herbs & plants on the fence

pots on the fence with herbs & bok choy

In summer the heat in Adelaide can be extreme. Things like Bok Choy and coriander go straight to seed. This summer I've had pots growing on the side fence on the south of the house, so they get the morning sun but protected from the sun in the afternoon. It's enough to keep the plants happy and thriving. I keep them in self watering pots so they don't dry out in the heat. And strangely, the white cabbage moth which destroys Bok Choy in the garden, hasn't discovered the plants perched on the fence and they're growing wonderfully well.

Zucchini Trombonica

Zucchini trombonica

This has to be one of my favourite summer plants. The texture is like a pumpkin (trombone) but the fruit grows like a zucchini in length. Actually, the longer it's on the vine, the longer the fruit grows. Long and skinny. It's a fabulous plant and delicious steamed or in stir fries. I bought the seeds from Diggers. Not sure how the seeds set as there's no internal cavity like pumpkins for seed production, so have been somewhat thwarted in my seed saving for this plant! Apparently the process is to allow a single fruit to grow full size & become hard. This will take about two months after the flowering stage when the plant will be focussed on seed production. Store the fruit after picking to further mature the seeds. Then scoop out seeds, wash, dry for 2 weeks. My plant was still growing and producing fruit in June last year and none of them had any seeds inside. I'll try again this year!

yellow sticky traps

yellow sticky trap - time to replace this one!

White flies - a curse in the garden. I've had great success with the yellow sticky traps hanging in the garden. The white flies were decimating my beans and now they're strong and vigorous. I had hoped it might do the same around the spider mite etc attacking the tomato plants. Trapped lots of flies and an occasional 'good bug' like a ladybird but didn't deter the spider mite wreaking havoc on the tomatoes. I love the simplicity of the yellow sticky traps in an organic garden. I have pre-prepared ones I bought from Bunnings but sent away to Green Harvest to buy the glue to make my own as well as yellow sticky tape etc. (Heynes in Adelaide stock the products too I found out later). Going to get serious today on the ants 'attending' thrip etc (they love the 'honeydew' produced so they protect the colonies of bugs and deter natural predators for thrip). Come on ants, fair's fair!

Tomato plants - brown leaves

Desperate measures on the cherry tomatoes!

I've cut down the cherry tomatoes today to the base. There are new shoots hopefully trying to grow from the base. Red spider mite or something else has played havoc with the tomato plants. I've also used some of the 'old' cherry tomatoes to put back into the soil, knowing that tomatoes are tenacious at growing given half a chance. Still plenty of summer left to grow more plants.

Cucumber - yellow spots on leaves

Cucumber leaves - yellow blotches

January 2012 - Lebanese cucumbers growing really well but the leaves have yellow spots that take over. Apparently this is caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae and is common on cucumbers.
The bacteria lives on plant debris so it's important to keep the area clear of old leaves etc. The bacteria stays in the soil, so rotating the cucumbers to another bed next summer may be an option.
Sadly, there isn't any way to get rid of it once it has made itself at home. As with marrows and cucumbers, it's important to keep the leaves dry to halt the onset of any diseases so watering early in the morning is important. Likewise, only pick the fruit when plants are dry to slow down the spread of the disease.
Interestingly, the harvest is the best I've had in recent years from cucumber plants, so I'm not despairing! 

Black sapote

Gardening is in part an exercise in patience, and from carefully tending plants that seem to take forever to yield the first fruit. We have had our black sapote tree since being introduced to it by some German Couchsurfers. That was three years ago and it's fruiting for the first time this year. We hope the fruit sets and we can enjoy the long awaited taste of 'chocolate pudding' fruit. The tree is in a pot, under the shelter of our verandah. It enjoys the morning sun but doesn't have to cope with extremes in the weather (when it drops its leaves in response). I had decided some time ago that it was a lovely looking plant even if it didn't fruit (my way of justifying the slow start to set fruit). But as long as it survives the air temperature of this current heat wave (45C outdoors!) we are hopeful the fruit will continue to develop this summer.

Black sapote fruiting for the first time, summer 2011/12

Green stink bugs on tomato plants

While picking the tomatoes this morning, I noticed a green bug. In fact, twice I picked up green bugs that had fallen to the ground and replaced them on the tomato plant. When I did my research, I realized that these green bugs are actually green stink bugs. I went back to the tomato plants to find them again to take a photo but just as I'd lined one up it flew off. So green stinky bugs that fly. The actual damage they inflict seems minimal for the home gardener, and is mainly it seems an irritation value in that they pierce the skin and leave a yellow 'halo' blemish on the skin. Harmless but perhaps not to be encouraged. They are stinky if held too long so will seek an organic solution to the problem and look for eggs, though I think given that they fly I might not actually find the eggs on the tomatoes themselves. Eggs are drum shaped with circular lids and females lay them on clusters on leaves. With any luck, the parasitic wasps will have found them, and laid their own eggs into them in which case the eggs will be dark. More hunting in the garden!