End of Season Review

It is autumn in SA (April-May) and everything is slowing down with the increasingly cold bite in the air. So it was a good time to give the garden a general 'service' and evaluate the success of the past season's crop.

We did have a better crop this year; not so hairy carrots/beets any more, lots of tomatoes given pruning, some of our fruit trees have bared their first crop (although not much) and we have had many potatoes and salad-based crops to enjoy. But the pumpkin/squash harvest of this year was poorer than last year, mainly due the certain pollinators not doing their job... All the pollinators in the garden (bees and flies) only come round for the basil flowers and neglect all the other plants (I had to personally pollinate all the passion fruit flowers that where desperately displaying to an uninterested audience!). So now I shall become head gardener and pollinator of this yard :)

Sad looking end-of-season plants

We dug out most of the garden and added all kinds of goodies (chicken manure, grass clippings, organic and inorganic fertiliser) which will hopefully pay off in return for lots and lots of big root crops, potatoes and whatever else that may be planted there. Lots of bare ground around the garden now, but I can try out my new crop succession planting strategy of increasing the square size to hopefully get  better crop stagger out of it (details in Beet Root article).

Bare ground

The chickens are really big now! They stand higher off the ground than the cats! And they are still growing! Not laying eggs yet, apparently due to the grow pellets we give them, but we can't put them on lay pellets yet because two of them are not at their point of lay yet :) So I'll rather have big chickens that are ready to lay eggs than force them when their biologically not ready yet, so we will wait patiently for our free-range eggs :)

The Chickens

Big Chickens

J

Parktown Prawn aka King Crickets - Garden Critter of the Month:

King Crickets at a glance

Occupation:	Generalist
Value to Gardener:	?    -  Depends on personal opinion
Danger to Humans:	0/5 - None
Availability:	5/5 – If you live in northern SA, their all over the place!

Libanasidus vittatus, King Cricket,
Wikipedia, Paul Venter

Quick Intro

These are my least favourite insect! Since they have this reputation, I thought I’ll feature them in a garden critter of the month discussion.

Science Stuff

The scientific classification is Libanasidus vittatus, under the insect order of Orthoptera. This includes all insects related to the cricket body-type, grasshoppers, katydids, locusts and crickets.

It is basically a large cricket, hence it’s called the King Cricket (common name parktown prawn). They can grow larger then 10cm with a red head and thorax, orange and black striped abdomen and large spiky orange legs. They have large mandibles which are capable of devouring just about everything. They are found in northern South Africa and in Angola.

Their strong legs allow them to jump a metre easily; although their directional control is lacking and when threatened they eject black foul smelling faecal liquid. This makes very entertaining scenes when you watch someone trying to catch them when they’re in the house J - they jump unpredictably and squirt nasty stuff all over the place!

I think they are absolutely disgusting, but I understand their important role as both a predator and prey in the ecosystem. They also help with decomposition.

Habitat

They like gardens with rich soil and lots of burrowing places (especially in your shoes!). As long as there is food they’ll move in!

Prawn burrowing under the logs - I ain't getting closer than this!

Diet

They are generalist in every way, from being predators to being prey themselves. They are omnivores and eat insects, snails, rotting plant and animal matter, pet food and sometimes wooden flooring. They are prey to Hadeda Ibis (noisy big birds, I remember a French family who visited the same guest house as we did wrote in the comment book J), Fiscal Shrike (we have always had a dominant male that claimed our property as its territory) and Helmeted Guineafowl (we have 3 flocks living in the open areas around our neighbourhood).

Hadeda Ibis,
Wikipedia, DawidI
We call it Hadeda - it makes a haa haa de dah noise

 

Fiscal Shrike,
Wikipedia, Jerry Friedman

Helmeted Guineafowl,
Wikipedia, Bod

King Cricket 101

It is a true generalist and the opinions on whether it is useful or not varies. Some consider it a pest, while some gardeners consider them a friend as they perform natural snail control (maybe that’s one of the reasons why we do not have snails?), but they in turn will munch away at your vegetables! I just do not want them in the house! They always seem to be in my bedroom for some reason, being nocturnal they make clicking noises when they walk, which make it impossible to sleep – also they are not easy to find!

