Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 24: Third week of June

Have you seen the film "Home-grown", a drama set in an English allotment. If you haven't, well worth getting out, but if you have you might remember the opening scene where a housewife is irate because her husband is germinating his Tomato seedlings on top of the television to keep them warm. It's white with snow outside, and in fact I think it might be Xmas day.

Just as it's mid-winter there, so it is here with Winter Solstice and Matariki happening. I will be sowing my first lot of Tomatoes, Peppers, Chillies and even Eggplant in the next few days. This may not suit everybody, but I will explain what I do and if you think you can do the same, or similar, then you can have tomatoes for the table by approximately mid-November without having to have a heated greenhouse or heat pads or other expensive expensive equipment.

We live fairly close to the beach, but still get reasonably severe frosts. I place my trays of seeds to germinate in the hot water cupboard, which is an ideal temperature. Choose a time when the moon is rising (coming up to full) and they will germinate quite readily (Tomatoes first, others a little later).

When they have germinated, I put them in my greenhouse during the day (some people may have a very sheltered verandah or conservatory area that will do) and bring them into the warm lounge at night (much to Gaile's annoyance). This pattern of day/night care continues after they have been pricked out, until they are big enough to plant out into large PB Bags (40's for tomatoes, 28's for the others). Usually mid August to early September.

When they are planted out in the greenhouse, of course they need to stay in there day and night from then on and even though they are in the greenhouse I cover them with a couple of layers of frost cloth at night, until the frosts have finished. This is a long process as growth is slow but of course, if you have such things as heat pads, then you can delay sowing till a wee bit later as growth of the seedlings will be much faster.

For these Tomatoes I choose an early variety (ones that set under cooler conditions) such as Early Girl, Sweet 100's and Juliet. It is fantastic to have those early Tomatoes and a little bit later the Peppers and Eggplant and is well worth the effort.

Sowing or Planting this week:
Tomatos, Peppers, Chillies - as above
Broad Beans (I am trying a new variety for me this year called Imperial Green, where the beans stay green, even after cooking) Garlic
Lettuce (Loose-leaf Fancy and Triumph Hearting - not outside now, but in containers, in a protected place e.g. Greenhouse, veranda)
Red Onions - protect soil surface from heavy rains (Heard the other day about the use of carpet underfelt - sounds like good idea. Just get it off as soon as germination takes place)
Shallots
Spinach (winter varieties eg. Hybrid No.7) - not outside now, but in containers as above

Sow Direct: (in containers, protected as above)
Corn Salad
Mescalin Mix
Rocket

Preparation of beds for Strawberries and Asparagus.

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