Summer has finally arrived and the tomatoes are changing colour. After a difficult start to the year with the extreme weather in June, it is nice to see the green tomatoes become yellow and red. Tomatoes need about 6 hours sunlight per day to ripen but can suffer from too much direct sun. In this …Read More about Summer tomatoes
Archives for August 2016
Processing beans
Beans are a wonderful crop for the Belgium conditions (rain and some sun). At this time of year the plants are producing lots of beans requiring picking every other day. Picking should be done in a measured way, before the beans get too large, picking roughly the same quantity each time. By using the same …Read More about Processing beans
Changing summer salad trays
Salad crops do not like excessive summer heat. Fortunately in Belgium this is not a big problem. Growing salads works best in spring and autumn so August is the time to clear out some trays and start new crops that will produce well into the fall. Some types of lettuce manage well in summer heat. …Read More about Changing summer salad trays
Summer peppers
Chilli peppers are notoriously difficult to start from seed. Once established though, the small plants are remarkably resilient dealing with the heavy rains and cold nights of a Belgium spring. The plants now through to summer will thrive and produce a good supply of peppers. The Hungarian wax pepper is a mild pepper that grows …Read More about Summer peppers
Summer cucumbers
Cucumbers do very well in a Belgium summer, they seem to positively thrive in rainy conditions. Choosing the miniature varieties (see below) over the longer supermarket types suits the small city garden or balcony with limited space. Each plant can produce a dozen cucumbers over the growing season. Cucumbers require good support to climb and …Read More about Summer cucumbers
Tomatoes in the raised bed
The raised bed (5 metres by 1 metre) in this garden accommodates 7 varieties of heirloom tomato (see list below). The rich soil bed allows the plants to deep root (up to a half metre) reducing the need for watering. This summer the bed has only required watering once. All of the plants now have green tomatoes starting …Read More about Tomatoes in the raised bed