Libanasidus vittatus, King Cricket

Mother nature could have made a nicer parktown prawn! J

Peppers - Fruit of the Month

Pepper stats/requirements at a glance

Ease of Raising:	5/5 – Very easy
Water:	4/5 – A fair amount (mostly during fruit set)
Sun:	5/5 – Full sun, no shade (fruit ripening)
Training:	2/5 – Needs some
Fertilise/Feeding:	4/5 – Monthly (growing) to Fornightly (fruiting)
Time to Harvest:	3/5 – Moderate (green can be picked soon, ripe fruit later in summer)
Uses:	Culinary, Pollinator attractor
Most Problematic Nemesis:	Blossom End Rot, Sunburn
Container Plant:	Preferable

Quick intro

The word "pepper" is used to describe two different families of plants, one is used as a fruit and the other used as a spice (aka your salt & pepper J). ‘Peppers’ is the collective word for bell peppers, chilies and paprika, whereas white/black pepper describes the dried fruits from the Piper nigrum plant, which is used for seasoning of just about everything.

Here I will be focussing on Bell peppers, as I do not grow chillies – don’t like to eat them, so why grow them J - but the tips and tricks discussed here will help chilly growing as well.

History

Now then, I think the history of bell peppers and chillies is quite obvious. It originated in Central and South America (specifically the Caribbean & in Mexico) and has been cultivated since 3000BC. Columbus took these plants to Africa and Asia, where it quickly became a popular and integral part of those cultures’ dishes.

Science Stuff

The pepper genus, Capsicum, is divided into roughly 3 groups; Capsicum annuum ssp. Paprika Longum group aka Paprika, Capsicum annuum Grossum group aka sweet/bell peppers and Capsicum annuum Longum group aka chillies. Another species, Capsicum frutescens, also includes some chilly varieties, which are used to make Tabasco sauce.

Bell Pepper Plant
Capsicum annuum

The Capsicum genus, belongs to the Solanaceae family, which includes other well-known fruiting plants, such as tomato, potato, eggplant and ‘medicinal’ plants, such as tobacco, belladonna, thorn-apple and henbane. For the medicinal plants, one should remember that it is the dosage that distinguished a remedy from a poison. J

Growing Peppers

Peppers are grown as annuals, but they are perennial plants. In areas which do not experience very cold winters, the pepper plants can be left during the winter to flower and fruit early in the next spring. Colder climate areas, will grow peppers as annuals from seeds – or you could protect the peppers from harsh winter conditions by housing it indoors. I have 2 peppers plants going, one remains from the previous season (to flower and fruit early, while the other grows) and one planted newly. After fruiting, the 2^nd season pepper is removed and the newly planted pepper is left to survive the winter. In this way you rotate your pepper plants, so that they do not become too old and scraggly.

Seeds are sown when the last threat of frost has passed or they can be pre-sown indoors and transplanted outside once their first ‘true leaves’ have appeared. Make a 1-2cm hole in the ground, place the seed in the hole and sprinkle soil over, this increases seedling emergence and prevents the seedling from being washed out of the soil.

 

 

Capsicum annuum - Bell pepper
Seedling

Peppers require training, not as much as tomatoes, but a little more than eggplants J. The plants should be supported by one stake tied to the main stem. A little gap should be left between the stake and the stem when tied to prevent damaging the plant and allows the plant stem to expand. 

A bell pepper plant should be allowed to carry 6 fruits at any time. So if you pick some peppers to use green, allow the plant to set more flowers until the fruit count is up to 6 again. Smaller fruiting pepper plants, such as pepper-dews and chillies, can carry a lot of fruits on one plant. Once a pepper plant has gone into their 2^nd season, they have acclimated (adjusted to your weather conditions) and will fruit like crazy, especially pepper-dews and chillies – you won’t know what to do with them all! I think that you should get away easily with 12 fruits per pepper-dew/chilly, if I have to make an educated guess J.

You would think that these plants won’t require much fertilisation, as the fruits are hollow. But capsicums need a lot of potassium for fruit set, so feed them as often as you would your tomatoes. Once, while growing and every second week during fruit set.

All bell peppers have 3 stages of ripening, unripe = green, ripening = yellow/orange and ripe = red/purple. I have not been able to get peppers to ripen as soon as they have set fruit – even though the tomato is closely related, they seem to follow different ideas about when to ripen their fruit. Fruit ripening starts late summer (so this be the yellow ones J) and will be fully ripe in autumn (this be the red ones).

