PLANT of NOW
TOMATOES
For gardeners in cooler areas, it’s time to think about getting your tomatoes in the ground. If you get late frosts, you might want to wait until the risk has passed, or plant but be prepared to cover your plants on nights when frost is predicted.
Choose a sunny spot protected from strong winds, preferably where you haven’t grown tomatoes or their relatives, such as eggplant, chilli and capsicum, for the past three years. This decreases the risk of pests and diseases they have in common.
Plan to space your tomato plants about 1m apart, then prepare a planting area about 60cm wide for each plant by digging in a bucketful of compost as well as two good handfuls of pelletised chicken manure. Tall-growing vine tomatoes need a trellis or long stakes to support them, so put these in now. When planting, bury the stem up to the first set of leaves, or even deeper. Extra roots will form, giving your plants greater access to moisture and nutrients.
If you want to grow your tomatoes in containers, choose large pots, at least 50cm wide, and fill them with top quality potting mix. Compact bush tomato varieties are best suited to container growing.
GINGER
Ginger does all of its growing in the warmer months, so planting it now guarantees the greatest return when you come to harvest in the following autumn and winter. All you need to get started is a healthy piece of root (rhizome) from your fruit shop or market. To increase the number of plants, cut the rhizomes into smaller pieces about 5cm long. When you do this, make sure that each piece has two or more eyes. These are the little bumps where the first shoots form. When planting, bury your pieces about 3cm below the surface, then keep the soil on the drier side of moist until the shoots appear, which may take a month or so.
You can grow ginger in full sun, but it does just as well in semi-shade, which is good to know if sunny spots are at a premium in your garden. It loves organically rich soil, so add compost when planting. Tropical and subtropical areas are best for growing ginger, but it’s worth a go anywhere that’s warm and frost free. If you’re short on space in your garden, you can grow ginger in containers filled with a 50:50 combination of compost and potting mix. It makes a lovely pot plant for a balcony or courtyard. Place it in a warm, sheltered spot.