Gardenjournal: autumn harvest, winter crops and my little yam family
I grow vegetables all year round, although there are specific winter crops and summer crops. In winter I can grow the brassica family, peas, spinach and beetroot family and lettuce although lettuce isn't my thing and I don't bother. Brassicas and Swiss Chard survive freezing temperatures happily although the peas are always dicey. I do prefer the peas as a break from endless leaves so I always put them in and hope. I sowed the seeds about 10 days ago and so far germination is looking good, even though night-time temperatures are in single digits and went as low as 1C the other night. I leave the trays outside, they must grow or not. I sowed all in trays because I wanted to get the germination going at the same time as I cleaned up the summer remnants.
Peas are tricky too in terms of growing times: plant too early and they are ready to produce in the coldest time of year and don't do much. Plant too late and they will get fried in the spring heat 🤷♀ With the threat of El Nino looming I decided to try Mange Tout this year: it's more heat tolerant and matures faster. I found a seed supplier online and of course I had to buy weird and wonderful stuff so I got Chioggia beetroot and kohlrabi seeds too. The last supplier's kohlrabi seeds never germinated so hopefully I have better luck with these.
Image stolen from here: if you are in SA, buy from them too, their prices are much better than anybody else else's. Their seeds aren't hybridised either so it's possible to save seeds and grow your own once you have the first successful crop.
These yellow pear tomatoes were another wacky vegetable experiment: these seeds were old when they were given to me and the packet was easily over 10 years old and I thought "what the hell" and tipped the contents into a pot and didn't expect anything. 6 seeds germinated and as they are heirloom seeds, I now have plenty for next year.
The horned melons are tastier this year after a summer of
less rain and more sun.
I thought I'd gotten rid of the sweet potatoes last year but they emerged so I had to go uprooting the terraces to find rogue tubers. Sweet potatoes are good but they smother anything in their way unless you eat the leaves very aggressively. I think I got all the tubers, some are large but they are good eating. Once I cooked the mountain of leaves, they went into the freezer in little containers and will supply a lot of meals, they can be dropped into stews or added to fried onions and tomatoes.
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On the subject of yams, these are also part the family. I sowed them in October and they will be ready to separate into little pots next season. They are sought after by succulent collectors and I could sell them.
Dioscorea sylvatica is a slow growing indigenous medicinal plant and a natural source of cortisone. The yam family as a whole contain steroid compounds
Below, Dioscorea elephantipes. They are indigenous to my country, very long-lived, slow growing and edible but I won't be eating this very expensive little potato. I bought it last year, it stopped growing when it arrived and then suddenly sprouted in December, which is early for a winter-growing plant. Then I nearly killed it by watering too little, the caudex shrunk completely but a little googling set me and my plant back on the right track. That tiny caudex is now about 4 years old and 5cm across. In about 5 years from now, it will be very impressive looking, if I manage not to kill it of course...
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If you're curious about what this post is about, look here: https://peakd.com/@riverflows/its-june-and-time-for-showing-off-your-gardens
You are really doing well, and you have put your effort into developing your garden
Thank you, gardening is one of the few things that always brings peace
Yeah, you are right and it brings beauty also
Hard to believe those yellow pear tomatoes germinated such old seeds, that’s awesome.
I came across some old sunflower seeds and did a what the hell planting also. I was pleasantly surprised to see several sprouted and looking really healthy.
Isn’t fun to experiment with gardening?
Have a lovely day @nikv, great post.
Thank you and I'll confess that I live for the weird experiments
Haha that’s the spirit me to
5 year project with the Dioscorea elephantipes! Wow I do good to keep anything alive for one growing season lol We love pear tomatoes and had lots last summer. We save seeds from almost everything and just give it a go. Fun if a bit hit or miss. Our garden is just getting going. We moved everything outside last week. We are starting to eat radishes that we started outside a few weeks ago. Just warming up here. We grow everything in relatively shallow raised beds (almost everything) so haven't gotten into tubers. But we love sweet potatoes. Maybe we should experiment some. When I hear something grows easily and agressively, my ears perk up haha Something I could grow successfully 🙂
I'm getting better at keeping plants alive for many years 😅
One thing I have noticed is that many Northern Hemisphere areas have about 2 months of suitable growing conditions and sweet potatoes require 5 so I'm not sure whether they will produce much for you
So I read up on sweet potatoes. My growing season is a bit short but people have success starting them in a greenhouse and moving them out when the soil warms up. I don't have a greenhouse but do start most of my plants inside my garage with grow lights. Could work 🤔
Give it a try!
Oh wow what a bounty! I love those tomatoes. I tried once to grow them, but the birds decided it were their food so I never really tried again.
Also, it is good to know that things like swiss chard can withstand the cold temps. I am staying in Gauteng for a while (normally from the cape) and I worried about the cold temps. Thanks for that info!
2 years ago we had some really icy weather, the kind that freezes water in pipes. The swiss chard and kale leaves were frozen stiff and it didn't bother them in the slightest
Oh great to know! They are really “kannie dood” (cannot die) plants! I have transferred so many of mine from pots to gardens and so on and some die but most survive and produce amazing new growth. I think less hardy herbs like basil will have a tough time in such cold weather.