 

 

Bell pepper, setting fruit
Capsicum annuum

Peppers like hot weather, but can get sunburn (our African sun burn holes in the fruit! I first though it was worms, but I have never seen any worms on the plants and the hole seems ‘fallen in’ rather than ‘eaten out’ J). I am still thinking of a way to prevent this, because ‘holy’ peppers can’t be good J.

Other pepper tips

There is a huge variety of pepper colour, shapes and sizes – if you are someone who likes chillies, there is a large variety of easily accessible (you can get hold of them easily J) chillies that also vary in their ‘hot’ factor (I remember the technical term is Scoville heat scale – the amount of water drops needed to neutralise the burning sensation – not that the burning will remain neutralised J, you should drink milk for that). I have a rainbow bell pepper seed mix and have to wait forever to see which colour I get (I want a purple one L!).

Blossom end rot, is a deficiency! (not a disease, as some books have led me to believe!) – It is a problem for most plants of the Solanaceae family (tomatoes and eggplants). This is recognised by the sunken and blackening of the tips of the fruits – you cannot save the fruits once this has happened, so chuck them away! OK, what happens is that a calcium deficiency occurs in the soil when it experiences large fluctuations in water content (wet at night to very dry at midday), this causes a water-linked chemical imbalance in the soil and effects the plant. It is not a disease (is not spread by an infectious/contagious organism). So the solution is two-fold, (1) add some calcium to the soil (to restore the imbalance & return calcium to the plant) and (2) make sure the plant's soil has about the same water/moisture content throughout the day – I fill the saucers of my potted tomatoes, eggplant and peppers with water, as potted plants are more susceptible to this than those planted in the garden… … I was always confused when some books described this being a disease, but it is caused by calcium deficiency, and drought , which also made no sense, - but I found a website that explained that water fluctuations (not drought) causes a calcium deficiency and this defienciency causes blossom end rot, which made sense given the chemical link between calcium ions and water regulation in biological systems J Calcium is also required for normal cellular growth and functioning in plants and their fruits. The ‘disease’ part comes in when the effected area become infected with secondary disease-causing organisms (like fungi and bacteria) – that is why you should remove the fruits that have sunken (and yellowed) fruit tips to prevent the secondary infection from setting in.

The website I found the proper explanation on is a great resource provided by the University of Illinois Extension, Gardener’s Corner - http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gardenerscorner/issue_07/summer_05_11.cfm. They have really great articles there and a huge archive! So go check it out!

 

Harvesting & Storing

You can harvest your peppers whenever you want, green, yellow, red, unripe and ripe. The fruit should be used immediately, and if you do not use all of the fruit – store it in a plastic bag (vacuumed, if you do not plant on using it soon) with a few drops of water to prevent it from drying out in the fridge – will keep for about 1-2 weeks.

Otherwise you can pickle members of the Capsicum genus in vinegar and add all sorts of other goodies and spices to this. Store them in nice glass bottles makes for cool kitchen decorations as well J.

Seed Saving

Pepper flowers are self-pollinating, do not need pollinators/wind. Different varieties of pepper will cross-pollinate when pollinators are available – to prevent this, pollinate the varieties you want with the same species and then bag the flower.

Developing bell pepper flowers
Capsicum annuum

Pepper seeds are easy to store, fully ripe peppers (completely red) seeds are saved. Scrape them out and dry them on a paper towel indoors for about 2 weeks. The dry seeds are stored in glass containers. Seed viability is 2 years. Fresh seeds take longer to germinate (20-50 days) than dried seeds (20 days). Optimum soil temperature is 21-24^oC (70-75^oF) and seeds should be sown 8 weeks prior to transplanting.

My Bell Peppers

I only have the rainbow seed mix: so I am still waiting to get a purple pepper plant J.

What colour would this one be?
Bell pepper, Capsicum annuum

Create a pepper paradise!

