Golden Lyre

Not a lot happening in the veggie garden at the moment so I thought I'd show some pics from out the front including the Golden Lyre in flower. With only a couple of waters all summer everything is going well. I only wish I had room to plant more.







Waltham Butternut

A new header and a new pumpkin post courtesy of H from The Colour H. Check out her stuff at the link  to the right under Good Stuff. Good stuff it is too. Thanks H.

These are Waltham Butternut developed in Waltham Massachusetts. I bought the seeds through Diggers. All's well so far but with a scorcher of a week coming up I'm afraid they might split like last year. I've put up some shade and I'm concentrating on even watering so hopefully they'll stay intact this year.

Put up a strong trellis and grow some next year. I concreted in 75mm x 50mm steel posts and strung them with steel wire around 2.5mm in diameter. They would work well strung between patio posts provided your patio faces north or east.



Costoluto Genovese

Here's one of the few Costoluto Genovese that made it through the blossom end rot that wrecked most of it's cousins. There's no denying it's a good looking beast. And it has flavour to match. Despite it's general failure this year I might give it another shot and hopefully, with a bit more care on my part, it will work out a bit better.





Jaune Flamme

  Have I mentioned I really like this tomato? I think I have. It really is perfect, a good combination of sweet and tart, really meaty and perfectly formed. It's a French heirloom that seems to be completely free of the problems that are being experienced by the rest of my crop, particularly blossom end rot but also no bugs! I only found one plant up at Zanthorrea Nursery when I was looking for something else. I found it after I had planted out the bed for this year's tomatoes so it ended up in a pot. Pots can be a bad deal for tomatoes in our environment, they dry out easily and the roots get hot. You need to have a spot where they get full shade in the afternoon. This one does get shade in the afternoon but so does the Amish Paste that's sitting right next to it and that one's as good as dead.

Jaune Flamme will feature highly in my garden in summers to come.



Tomatoes in the heat

Summer hit yesterday and today with 39 degree days. To prevent sun scorch and and general ruin I've put up some shade cloth to help them cope.

All my varieties are performing differently. The Costoluto Genovese are fruiting well, after that initial mutant flower, but none are ripe to date. There's a bit of blossom end rot on these especially the one in the pot.

The Mortgage Lifters are about the same but with fewer fruit. I'm unsure as to why the blossom end rot is happening, I feel like i'm doing everything right with regards to watering and the ph is right. The Amish Paste are the worst affected, particularly the one in the pot, so much so I may as well pull them out.



Mortgage Lifter



Poor Amish Paste

Meanwhile the beautiful Jaune Flamme, which is in a pot, continues without problem. As do the indesctructable cherrys and romas. All of which add up to a nice breakfast.

Bean Screen

I planted beans around two of my beds to shelter them from the hot afternoon sun. It's working well and giving me plenty of beans. Here's few I picked tonight to go with those tomatoes for dinner. There's a mix of Blue Lake and Purple King.



First Pickings

The tomatoes are starting to come on line and here's some picked tonight. Hopefully a start to a good season. There's some Tigrellas, Cherrys and a couple of Jaune Flamme. I'm pretty happy with the latter, a really beautiful tomato.