a curious thing

I was looking out of the kitchen window just before taking L B for our walk and to my horror saw that the pathetic things passing themselves off as tomato plants were looking extremely droopy. I usually try to water early in the morning as I’ve read so much about it being preferable, because plants are less prone to any airborne fungal infections than if they’d been left damp overnight. I do wonder if that is the case, as it is still so warm I’m sure that any water on the plants would dry / evaporate before nightfall, but I’m trying to do the right thing and Patrick our professional gardener in the French gardening group is always banging on about ‘the fungus’ ! I’m watering every second or possibly third day and am slightly alarmed at how badly they are in need of water and I’m relieved when back from our walk that they are looking slightly better, but it has obviously affected them.

Along the canal are many potagers in gardens or small pieces of enclosed land. But there is one potager that is planted in some very fertile soil just by the canal, in open land – the canal is redirected onto this land every few days through carefully dug furrows – unprotected from walkers and their dogs but more importantly unprotected from the variety of wildlife that lives around here, namely badger (although I haven’t seen one recently) fox, hare and of course Nature’s rotavator : the wild boar – sanglier. There was evidence of the boar just a few days ago where they had been digging holes near a tree root making a slightly precarious section of the pathway even more so. But, it seems, very little damage or nibbling has affected these beautiful specimens of tomatoes, carrots, aubergines, peppers, celery, parsley and basil. Where was the slug damage when they were first planted ? Are all the slimy beasts hiding out round at our place ? !

Anyway, this morning I am shocked to see what had been gloriously green courgette plants only yesterday now collapsed from the centre and covered in mildew. Some of the tomato plants also look sad, but nowhere near as sad as mine did earlier. Then on the way home I notice that some of the trees planted along the roadside have turned their leaves in and downwards. It hasn’t been terribly hot in the last couple of days – early 30°s but we did have a mistral wind for about 24 hours – that causes worse evaporation than the heat of the sun. So perhaps the mistral was the cause ?

& finally ...!

I’ve finally got round to planting out the tomatoes I bought on 17 May. (They languished for three weeks in their pots, so not planted nearly as late as this post) They were surplus to requirements from a local organic market gardener maraîcher, whose fields we visited earlier in the year. I ordered 12 tomato plants & two aubergine plants for the princely sum of 9 euros :

The tomatoes – totally different to the ones I thought I was buying, but all organic (& mostly heirloom I believe) and hopefully having deciphered the writing on the brown parcel tape that was stuck to the side of the pot are as follows :

Cornu des Andes

Coeur de Boeuf

Cocktail Clémentine Orange – planted in a topsy turvy planter

Steack (hybrid ?)

Reine de Ste Marthe

Rio Grande

San Marzano – apparently good for drying

St Pierre

& two unnamed plants

The two aubergines or egg plants :
Ronde de Valence

Violette de Florence

I had been hoping to have got more of the garden organised (hah – hope on …) so decided to put them in the ground at the back – between the pathway around the house (I can’t grow anything up the house unless it’s in a pot) and the Pyracantha hedge. It’s an area over the septic tank – now I’m thinking about it, is that a good idea ?

With these, as a ‘gift’, was a Morelle de Balbis (Solanum sisymbrifolium) – not a true tomato but nicknamed the european Litchi. On this site (which is in French, sorry) they say not to plant it near aubergines or potatoes. Yikes ! I've planted my aubergines next to my tomatoes !

It looks very similar to a tomato and is yet to be planted in a place where I can watch its progression. It is bursting out of its tiny black plastic pot but producing large white flowers tinged lilac/blue, atop a rather viciously spiked stem !

And the other FINALLY ... is I’ve got round to making a blog, having planned – in my head – for many, many months. I lost the first effort of posting this, but luckily I had already written it elsewhere ! So,
here goes ... press ‘Submit’ ......