Last year I went to the trouble of preparing my raised garden beds by adding extra organic garden Soil ( purchased ) as all we have is organic solid limestone soil However all my efforts resulted in me binning my plants and having to end up buying tomatoes to make our favourite tomato relish that I make up by adding extra ingredients like sweet capsicums ….any way before I get to carried away …I’m pretty sure it was @Don Alaska who gave me some excellent advice regarding the issues I had with my tomatoes ( blossom end rot ) Now since planting my tomatoes we’ve had very cool to cold weather considering we are only about 3 weeks out from our official summer months ( 21 st Dec is the start of summer ) my plants are grown well but I’ve been very reluctant to trim them , they are a bit over grown considering we’ve had so much cool weather ️ So maybe Don can give me some device again should I trim the big large growth leaves of my plants ?.. I’ve purchased a smallish extra raised garden bed this spring the sliver colour one That has Gross lessee tomatoes ….the rest are Roma Italian tomatoes
We get allot of wind here mainly because we are close to the sea , the very reason I had the wind protection shade cloth sides for garden beds ( a couple of years ago )
I picked the last of my container grown tomatoes today because we are having a low temp of 20º tonight.
We had an inch of rain yesterday the first rain we’ve had in months ….it was very dry here …so now the veggies will grow like mad nothing beats a good drop of rain for the garden
I dragged my frozen tomatoes from this summers crop out of freezer last nite to make tomato chutney today , which I’ve just finished Now letting it cool before putting away in pantry I always cook anything containing vinegar / spices out inthe shed or it stinks the house out for quite a while I use a portable heavy duty gas ring in the shed …… I’ve got a glass cook top in my kitchen so I can’t put heavy saucepans on that… Stove is electric
We have always been told not to do canning on glass stovetops @Kate Ellery. We rented a place for a smooth glass stovetop and canning on it scratched the heck out of the top. We didn't know any better then. Our daughters have them and do their canning outside on the deck. I don't like canning on any electric stovetop, especially pressure canning, as it is too slow to respond.
Same here @Don Alaska we do the fruit canning out in the shed with the pressure canner as it’s to heavy for the glass cooktop and it’s WAY…to SLOOOOOW ….. DH has a island bench among others in the shed so it makes it heaps easier, he sets up the gas ring on a old single type of school desk ( next to bench ) that he put a steel top on some time ago other wise it would be to high for me to attend to / stir Jams or chutneys
We use a tail-gater for our canning on the porch, I think you've seen ours in my canning thread, we don't can much now. Last was dried beans. Not enough crops to can.
What’s a tailgater @Marie Mallery I like beans but my gut gives me hell if I eat them ..but I do make a 4 beans mix salad ( buy 4 bean mix in a can ) in summer and just eat little bits
I take a little baking soda ,it helps with effects of beans and onions, which we eat lots of. Also probiotics help.
Hey @Don Alaska I need a little advice on planting tomatoes this spring ( next month ) All my raised garden beds had tomatoes growing in them last summer , some of which were self sown . I’m aware you’re not supposed to plant the same crops in the same bed year after year ….specially tomatoes so what do I do ? take a risk and plant or go back to the old way and give the raised beds a breather …or is there anyway to ovoid the tomatoes getting that root disease if I reuse the same beds for tomatoes ? Seeming a I didn’t have much luck with Roma tomatoes ….think I’ll stick to gross lessee type again Oh those raised beds haven’t had anything planted in them for the last 6 months ….they have a couple of old egg plant and capsicums that produced and ripened over winter , strange cause they are normally dormant over winter