Weekend gardener

Stay on top of summer garden

Keep a close eye on your tomatoes

Tomatoes are prone to a host of pests and diseases, especially in places which have hot and humid summers. Feast or famine watering – periods of drought followed by guilt-ridden overwatering – causes problems too. Cherry tomatoes will split their skins if they get too much or too little water, while large tomatoes’ skins split if overwatered. Inconsistent watering also causes blossom end rot, when toms have sunken black patches at the base of the fruit (well, actually that’s caused by a calcium deficiency, but inconsistent watering is the cause of that).

Holes in tomatoes could be the tomato fruit worm, so use a caterpillar specific spray (look for one containing BTK, aka Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki, which affects caterpillars but nothing else).

Tomato/potato psyllids will be on the wing too, and the impact of these aphid-like insects can be devastating, resulting in sickly yellow foliage and small, stunted fruit. Go over your plants looking for the bugs on the underside of the leaves, and the tell-tale sugarlike crystals on the foliage.

To avoid psyllids organically, grow your plants under the mesh crop covers available from BHU at Lincoln University. Otherwise, spray with neem once a week (reapply after rain) or with Yates Mavrik every 7-14 days.

Rethink plant choices

A garden that can withstand drought doesn’t need to be boring or without flowers. Several groups of plants stand out as robust survivors. Euphorbias, sedums, phlomis, lavenders and cistus are all worth trying for fragrance and colour.

Freeze, pickle and preserve like mad

January is when your efforts over the past few months start to pay off with the start of peak harvest season.

Don’t let any of your hard work go to waste! Anything you can’t eat fresh can be stored to keep you going for months.

Not keen on spending hot days hovering over a preserving pan? Most fruit and veges can be preserved by freezing. Berries and chillies can be frozen as is, but with beans, broccoli, carrots, corn and peas, chop (if necessary) then blanch them first. (Do this by immersing briefly in boiling water then immediately in cold water, before freezing.)

A vacuum sealer makes short work of packaging meal-sized batches in flat rectangles that thaw quickly. Labelled on the edge flap and stacked vertically like a filing cabinet they are very easy to find and economical on freezer space.

Store root crops in a dry spot with good air circulation and focus on varieties that suit long-term storage, such as the beetroot Cylindra; carrot Scarlet Nantes; onion: Pukekohe Long Keeper; Agria and Rua potatoes; and pumpkin Queensland Blue (or any other ironbark).

SALLY TAGG/NZ GARDENER If growing plump, juicy red tomatoes is your aim, be prepared to put the work in.

Should we change the conditions in our gardens to suit the plants – or choose the plants to suit the conditions? This question faces many gardeners facing drought and irrigation restrictions. It makes sense to choose the right plants to avoid a ceaseless battle against the elements. Because strawberries are low in pectin, use jam-setting sugar when preserving.