Panic Sets In

The visit to the other challengers plot on Saturday morning put the shivers up me. I came to the realisation that the challenge week (where we are to live off our vege patches for a week) was exactly 8 weeks away. 2 months.

The coolish wet weather experienced for most of last week meant that the summer vege crops barely moved. The tomatoes were a few millimetres taller than when first planted, the carrots were like fine hairs poking out of the ground, and the corn only to the second leaf stage.

On the upside the Sebago potatoes just went absolutely wild, doubling to full size with flower heads just poking through in a matter of a few days. But there was still a lot of bare ground and this worried me.

So I did what every home gardener would do. I panicked. A trip down to the garden part of a major hardware retailer saw me come home with 4 advanced tomatoes, a punnet of climbing cucumbers and a chilli.

I decided to try four new varieties for future reference and as a comparison with my long term favourites of Mighty Red and Improved Apollo:

Reggae Roma: An early maturing high yielding Roma type that is also claimed to be sweeter than regular Roma: I normally don’t bother with Roma types as they don’t make the greatest table tomatoes. Great for drying but I don’t normally have the time for all that stuff.

Money Maker: A medium to large fruited variety. With a name like that, how could I resist.

Improved Bragger: JenkoBianco seemed keen on this one, so I followed his lead and put one in. Claims of uber-large fruit of 500+ grams was an eye catcher. Early ripening variety too, which is what I need with only 2 months to go.

Father Tom: The tag boasted “Disease Resistance”.  Just what I need. As I only have 2 plots, I can’t rotate my tomatoes, so disease is always an issue. For some reason, the eastern plot where the tomatoes are going in is always more of a problem. So it will be interesting to see if this one holds up as well as the control group of Mighty Red and Improved Apollo.

I erected a small trellis thingy and planted 4 long green climbing cucumbers at the back of the western plot.

Three short rows of French beans went in. One row was my favourite “Tender Delight”. Ok they don’t have strange coloured beans, nor do they look like some anorexic model or piece of artwork. Just solid cropping, great tasting stringless beans.

The second row was “Bountiful Baby”. I tried these last year with good success. Similar to Tender Delight, but shyer in crop. Despite this I decided to put in a row just to spread the risk of maturing in time.

The third row was from seed that I collected from some very early maturing plants from 2010. I'll call them "Selection 2010". They came on nearly 2 weeks before all the others so I thought their genetics would be worth keeping. I thought that they were Tender Delight, but the seeds looked quite a bit different – larger and paler in appearance. So maybe they were just some ring in.

Finally, the second Chilli bush, Variety “Diablo” went in. No prizes as to what they will be like.

There is only a few square metres to go, plus a little more when my Tuscan Kale comes out. The dreaded Cabbage white butterflies are feasting on them relentlessly now and they are looking very poxy. What to do with the last remaining space? Thinking banana like capsicums. Quick growing and very reliable in the extreme Adelaide summer heat. The different flavour from the other green stuff that I'm mostly growing will be a welcome change. But with only 8 weeks to go, they are a bit touch and go. Maybe some silverbeet. Icky, but they could be a life saver. And besides good Australian extra virgin olive oil can even make silverbeet taste good.

A Saboteur in Our Midst

The Man vs Carrot challenge took on a sinister turn on Saturday morning the 1^st of October. It all started with JenkoBianco calling me to come over and see how his plot was progressing. While such invitations are clearly thinly veiled attempts of vegetable intimidation, the opportunity to pilfer some citrus from his trees is never lost on me. But others also had plans.

Hidden under the rug in the backseat of my gold Toyota compact was the “Saboteur”. Greying, innocent looking and female. The perfect cover. Who would have thought that she could even contemplate sabotaging JenkoBianco’s vege patch let alone actually doing it.

It went to plan. While JenkoBianco and I discussed the progress of his patch, she made herself at home playing with his retarded Fox Terrier Toby who just a few days before had been nearly torn apart by a Bull Mastif in the park. With surgery openings and stitches all over him, Toby looked like a Frankendog gone wrong. While the front was all about caring, and concern, the Saboteur was just biding her time. She didn’t really give a rats ass about the injured Toby. It was all a front.

Then she struck. While we were momentarily distracted by the machinations of JenkoBiancos neighbours house being torn down by a front end loader, she ran across his patch of newly germinated corn, silverbeet and tomatoes, each step tearing through the hair like developing roots like the Tea Party through the American economic recovery. Nothing was spared. Devastation reigned.

Her work was done.

But like all good Saboteurs she made it appear like it could have been an accident. That way she could get away without JenkoBianco giving her a swift kick in the ass – something that he became an expert in when rounding up his chickens (last one in always got a little ‘hurry along’ –That’s why they always race each other to get into the pen first, he would cheekily say).

It all went exactly to plan.

Here is the Saboteur on the morning prior to the act. A little nervous looking, but once you stop being nervous you should give the game away.

Months of training went into this. Here (below) is one (err actually the only) drill that were used to perfect the task. Simple but effective. An “Olive Press” dog biscuit made from extra virgin olive oil. “Crack for dogs”. All I had to do was to stand on one side of the plot and have Ollie the Satoteur move to the other side. The rest came naturally.

Finally, Ollie the evening after the deed. Exhausted yet quietly satisfied, and with JenkoBianco’s soil still between her toes.