Problems in my Summer Garden. Probleme en pyne in my Somertuin

Sometimes inexperience isn't the only cause for concern in my backyard garden. No, the elements can also take its toll. I planted various beans, including Lazy Housewife and Contender, mid-August and direct sowed an assortment of tomatoes the end of September. Normally these planting/sowing times would be ideal, but last year Spring we had an unusually high rainfall. Followed by an extremely wet January. Yes, we measured 165mm of rain in only the five days between 5 and 10 January 2014. Any gardener knows excess humidity causes one of the most dreaded plant diseases...

BLIGHT!!! ROES!!!

I never knew there were so many different types of blight and that some of the types were more disastrous than others. According to the sources I studied I luckily had a case of early blight in my garden. Okay, maybe no blight can be called "lucky", but at least the early type still meant some sort of harvest, whereas late blight kills a plant outright. The symptoms of early blight are discolored foliage - first yellow and then brown spots, forming concentric patterns, with no 'mould' underneath the leave. It mostly affects the leaves, and the same type of vegetables shouldn't be planted in that area for three years. Late blight attacks a whole plant, makes the fruit rot and has the mouldy stuff underneath the leaves.

As is the case with any type of blight, it is better to simply pull up the whole plant and destroy it. Do not compost! I simply couldn't get that over my heart. After all the months of nurture, watering, sweating, and this...

Dr Carolyn tomatoes/Dr Carolyn geel tamatietjies

Brandywine Sudduths tomato/Brandywine Vleestamatie

The butternuts are probably the biggest disappointment so far. Even though I used organic Waltham seed and planted a borage between the squashes to encourage bees (and oh, were they encouraged!) the little butternuts would all fall off when they were about 5cm big. I also added piles of compost. All to no avail. Then the rains came... shortly followed by an explosion of white powdery mildew. I was fed-up; I wanted to pull the whole lot out. Then the mother showed me this:

A little one, but a butternut nonetheless/My eie botterskorsie; eie en enigste sover

Safe to say that the butternuts are all still in the ground. Covered with mildew, but still producing little squashes. I might be a pessimist at times, but that doesn't stop me from hoping one or two of them will survive, like the little sucker in the photo.

What are your biggest concerns in your garden at the moment?

Foreign Friday. Volksvreemde Vrydag

Cucamelon/Mexikaanse Suur Komkommertjies (Melothria scabra)

Due to the space limitations of my backyard vegetable patch runner vegetables and fruit like squash, pumpkins, melons, watermelons and cucumbers were never an option. That's until I read about cucamelons on the ever-creative James Wong's site. I read that they resembled miniature watermelons (and therefore were also known as Mouse Melons) and tasted like a mixture between cucumber and lime. Interesting.

Furthermore, they could be grown on trellises, and were apparently rampant growers as well. Sounded like a good deal to me! After quite an extensive search I sourced a few seeds from the online site Organic Seeds for a very reasonable price.

The seeds went into a large container filled with compost and manure enriched potting soil. I planted them middle September, and by the end of September virtually all of the seeds had germinated. At first the plants seem to be slow growers, but after they started to form their first tendrils, they shot up virtually over night. By mid-November, my cucamelons looked like this:

Cucamelons, with chives and peppers as companions

By December I wanted to cry in frustration. The same cucamelon forest that looked so promising initially, looked terrible. I made a mistake many novice gardeners do; I planted them in the wrong location. The cucamelons trail up directly against a north-facing wall, and the sun ruthlessly burned all the top leaves and new growth. Most of the dainty yellow flowers simply fell off  due to the radiating heat. NO!!!

Sun damage to cucamelon bushes/Sonskade aan my arme Mexikaanse Suur Komkommertjies

On Christmas Day 2013, therefore, I was very glad to see at least one cucamelon developing. Even if only to taste them and see whether I would give them a go again next year.

Small cucamelon developing

It's now early January 2014 and my first cucamlon harvest came in. A measly three, but a harvest nonetheless. Note to self; never plant cucamelons, or any trailing vegetable or fruit for that matter, directly against a north-facing wall!

Thee little cucamelons/Drie Mexikaanse Suur Komkommertjies

And the verdict? They taste surprisingly refreshing and have a lovely crunchy texture. I would say much more cucumber than lime, but way crunchier. I will definitely plant these mini-cucumbers again! Have you planted anything exotic recently?

Botanical Name: MELOTHRIA SCABRA
Common Name: Cucamelon, Mexican Sour Gherkin/Cucumber, Mouse Melon
Volksnaam: Mexikaanse Suur Komkommertjie
Native to: Mexico and central America
Date planted/sowed: Mid-September
Ease to grow: Grows easily, but requires sun and something to climb over
Costs: R20.00 for a packet of 15 seeds
Notes: Plant away from a wall receiving full sun, and space farther apart (15cm or more)