For this week’s Six on Saturday, I decided to focus on some of my motley selection of vegetables. Once again I have the same problem with yellowing leaves. Too much or not enough water or is it nutrients?
1. Tomatoes
The Black Tula (beefsteak) tomatoes have finally started to grow. A fellow gardener in France (The Simple Life) kindly sent me some seeds as part of a seed share project. I am excited to see how they will develop.
These are the yellow Minibelll variety. The leaves remind me more of potato plants than tomatoes.
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Black Tomatoes – I am unsure of the variety as the seeds were saved on a tissue from last year’s crop.
Rosa Tomato Plants—beefsteak tomatoes. Looking at the picture, I think the leaf curl indicates they are getting too hot in direct sunlight.
2. Spinach
The spinach has now gone to seed, so I dug it up, chopped it into small pieces, and turned it back into the soil. as I won’t be using this area of the bed until the autumn. I’ve never tried this before.
I then covered the area with a membrane so the soil doesn’t dry out during the summer.
3. Kale
The Kale continues to grow well despite the cabbage white butterflies laying eggs and gifting me lots of added protein in the form of caterpillars. Apparently, Kale is a nutrition ‘super star’. https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/the-many-types-and-health-benefits-of-kale
This is my first attempt at growing kale, and I am delighted by the yield. I have no idea how long each plant will last, but we will see.
4. French Beans (Processor)
The Processor bean seeds sown on March 8th, given the drought and insufficient depth of soil, are growing reasonably well. Some of the flowers are already morphing into beans, and I expect our first feed in the next couple of weeks. The leaves are going yellow, so I’m either overwatering or the plants are nutrient deficient. Manure or nettle tea?
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5. Yellow Peppers
Baby peppers are just beginning to form. From experience from previous years, I know yellow peppers take a very long time to ripen.
6. Red Onions
The red onions are undersized. Someone suggested they don’t need much water, and I am probably stunting their growth with too much love. I’ve stopped watering them for now until the earth dries out. Fingers crossed, in a few weeks, I’ll have a string of onions to last me the summer.
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The drought continues, so we reuse every drop of grey water we can collect in a variety of buckets and bowls. Water is collected from dehumidifiers, the washing machine, showers, washing fruit and veg, and even hands. I must be the only person to do a happy dance in Lidls when we spotted heavy-duty black plastic buckets on special offer at €2.50.
That’s it for this week, folks!
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I think most kale will last until a hard frost. In Seattle, I harvested kale year round most years. Fir my purposes, I prefer a flatter kale like red russian or Lacinato (I feel the same way about parsley, though a saw a recipe for kale pakoras the other day which sounded good and used curly type kale t better hold the delicious batter!
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Hi, this is the first year I have grown kale and only dug it up in August because the white mould covered the leaves. I bought some new plants today. I have never heard of kale pakoras and have added that to my recipe list.
I tried growing a purple kale but the slugs got to it.
Thank you for stopping by
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Gosh, lots of edibles. I hope the drought ends soon.
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It is such a faff to get too much/too little water just right. Who knows the answer?! Nice to share veggies, mine are very slow this year, just so wet and cold, probably the opposite to you. We will get there in the end, I’m certain.
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Yes, it is nice to share veggie tips and heartaches. We had a wet March which ran into April. The temperatures were also lower on average, especially at night. But us gardeners are made of tougher stuff. 🙂
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Kale is a biennial. So it will usual last for 2 years. It’s my first time growing this variety of kale this year so I’m not sure how cold hardy is this one. My kale from last year has just gone to seed but still edible.
So you don’t mind the cabbage butterfly laying eggs in your veggies? It’s the reason I’m covering mine in insect cloth this year.
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Hi, I never knew it was bi annual. Thanks for the info. I do mind cabbage whiet laying eggs but a few yeas ago a gardening friend built a frame and netted but the ninja butterflies squeezed through the holes in the net. Someone suggest I sprayed with garlic water to repel insects. I’ve not tried it yet … maybe Is should give it a go because inspecting the udnerside of leaves for the tell tale yellow eggs is quite time consuming
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I netted my veggies too late last year and didn’t realize that the white butterflies had already laid eggs on my veggies. It was a bad infestation last year. I barely got much harvest of brassicas. So I’m taking extra precaution this year and netting it 2 months in advance, before spring ever arrives.
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It always interests me to compare the difference in our gardens, it’s also very hard to imagine a drought after months of continuous rain here! Hope the ‘Black from Tula’ thrive for you, mine are at the same stage as I plant as late as possible to dodge blight. Your kale looks amazing despite the caterpillars’ best efforts, I’d have imagined it would struggle in the heat but it looks like a really good doer. Do you have comfrey in your garden to make into a liquid feed?
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Yes, it’s amazing. Same plants in different locations at difference stages of growth. I am relieved yours are at the same stage as mine. I am also trying to dodge blight. I have not planted the mini toms you sent me yet. I am going to wait as I am running out of space and already had some cherry toms underway. I will plant the seeds in June so they are a later crop. No, I don’t have comfrey. I’ll see if I can get some seeds. Thanks for the tip!
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It always feels wrong to sit on my hands and not sow tomatoes until late April/early May but we have found the late planting really helps; even if they get blight, it’s a very slow collapse so we still have a good harvest. Your growing season must be longer than ours so there is still plenty of time for them to mature. If you can grow nettles then I imagine comfrey will cope with the climate, the best thing to do is get a root if you can. If you know someone who has some they ought to be happy to share, it’s a bit of a thug and once you’ve got it, you’ll always have it! If you can’t get any, I’ll happily send you some in the dormant season (mine came from a friend in Asturias originally so it would be quite good fun to send some back to the Peninsula! 😁)
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Are these your first tomatoes? Do you already have more advanced ones? Having started my sowing quite early, the flowers have already been there for a long time and the first fruits have appeared, but with your climate, you will quickly catch up… !
Onions like green beans, they require quite little water around here . I never water onions (like shallots and garlic): occasional rain takes care of that.
And for the french beans, water at the beginning yes but once they have started, I only water them a few (but here we have dew in the morning and that’s enough.)
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I have three tomato plants in pots which I planted in march. They are meant to be cherry tomatoes but so far the crop is sparse and still green. I bought the seedlings at a market in march. Some flowers are just beginning to apear on the other plants in my veg area. I thought I’d stat later this year to see if I could avoid early blight. We will see.
I take on board your comment about the beans and onions as we also have dew. I tested with a water meter probe and they are wet. 🙂 Maybe that is the problem.
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