Looks like a bountiful harvest!
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This is a brilliant website to buy seeds from in SA. The way they do things is that you only pay for the seeds you’re going to sow. Most seeds cost around R5 (you get 20 or so). I makes for less waste and super fresh seeds. You veggies are looking good and since my mom needs cortisone, you’ve given me a stellar idea. Thanks! 🌺🌹🥬🌼🍅🌿🌿🍃🌱☘️☘️🌻🌝
You're welcome! I know that site but I suspect that they actually resell from the supplier I bought from
Thank you @ewkaw and @qurator
You're welcome :)
It is very hard work you doing and those tomatoes i love them I never saw that shape tomatoes in yellow color I read more about Dioscorea sylvatica after you mention in your post. It is interesting. You protecting them 5 years amazing work. thanks for sharing.greetings 😊👩❤️👩
Hello to you too! Yellow pear tomatoes have been around for a very long time but they aren't common. I first saw them 8 years ago when a neighbour of mine grew them
Wow, I can tell you are very passionate about planting and harvesting. Nice to meet you, it's the first time I visit you. Reading you, it is clear that you know what you are talking about and the years have given you a special wisdom that makes you deal with the climate and the different plants and vegetables that you work with. The photographs also show the love you put into each one, as everything looks beautiful and well cared for. I congratulate you for cultivating this passion, this world is totally unknown to me, but I admire people who do it with as much dedication as you do. I send you a hug, and good luck with these abrupt weather changes...
Thank you
AHH! I love it when I run across one of your posts! And I really loved learning about and seeing your Dioscorea sylvatica What an awesome plant! And it will be kind to you and flourish, I just know it, especially since you saved it from an early demise. But holy, wow, four years old and that tiny? You have the coolest cultivars I swear.
I've never eaten a horned melon, but I'm beyond up for it, they just look so cool!
Thanks so much for sharing all your garden happenings, I totally dig it!
!PIZZA
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@generikat(2/15) tipped @nikv
Thank you and here's some
!PIZZA
Hey @nikv, sorry about the grid being down a lot, but then at least you can garden more and not get as distracted by HIVE, hah! Are you as worried about the coming dry as I am? We've been on Hive together for so long that I recall how dry your garden got last time! I guess we'll see this time in six months or so, and the years after that - aahh! I love that beetroot - I've grown it before but went bback to the usual one as I find it juicier. I bought the horned melons after you showed me them last time but wasn't successful. Thanks for sharing!
Yes, I think the that this summer will see me erecting shade cloth and investigating targeted irrigation methods.
I'm curious to see what the stripy beets are like, apparently they can be eaten raw?
I'm surprised the horned melon didn't thrive, they are so tough and grow rampantly here. I guess that means they won't turn invasive in your part of the world
From memory, the beets are a bit like a mild radish raw? I love raw beetroot, very common here grated for salads.
You're low-key super smart...Not unlike cats
I abandoned my idea of growing sweet tatoes this year...I just bought some though!
'I live for the weird experiments' -- that was a fun and pleasurable confession to hear. Huh. What do we live for, is a weird and fun question to think about, either.
Peach tomatoes look wonderful and tempting - wish you will have a good crop next year!
Horned melons ... are they edible?! they look pretty perilous := )
I hope my tomato crops are good this summer too, I fixed my freezer.
The horned melons are edible and not something you want to step on with bare feet, that's for sure. I've realised that they taste according to the weather that year. Too much rain and little sun makes them bland but normal summer weather
☘️☘️☘️ This summer we had a decent amount of sun, I can't complain.
That's good. I hope you and your family are well?
The formal answer is 'yes' but that would be not true... All of my family is not in mental good form : / especially my daughter case and living, its constantly frustrates, depresses me, and makes my hands 'go down'. Let me skip the details. Something should grow up from the inside itself, you cant do it for another human, right?.. Of course I want a better life for my only baby. But what we are getting for now, has a common name, not sure this is correct title in English or not: 'learned (acquired) helplessness'. Nothing to boast about, really. That is also the reason why I did not posted to Home Edders community even once. Simply, I have nothing to boast about. People are supposed to share smth good, what they are proud of, not their losses or stupid errors, etc.
If you was asking in a broader sense - its a war time after all - the situation here is toleratable, i.e. did not come to an ugly degrees poorly compatible with life. My wife and I still have jobs, with a below average income, we have food, electricity, internet, all this is not yet going to fall like a house of cards and disappear into the dust. But.. as they say, if the fall lasts not for 10 seconds but for 50 years, then you can fall for a long time and consider that everything is correct, and there is no reason to worry.. at least, I am happy with my current job in the publishing house. It is maybe the best one that happened in my whole life. Sounds fantastic, right?.. PS. I make requests on a regular basis that we should adopt a new cat, but my wife still refuses, and we live a cat orphans life. Our whitee was the only normal, non-crazy person in our family.
I always have failures with peas. I can't adjust in any way and I plant it too late, and it doesn't like heat too much. Now, after your post, I'll probably do it right now.
I hope that helps! Peas are difficult to time with unpredictable weather patterns