Oregano - Herb of the Month

Ease of Raising:	5/5 – Very Easy
Water:	1/5 – Minimal (especially in a container)
Sun:	5/5 – Full sun
Training:	3/5 - Moderate
Fertilise/Feeding:	1/5 – Minimal (at least once per season)
Time to Harvest:	1/5 – Immediate (purchased a seedling) to Soon (from seed)
Uses:	4/4 – Culinary, Medicinal, Pollinator attractor & Predator sheltering
Most Problematic Nemesis:	None, some die-back from over watering
Container Plant:	Yes (preferably grown in the garden rather than container)

Oregano

Quick intro

No pizza is complete without oregano seasoning, hence oregano is used mainly as a savoury dish herb for meats, pasta and tomato dishes. Oregano is more commonly used as a cooking herb, but has important medicinal properties.

History

Oregano is native to Europe. It was an important herb to the Greeks and Romans, who believed it to be a cure-all herb due to its strong antiseptic properties. Oregano, essentially means ‘joy of the mountain’ or ‘beauty of the mountain’, since ‘oros’ is Greek for mountain and ‘ganos’ means joy/beauty.

Science Stuff

Oregano, Origanum vulgare, belongs to that huge aromatic herb family, Lamiaceae. A quick reminder that the Lamiaceae family includes basil, marjoram, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, savory and lemon balm. P.S, marjorams belong to the same genus as oregano, but constitute a different species – Marjorams are Origanum majorana.

Many oregano cultivars exist, that have different colours and aromas.

Growing Oregano

Oregano is a plant-and-watch-it-grow herb. It loves full sun spots and requires minimal watering and fertilisation. Oregano must not become waterlogged, which is likely punctuated by die-back of some of the tips of the oregano shoots.

They are purchased as small plants, but can be raised from seed although germination takes 10-20 days.

Pruning

Due to the spreading habit of oregano – it needs to be kept in check by pruning it from the side rather than from the top. This can be fun, since the oregano can be cut into different shapes, I keep mine round J - I am sure one can cut it into heart-shapes as well – just cause you can!

On the other hand, it will make a great ground covering plant, especially in a fragrant ornamental or herb garden – like some of Jekka McVicar’s herb gardens – makes me so jealous to see those lovely herb gardens J.

Jekka's Herb Farm in June 2011
Photo: http://jekkasherbfarm.wordpress.com/2011/06/

Other Tips

Oregano is evergreen and hence you will always have fresh oregano. It can be dried, as I know many people prefer the milder taste one gets from dried oregano. Another use for pruning cut-offs is to simply toss it back in the garden as fertiliser (good insects also shelter under the cut-offs) or you can use them as scented mulch around other plants, such as tomato J.

Medicinally, oregano should not be given to pregnant ladies and the essential oil should not be taken internally, as oregano contains very potent antiseptic oils (thymol and carvacrol).  

Harvesting & Storing

Dried oregano: Simply save the pruned leaves and dry on a paper/cloth towel indoors for a few days in a dry (airy) place. Once dry they can be stored in glass jars.

Oregano scented oil: Similar to rosemary, oregano can be heated in oil (no boiling, only smoking oil, else the oil is destroyed and become heart-unhealthy J). The oil is allowed to cool a bit (so that you retain heat as the sterilising agent, but not so hot that it will break the glass container you want to store it in J). The oregano leaves are removed and the oil is pour into a glass bottle (the leaves will become mouldy if left in the oil). This oil is especially useful for meat and pasta dishes!

Seed Saving & Propagation

Oregano flowers attract many pollinators, including bees and butterflies. This makes it a good companion plant for vegetable gardens. The flower clusters are harvested when dry and separated before storing in a glass container. Seeds are sown in a sunny position when the soil has reached 20^oC (68^oF). You can raise the seedling from seed, but this takes a lot of determination as I still clearly remember how many times I nearly lost my marjoram seedlings – and they take forever to mature! Also, apparently oreganos raised from seeds do not have a lot of flavour.

They can be propagated by ‘splitting’ large plants and plating them in different locations afterwards – that is to say if you want more than one J. You can ‘split’ large oregano plants because they have a trailing/creeping habit and make roots along their growing branches as they spread sideways – they do not have one main branch which cannot be separated, like basil or rosemary.

My Oregano

Golden Oregano: This variety has a light green colour than the traditional oregano. The new leaves are bight lime green and become darker when they mature. Really good on pizza!

Golden Oregano,
Origanum vulgare

A pleasure to have…