May top & flop CROPS
Lynda’s regular round-up of the best & worst performers in her Hunua garden.
ROCKMELONS:
While my lifelong watermelon jinx continues (see flop crops), I did at least grow some fine autumn cantaloupes, although quite why these apricot-fleshed beauties are so much easier to grow than their red-fleshed commercial cousins remains a mystery to me. I sowed the F1 hybrid ’Inspiration’ (Kings Seeds) and was pleasantly surprised by how big the fruit (pictured left) grew given the compact nature of the vines. If you have a very small vegetable garden, or a collection of containers, try this variety next season. TOMATILLOS:
If only all my favourite crops self-sowed as readily as these Mexican salsa stalwarts ( Physalis ixocarpa, pictured above). Having grown tomatillos for a few seasons, they are now a well-behaved weed, popping up in my gravel paths in midsummer and transplanting happily. ‘WILDFIRE’ CHILLIES: I reckon the secret to successful chilli growing is to transplant late, as these heat-lovers hate cool nights. At Christmas, I put in a 2m x 2m bed of fiery cayenne chillies from the Zealandia Grow Fresh punnet range. My 24 seedlings spawned more than 500 shiny, spicy fruit. NATIVE SPINACH:
I once encouraged a thick groundcover of New Zealand spinach under my globe artichokes. In that same spot I’ve since grown spuds, pumpkins and carrots and, three years on, it’s now my picking garden. And, all of a sudden, the spinach has come back. Most welcome it is, too.
CELERIAC:
More experienced growers would no doubt reject my little lumpy celeriac bulbs as a flop crop but I’m actually chuffed with my autumn harvest of Apium graveolens var.
rapaceum. After five or six attempts to grow so-called turnip-rooted celery – five or six attempts that ended the same way, with premature bolting before any sign of bulbing – this year I unexpectedly found success. Half a metre of rain in the first half of March helped matters immensely, as instead of drying out at this critical stage in the subterranean swelling process, my soil stayed consistently moist.
Like parsnips, celeriac can suffer a loss of flesh quality as it ages, developing dry, hollow cores. But as it’s going to take my family a few weeks to eat all of my 36 bulbs, I’m keen to see how well the roots keep in the soil over winter. I’ve read online that, if stored in a coolstore between 0°C and 5°C, trimmed celeriac can keep for up to six months. (Don’t try this in your fridge as the ventilation system will suck them dry.)
If you have no celery in your vege patch, celeriac is a worthy substitute for soups and stews. I also like to grate it, raw, into salads. My current favourite is a simple celeriac slaw with grated ’Granny Smith’ apples, dressed simply with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and a splash of olive oil. WATERMELONS:
My sad wee vines didn’t even produce any flower buds until mid-March, making it clear that I needn’t hold out hope of getting any fruit by winter. Or indeed, ever. I now declare defeat!