In your garden

Philippa Foes-Lamb

Firstly, my heart goes out to everyone affected by Cyclone Gabrielle in February. It’s really hard to imagine the extent of the damage when we’ve been fairly hot and dry here. It is so devastating to lose precious homes and gardens - I’m filled with gratitude every day when I look around our property. I’ve had a fabulous tomato crop this year – I’ve grown several different varieties including ‘’Tasty Tom’’ - I have to say this is my favourite medium-sized tomato, firm, tasty and perfect for sandwiches. I’ve been harvesting all of my tomatoes since late December, with more to come.

In early Autumn I make Tomato Passata – a truly beautiful Italian sauce that is fabulous as a base for soups, casseroles, pasta sauces and more during the winter months (I freeze it in batches). Traditionally passata is made with acid free Roma tomatoes but I grew Black from Tula, Big Beef and Tasty Tom so I used those instead.

I’ve also been growing long pointy peppers and my two plants are loaded with ripening fruit. Never having grown this variety before I was stunned at the height they grew to – around 1.5 metres – not to mention the number of flowers that set fruit. At one stage the plants started to tip over from the weight of the peppers so I had to stake them, tying the stakes to the struts of my tunnel house.

I’m also growing chillis outdoors for the first time and am wondering why I planted 7 plants - they are absolutely loaded with chillis – what on earth am I going to do with them all. I chose Poblano, a mild chilli and Anaheim which has more heat.

Now is the perfect time to sow a crop of carrots – they will germinate and grow quickly at this time of year. I make furrows and put a layer of seed raising mix in the bottom, then I sow my seed and scatter more seed raising mix over the top, tamping it down. The seed raising mix absorbs more heat due to its dark colour and this increases the speed of germination. Your car- rots will hold well in the soil throughout winter, becoming sweeter with each frost. If you’d like the Tomato Passata recipe please feel free to email me at foeslamb@xtra. co.nz and I’ll email it to you.