Friday, February 25, 2011

Changing seasons

Hi All,
Hard to believe but February had come to it's end and so I believe, had summer. On the 20th of February when leaving my home to see to my vegetable garden, I walked over dew wet lawn and felt a slight chill in the otherwise hot hot dry air of the past three months. That's when I realized it's time for a change in season again. Even though the seasons seem to be shifting and are becoming more intense in either it's heat or cold depending on where one finds oneself at the time.This of course does mean that Autumn has arrived. In my book such a romantic and beautiful time of year in Cape Town, this I suppose is directly linked to less winder days and nights. My experience is that one sleeps so much better because winters cold had not arrived yet while summers heat had started departing.
For us gardeners however, it is a time of change too, that intense growth of summer is slowing down, plants are steadily starting to wilt, leaves are changing color and will be making way for the winter crop to be planted from April onwards. I have however planted some cocktail tomatoes two weeks ago and am eagerly watching how they have doubled in size over this time. I am hoping to get a decent harvest even though I planted late. Watch this space, I will let you know how it progresses.
Even though seasons are changing, I must tell you about the wonderful harvests I have had during this past three months. Maybe I need to just inform you guys that after my initial vegetable flash in the earlier part of the season, I d garden any subsequent growth in pots placed in my vegetable beds rather than in the soil itself. Why would I do this?, well I produce an Organic Plant Food under the brand Nature To Nature and I needed to start doing well controlled grow tests in order to test the efficacy of the different products with different plant types. Thus I realized that carrying out these tests in pots will be more practical and effective than doing so in open soil treated with the Plant Food. My Aubergines are presently carrying an average of 10 fruit per plant, this while planted in pots. The chillies depending on type vary in size from 4cm to 28cm with one Thai Birds Eye bush producing 85 beautiful chillies. Needless to say Im very impressed. Earlier this year a single Rosa Tomato plant carried tomato bunches of up to 40 tomatoes per bunch. Currently the Sweet Rocket goes from seedling to full production in less than 3 weeks. So even towards the end of the summer growth season, growing one's own herbs and vegetables and cooking them for own consumption remains one of the more satisfying activities in life.  

No comments:

Post a Comment