January in your gorgeous edible garden

January in your Gorgeous Edible Garden

 

The team at Hiatt & Co are thrilled to welcome 2022. We can’t wait to share with you the exciting things that we have planned.

As the year unfolds we look forward to sharing with you our edible garden journey. We will be sharing with you our wins, our ‘could have gone better’ moments and of course our Hiatt & Co top tips to help set you up for success in your own gorgeous edible gardens.

In this issue:

  • Uh-oh the weeds bolted
  • Taming the laterals
  • Topping up the greens

 Uh-oh the weeds bolted: Mm, so if you are like me…. Christmas came and went, we had a break with wonderful friends and family staying and, as I turned my back for a week or so, the weeds well and truly arrived and some of my edibles went to seed or flowered in the heat.

 This time of year can create a feeling of pressure - to tidy up the garden, get order, get it all done before an exciting year ahead really begins.  

 Hiatt & Co Top Tips for weed control;

  • If those weedy things have got away a bit, just pick one small area at a time to weed & tidy up. If you are time pressed, simply snip the flower heads off to prevent the seeds spreading.
  • Add mulch to assist you with suppressing them. I use lucerne but there are lots of mulch options if you can’t get your hands on lucerne.
  • Moving forward try and give a small amount of time each week to stay on the parts you have tidied. This will really help to stay on top of it all and it can actually be quite relaxing and rewarding to weed.

Taming the laterals

  • By now your tomatoes will no doubt be growing super well. You are likely to have to keep increasing the stake size to stop them from toppling over and also likely have huge growth in the side shoots ( these are known as the laterals)
  • The reason we remove these laterals is to encourage better growth and improve quality in the actual fruit. To remove laterals carefully pinch them out at the join with the stem with your fingers, or use your garden snips. You will be amazed as how to much leaf growth you remove from the plant and don’t worry if it looks quite bare. The laterals removal will be an ongoing task from here on in for a fab tomato harvest to come. Warning, it’s quite addictive!! 

 Topping up the greens

In order to get a constant supply of leafy salad greens for the rest of the summer, pop in more leafy greens, eg mesclun, lettuces and basil. It’s likely to be too hot for coriander for now so hold on that one.

My coriander has bolted in this summer heat and gone to seed. I picked some, along with other yummy flowers in the garden, to throw into a vase for my next guest’s bedside table and left the remainder in the edibles bed to sit gorgeously alongside the beets and the snow peas.

 

In the meantime keep enjoying the long days of summer.

 Until next month,

 Anna xxx