NEW Guinea Impatiens have the added appeal of variegated leaves.

Published On:Monday, November 30, 2009

By Gardener Jack

DECEMBER is a wonderful month for home gardeners. There is no mowing to do, except maybe a little trim so the lawn looks good for Christmas.

The earliest tomatoes should be turning ripe and other vegetables such as string beans, beets, chard and spinach are at their initial peak.

The weather allows for comfortable conditions when working in the garden and the poinsettias are coming into colour. A wonderful month indeed.

We must not allow the pleasure of reaping ripe tomatoes to blind us to the fact this will be our only tomato harvest unless we plant more seeds. I like to plant more tomato seeds in a different area when the first set have flowered. You should get about four crops from successive sowing and this will keep you in tomatoes quite handsomely.

Sweet peppers should last through the year but eggplants often need one extra sowing to ensure good-sized fruits. Snap beans should be sown at monthly intervals while green peas have a maximum of two productive harvests.

If we grow a second crop of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants or potatoes in the same place we are inviting nematodes to share our produce with us.

Nematodes, or eelworms, are microscopic organisms that are attracted to certain plants. When their numbers are sufficient they block the tissue of the root system and the plant dies of starvation and lack of water.

The best solution is prevention.

Instead of tomatoes following tomatoes, plant members of the cabbage family or the cucumber family. The nematodes that attack tomatoes do not attack other vegetables.

If you no option but to grow two sets of tomatoes in the same ground, ensure that you cover the garden with clear plastic in June or July and keep it there until September. This helps kill nematodes and is very effective.

There are no nematode killers on sale to the public so we must be very careful and rotate our crops assiduously.

If your Christmas flowerbeds are not up to standard you may have to

visit the nursery and buy sets of established plants.

New Guinea impatiens takes more sun than regular impatiens and lasts longer. Even when not flowering, the variegated ones look colourful.

December is the beginning of the kalanchoe flowering season.

Kalanchoe comes in an amazing array of colours and can be grown in part shade or full sun. It will flower until well after Easter when, being a perennial, it will lose its flowers but retain its fleshy leaves. Next November or December it will flower again.

Even those gardeners who have poinsettias are likely to pick up one or two potted poinsettias for indoor decorations.

Choose a plant that is upright and healthy. The perfect plant will be two and a half times taller than it is wide; there should be no green edges to the colourful bracts, there should be no fallen leaves or evidence that lower leaves have been picked off, and the real flowers, which are yellow, should be green or red tipped.

If there are signs of pollen it means the plant is heading towards maturity and unlikely to last long in a pristine state.

Time for dessert, and what better than strawberries. The strawberry season in Florida was late this year due to unseasonably warm weather in early autumn. Nurseries have plants now and they will produce almost instantly. Freshly picked strawberries are far better flavoured than those that have travelled, and strawberries grown in the garden rarely make it back to the house.

There is a quickening of excitement throughout the month of December, climaxing at Christmas. If you planted at the right time there should be several vegetables on your Christmas season menus that came from your own garden.

* For more information or questions e-mail Gardener Jack at j.hardy@coralwave.com