Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 41: Third week of October

Interesting weather - in the last week we have gone from Winter to Summer to Spring to Winter, more Winter, Spring, Summer and Winter again. Thank goodness we haven't gone to Autumn with all the new leaves falling off.

If you grew some Pepino plants for yourself, don't forget to tip them (taking the top out) a couple of times to make them nice and bushy. And also, don't forget to de-lateral your greenhouse Tomatoes - they can get away on you very quickly. You can use larger laterals (75mm) as cuttings which can be struck in moist sand, in a warm, shaded spot.

Another couple of pollination subjects, carrying on from last week. If your Zuchini fruit start to grow and then begin rotting at the end, this is due to poor fertilisation. It is particularly apparent when you try to grow Zuchinis in the greenhouse, so hand-pollination may be necessary. Don't forget they have male and female flowers.

Eggplant can also be quite difficult to get fertilisation happening, so you might have to give them a helping hand as well by both shaking the plants, as with tomatoes, and hand pollinating them.

Pumpkins, Buttercups and Butternuts benefit each other by being planted in close proximity. You will get more and better quality fruit, but of course the seed will not come true to type.

Dawn from Riverside has given me some Corn seed, a non-hybrid called Golden Bantam, not to be confused by the commonly grown variety of the past Golden Cross Bantam Hybrid. We are trying to build up stocks of the seed, and so if any local people want to grow a small area (of course as mentioned in last weeks variety it needs to be grown well away from any Supersweet varieties), you can get in touch with me and arrange to pick some up from 52 Trewavas Street.

Sowing or Planting this week:

Tomatoes, Peppers, Chillie's, Egg Plant (Don't plant outside yet if you are in a cooler area)
Basil (Don't plant outside yet if you are in a cooler area)
Beetroot
Beans - Scarlet, Runner (Shiney Fardenlosa), Dwarf (In punnets for planting out)
Brocolli Spouting (Marathon Variety)
Cabbage (Spring or Summer varieties)
Cauliflower (Frieda - Summer variety)
Celeriac (for transplanting or direct)
Cucumber - too early for planting outside, so sow in containers, or plant in greenhouse
Kohl Rabi
Lettuce (Loose-leaf Fancy and Hearting (Webbs or Greatlakes)
Onions
Peas (I choose Easy-peasy variety)
Potatoes (for those in warm areas get a second succession sprouting, for those in colders area, get your first sowing sprouting)
Pumpkin/Squash (not in the ground, but sow in containers for planting out later)
Red Onions
Shallots
Silverbeet and Perpetual Spinach
Snow Peas (Snap Peas)
Spinach (winter varieties eg. Hybrid No.7)
Spring Onions
Sweet Corn (sown in punnets for planting out later)
Watermelon/Rockmelon (Sow in containers for planting out later)
Yams (Sprout ready for planting soon)
Zuchini - planting outside in warmer areas. Protect at night.

Sow Direct: (Protect soil surface from heavy rains)

Carrots - I find Topweight a good early variety
Chinese Greens and Cabbage
Corn Salad
Corriander/Dill
Mescalin Mix
Parsnips
Rocket
Radish

Happy Gardening. This week I'll sign off the way the Country Life Team did on the radio on Saturday with "Keep the gumboots close and stay positive".

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