freshly picked
Tag: veggies
tomorrow’s salad
Ipomoea batatas
The gardening calendar tells me that August is the time to plant sweet potatoes, and this specimen in the veggie basket agrees. It’s going in the ground today!
Domesticated sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) have been around for a long time; they were present In Central America at least 5,000 years ago. The tuberous root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin whose colour can be yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, or beige. Its flesh ranges from beige through white, red, pink, violet, yellow, orange, and purple. Sweet potato cultivars with white or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red, pink or orange flesh.
Although darker sweet potatoes are often referred to as “yams” in parts of North America, the species is very distant from true yams. I love the name “kumara” (emphasis on the first syllable) which I learned from my Kiwi friends.
en plein air
It’s a jungle out there.
chard roots
riot of greens
Got to get these seedlings into the ground in the next day or so.
early blight
I was late planting tomatoes this year. There’s been a lot of rain, which I thought they’d appreciate, but they seem to be afflicted with some kind of fungus, most likely “early blight”. The remedy for all the fungal afflictions seems to be the same, a copper-based spray applied every 7 to 10 days. Continuing research over here …
Dr Earth
I haven’t used commercial fertiliser in the veggie garden so far, instead relying on our home made compost. But some of the beds aren’t performing as well as I would like, so I’ve decided to try this booster, on the recommendation of San Diego Seed Company.
peppers
If it isn’t already obvious …. one of my daily joys is to sit in the barrelarium and stare at the vegetables.
garden snack
hashiworks 