘Bunching’
• Broccoli – ‘Calabrese’
• Kohl Rabi – ‘Purple’
• Cavolo Nero
• Bok Choi*
• Pak Choi*
• Dill
• Bean – Royal Burgandy
• Bean – Jade
• Bean – Majestic Butter

*Although my understanding is that bok and pak choi are basically the same plant these are the names on the respective seed packets I used.  Thanks to Nina for the pak choi seed.

So far all the brassicas have germinated along with a couple of dill seeds.  The aliums and lettuce have yet to appear.   The beans, which were the only ones sown direct – in the ground – have also started to appear.  I really must get more organised with my labelling though as although I will be able to tell them apart once they produce beans at this point I’m not sure which ones are up and which aren’t.

I’m sure I have forgotten some crops – radishes spring to mind, so I would love to know what you are sowing at the moment.

How did it get to be Monday again?  The weeks seem to be flying by at the moment and somehow it’s been two weeks since I last posted.  At least that means I have some harvests to post about which is nice.  It would be even nicer if I had some photos to go along with my words, but I only have a few which means you’ll just have to imagine what my first cucumber looked like.  For the record it tasted rather good!

You’ll also have to visualise the blueberries I sneakily ate while pretending that I couldn’t find any whenever the kids asked.  (In my defence they could have looked themselves rather than trying to get me to do the work for them…..).

The parsley I failed to photograph was enjoyed in Pasta Puttanesca just this evening and the mint was used in lots of salads as well as in tea.  In fact any number of herbs and salad leaves were eaten over the past fortnight, and none of them managed to trouble the camera lens.

There was one thing which I did manage to capture though – the first of this years beans.  In this handful (the first of a few I’ve picked over the last few days) are Majestic Butter and Kentucky Wonder (I think that’s what they are – thankyou to Nina for the seed and hopefully the confirmation that they are indeed Kentucky Wonder).

It’s clear from this post what my New Years Resolution needs to be – TAKE MORE PHOTOS.  Hopefully I will and next week you will actually be able to see what I’m posting about.   In the meantime head over to Daphne’s to find some posts which actually feature pictures of produce.  Before you go though I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.