Now that summer has passed the weather has turned ugly yet once again. The cold resistent kale and turnips that I planted last week have already sprouted out of the good earth. The problem seems to be that after a recent thunderstorm, these tender turnip and kale plants are being attacked by viscious hordes of slugs. I've yet to devise biological means of defense against these creatures, so for the time being, slug-slaying has become a weekend chore for me.
The two tomato trees are unfortunately being affected by the cold and damp weather. Here in the north east, september night- time temperatures can dip below 60 degrees, and all it takes is one light frost to kill my tomatos.
There are some 50 tomatos growing on the vine and it would be a shame to lose them to bad weather. After consulting the handy Cold Climate gardening manual, a few strategies were devised to counter this threat. Firstly I put up a lean-to structure of bamboo lashed with hemp ropes over the two tomato plants. A rough hemp fabric is draped over the structure during stormy and/or windy days to protect the fruits.
On clear days, the hemp blankets are piled on top of the compost bins. Effectively, the hemp blankets holds in the heat generated by the rotting compost and releases that heat slowly over the night. Since the bins are located immediately behind the tomato plants, the air around these plants are raised by several degrees during the night. I'm hoping that these measures will prolong the time of the tomato plants by several weeks, just enough for all of the green tomatos to ripen on the vine.
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