Monday, October 25, 2010

Competitive gardening

Danyl from Dim-Post writes:
Yes, I planted tomatoes. An heirloom tomato and a cherry tomato, surrounded by basil, marigolds and mustard. We shall see.
Stephen from Quote Unquote rises to the bait:
You say tomahto, I say what sort of tomayto?
I’m planting Black Krim from last year’s seed – yes, I am awesome – and some sort of cherry tom for the children. Basil seeds will go in tomorrow, plus Thai eggplant and some more broad beans as it’s probably not too late. Chillies (saved seeds, three varieties of size and thus hotness, awesomely) and spring onions, and no need to mention the varieties of lettuce cos that would just embarrass Danyl. And you.

Potatoes always go in at Labour Weekend so I planted a bunch of Jersey Bennes for Christmas, obviously, plus a couple of sports that have sportingly sprouted: probably Agrias. More of them will go in later. The baby Red Rascals that sported will make potato-salad lunch tomorrow. Wedges issues, baby!

I was too polite to mention in my comment at Dim-Post the passionfruit vines, grapevine (possibly not ideal time to plant but it was the only window open) and pumpkin.

Yes, pumpkin. Last year my wife’s farmer/scientist workplace had a pumpkin-growing challenge so she tried to grow some. Epic fail. I had a sport in the vegetable garden and delivered about a tonne (slight exaggeration). I have kept some seeds from the biggest specimens so I think I shall take on the farmers/scientists of the district for this year’s challenge. My wife may cheat by growing hers at our friend Jane’s dairy farm which has a vegetable-garden wilderness with all-day sun and, like, totally organic fertiliser. As Danyl says, we shall see.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is interesting how many blogs have comments on the planting of gardens up and down the country
Maybe Labour day should be renamed spring garden day as the old 8 hour day disappears
Ray

Anonymous said...

I planted a tomato plant too, it's called 'Bloody Butcher' and with a name like that, it can afford to laugh mockingly in the face of your multitudinous offerings. If a tomato's growth is dependent upon being stared at, mine are going to be world champions.
- Michelle

Stephanie said...

How I envy you being able to grow tomatoes - I can't grow them so they taste of anything, at all. You did a fine job this weekend, and Xmas will taste great if nothing else is good about it! Go pumpkins!

Danyl said...

Mostly what I am growing is oxalis and I am confident you will never challenge my supremacy in this area.

Stephen Stratford said...

Anonymous Ray - yes. Labour weekend is when gardeners get into the garden. Vegetable gardeners, at least - call me old-fashioned but I leave the flowery stuff to my wife.

Stephen Stratford said...

Anonymous Michelle - yes, I find that staring at a vegetable plant enhances its growth prospects enormously. It has not worked for the banana, though.

Stephen Stratford said...

Stephanie - feed your tomatoes. Feed them well and they will reciprocate.

I will report on the pumpkin challenge later.

Stephen Stratford said...

Danyl, I see you and I raise you. I too have a splendid crop of oxalis, right through the lawn, the flower beds (wife-controlled) and vegetable beds (mine). Probably a rarer variety, though. I'm sure we could compete on that basis.

Anonymous said...

I know how to kill oxalis. It's my secret, mine, mine, all mine.

BE

Stephen Stratford said...

Anonymous BE - please share. Some swear by boiling water, others by . . . well, there are as many solutions to the oxalis problem as there are stars in the sky. But if you have one that works, and isn't Roundup, I'd love to know.