If there’s ever a time to start your own backyard vegetable garden it’s now. Fiji’s cool and moist weather holds promises for fast growing vegies. With ample supply of rainfall and sun, even that small spot in the back of the house is perfect.
This week’s shopper we re-look at gardening tips for locally grown vegies such as lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, english cabbage, beans, tomatoes and so forth. The internet is filled with testimonies of how to start you garden from plot stage to the type of soil you need.
The only small disadvantage is one would need to spend a little money to get things started. However it won’t cost you as long as you have soil in a space that has ample sunlight. Having your own gardening tools and equipment is paramount such as small spade, digging fork, gloves and a small hand-rack.
Leave fertilisers or other pest controlled chemicals for later. And focus on getting it started. Get started with a small plot. If you don’t like getting your clothes dirty then you can stop reading now, and flip the page however if you’re interested keep reading.
Imagine pulling out your very own vegetables, fresh and green from the garden and better yet tasty.
Normally about this time of the year I would be harvesting my first batch of cabbages and dhania. The raining weather works miracles for vegies if kept well. Vegies such as cabbages, dhania and tomatoes survive well in this weather although sprouting stage may cause difficulties because plants are fragile.
Website www.gardeningknowhow.com reports that high temperatures and humidity can either work magic on vegetables cultivated in the tropics or create problems with diseases and pests.
It all depends on the type of crops grown; there are some more adaptable vegies for rainy seasons that should be considered.
Some specific crop planting in rainy seasons may need the assistance of plastic row covers and pesticides or plant varieties of vegies that are suited to the humid, wet climate.
Vegies typically grown in the US, such as lettuce and tomatoes, are less than suitable for growing food plants in the tropics. Lettuce, for example, dislikes the heat and will bolt almost immediately.
For vegetable gardening in the tropics insects, both good and bad, are in every garden in every area of the globe.
Tropical insects tend to be rather plentiful and as such may become a plague to the garden.
Better soil equals healthier plants, which are less susceptible to insects or diseases.
If you plant crops that are not suitable vegies for the rainy season, they tend to stress and when they stress, they emit substances that bugs can sense, which in turn attracts the insects.
So the key to growing healthy food plants in the tropics are to amend the soil with organic compost and to plant traditional vegetables that are cultivated in the tropics.
Sustainable vegetable gardening is the name of the game and working with the natural temperatures and humidity of a tropical climate rather than against it. Tomatoes will grow in the tropics, but plant them during the winter or dry season, not the rainy season.
Choose a heat tolerant variety and/or cherry tomatoes, which are hardier than larger varieties.
Don’t bother with traditional lettuce varieties, but Asian greens and Chinese cabbage do well. Some tropical veggies grow so rapidly during the rainy season, it’s hard to keep them from overtaking the garden. Sweet potatoes adore the wet season as do kang kong, amaranth (like spinach) and salad mallow.
Read more at Gardening Know How: Vegies For Rainy Seasons: Tips On Growing Food Plants In The Tropics https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/vgen/growing-veggies-in-tropics.htm
So go get started soon to give your family some organic food.
