Gardening – Tough growing conditions

Well, what can we say about this summer that hasn’t already been said? It has truly been a shocker and the garden is showing the effects. Subtropical and tropical plants are generally loving it, with lots of warmth and lots of moisture no doubt making them feel right at home. My lotus plants are flowering most gorgeously, as if they are still in Bali or Vietnam. The sunshine hours deficit is having an impact though, as both the lotus and the frangipani are flowering about a month later than usual.

The monsoon-like conditions are particularly hellish for temperate climate or root-rot sensitive plants though – my plum crop was minuscule, peaches were non-existent, the grapes are a soggy rotten mess, tomatoes are fast disintegrating into a blight-stricken disaster, the passionfruit have withered away and even my tough old fig tree appears to be suffering from root rot!

The fig tree I’ll spray with a fungus spray based on Fosetyl-aluminium (there are several brands on the market). I’ll use this spray on the tomatoes also, in a vain attempt to save them as it has some effect on late blight and on anything else that suffers from the root disease Phytophthora, such as the avocado trees and the cherimoya which, despite being a tropical, is not liking its position right next to the perpetually full drain this year.

A lot of nutrients in the soil will have leached away in the heavy rains and most of the mulch has probably also washed downstream. To get the plants back on their feet, I’m planning to sprinkle some blood and bone, plus sulphate of potash, to replenish lost nutrients. If I do it just before the next rain I won’t even need to hose it off the plants. I can’t imagine there won’t be more rain! Replacing the lost mulch is vital, as root systems are struggling, and the mulch will help rebalance the root zone for them.

Although we are getting quite late to be planting summer crops, we gardeners are a hopeful bunch and I, for one, am counting on the warmer oceans this year prolonging our summer conditions (hopefully without so much rain) into the autumn. It’s probably too late to start melons, climbing beans, capsicum, eggplant, corn, and pumpkin, as these have quite lengthy growing seasons. But I’m putting in another batch of tomato, cucumber, zucchini and possibly some dwarf beans. Fingers crossed, the gamble will pay off and make up the shortfall from summer.

Of course, there are plenty of other crops that are traditionally sown or transplanted now, such as leeks, beetroot, cabbage, broccoli, plus salad vegetables like lettuce, arugula (rocket), radish, mizuna, fennel and cress. With lettuce, it may pay to choose the more open varieties that don’t form a head, as the head forming types such as iceberg will be prone to rotting out if the rains keep coming.
Another crop of spuds can also go in, if they are protected from potato psyllid with either an insect-proof mesh or a regular insecticide spray programme. Speaking of psyllid, I have not seen much evidence of them this season and pest numbers, in general, seem to be lower than last year. I expect this is due to the weather conditions also, so I’m counting the small blessings!