Our Garden Progress - February

Taming the TOMATO

Our tomatoes are getting us so excited at the moment!!! Look at all the gorgeous green fruit that will soon be ruby red juicy tomatoes! AHH!! SO EXCITING!!!

However, as the plants grow heavy with fruit, there are a few things that need to be done in order to ensure good growth and also a tidy and tall plant! (Sometimes I am a perfectionist, and if my garden doesn't look tidy it can bother me! Hahaha). So some of the keys to taming tomatoes are first of all, to stake the tomatoes as they grow. This is extremely important!

Another key to growing tall, strong, overflowing tomato plants is to keep tying the plants to the stakes as they grow taller! This prevents the plants from snapping as they are growing, because sometimes there can be strong winds that catch both you and the tomato plant off guard! And nothing is sadder than a fruitful tomato plant snapping due to the weight of the tomatoes because it hasn't be tied up! To tie up our tomatoes, I use an old pair of stockings!

The stockings are good because you are essentially repurposing something you would have otherwise chucked out, and the delicate stocking fabric doesn't damage the plant! It allows water and air to get to the plant also! One pair of stockings makes a very decent amount of ties for the tomatoes. I think I got around 13 or 14 ties out of one pair of tights! So it is definitely worth not throwing out those laddered stockings!

Another way to tame tomatoes is to remove the suckers or sometimes called laterals! These are the little leaves (or stems if you leave them long enough) that grow between the main stem and the main branches coming of of the plant. They tend to grow on about 45 degree angles, and are easy to spot, once you know what you are looking for. Its important to remove these for visual purposes (makes the plant grow up rather than out) and also for practical purposes, as these little leaves will grow into branches if you leave them. These branches will take nutrition away from the branches growing fruit, as often these suckers don't produce fruit! So when you see one, pinch it off! Easy as that! And if you don't like the idea of wasting these little guys, they can be turned into other tomato plants simply by leaving them in water in a dark place for a couple of days or until roots develop!

As well as removing suckers, removing any of the unsightly, discolored leaves around the base of the plant is a good habit to get into. Essentially anything on the plant that looks bad, isn't going to benefit the overall health of the plant. So when you see a little sucker, or a yellow/brown branch down the base of the plant, get rid of it!

These are all very simple and quick steps to take so that you will end up with beautiful, tall, strong plants that are literally heavy with fruit!

Its Christmas time in the city - November 30 2012

This may not be directly related to gardening, but kinda! Its to do with trees!! For the first time in my entire life, I was going to get a real live Christmas tree! As we live in a little house, we needed a little tree, so the pre cut trees were too big for what we needed, so we got to walk around a Christmas tree farm and pick out our perfect tree so that it could be cut down for us!

It was so much fun! Even though it was drizzling (surprise surprise!), we still braved the farm and chose a tree. We kept forgetting which tree was our perfect tree, and then finding new perfect trees, but eventually we decided on our perfect tree, and got it cut down for us! Then because we weren't organized, we had a wet Christmas tree in the back of our car with no tarpaulin. Hahaha.

We filled the tree up with decorations and the tree stand up with water and let it be. I read somewhere about putting Sprite or aspirin in the stand to help the tree survive, but we decided to just use water! (December 29 - And it is still alive now!) I am so excited for Christmas!

Strawberry fields forever - November 21 2012

I luuurrvvvee strawberries! I got given two strawberry plants for my birthday, but we decided that two was not enough! So we bought four more plants which means we have six! As a rule of thumb, you normally have five strawberry plants per person in your household so that you have a bountiful harvest enough for everyone to eat. BUT, we couldn't afford (space and money) to have 10 strawberry plants.

Strawberries need a lot of sun when growing, otherwise they cannot reach their full juicy sweet potential. So when we planted, we made sure that our pots were in the sunniest spot of our deck!

We planted the strawberry plants in a strawberry mix, which is just like potting mix, but with extra goodies for the strawberries mixed in. We also bought strawberry straw (or hay) and put it underneath the plants, so that the leaves (and fruit) are above and out of the soil so that they don't rot and so that the plant can conserve water.

When growing strawberry plants, the first season, fruit shouldn't be left to grow, as the plants need to put their energy into growing stronger and establishing themselves. However, when we bought our plants there were a few berries already growing. Removing the fruit before it can grow in the first growing season (when the berries grow) means that in the second growing season, the fruit will be more bountiful! YAY! Thats what I like to hear, even though I'm not patient!

So for this summer growing season, I will be buying my berries, rather than growing them!

And as much as I love berries, birds also love them! So when there are berries on the plants, make sure that the plants are covered with some netting so that the birds can't get to the plants!

Feeding the strawberry plants is very important when there are fruits growing. Normal plant food can be used, but finding a strawberry food can be more beneficial to the plant and berries as the perfect nutrients are in the food that will help the berries to reach their full potential! Sounds yummy!

Happy birthday to me!! - November 11 2012

Its always exciting having a birthday. This year was extra exciting as university had finished and we were on holiday, plus I managed to get the day off work and hang out with my hubby!

Our rocket is growing like mental! Which is good for us because it is almost going to be too hot to keep growing rocket, as we are heading into summer. Rocket doesn't do too well in summer as it goes to seed really quickly and the leaves can be really bitter because of the heat. So this is our last harvest of rocket for the year! And although we will miss this gorgeous green leafy monster, it gives us more room to plant new plants!!

 This is so exciting!!! For my birthday, my wonderful husband bought me a mandarin tree, an avocado tree and a lime tree, as well as two strawberry plants! I don't know much about fruit trees, but I do know that we won't be harvesting from these beauties for a couple of years, so that the trees can establish themselves and strengthen. Makes a lot of sense really! We will be planting them in some large-ish pots as we don't know where we will be in a couple of years, but we do know that we will be moving from where we are now, and I want my trees forever!

I am a very happy lady!