TRY THIS … in the garden this month

By Beatrice Hawkins

* Time to start and think about planting all those lovely melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and beans ready for summer salads.

* Zucchinis are such fun to grow in all their different colours, but are such prolific producers you really must limit the number or you will find yourself with enough to feed the whole district!

* At Nambour at the Garden Expo, I was fortunate to pick up some old fashioned Klondike Special Watermelon seeds. These are the huge long oval melons, pale green with dark stripes that I remember from my childhood. I am reliably informed that Warpaint is also an excellent variety of watermelon to grow, producing large round striped melons.

* I also found some of my favourite Hales Best rock melon seeds at Nambour that I am looking forward to planting. Dixie Jumbo is another lovely rock melon. Both have excellent taste and are not hard like the ones bred for transport and sale in supermarkets today.

As we must be close to having frosts behind us, it is time to decide which of the numerous varieties of tomatoes you are going to plant. I still think the old favourite Gross Lisse is hard to beat for size and flavour for the home gardener. However, as I like different things, I will be growing some of the more colourful varieties. Tiny pear shapes yellow ones did really well last year and as they are low acid they are a useful addition. Nothing beats vine ripened tomatoes or any vegies picked fresh from your own garden, so get planting and reap the reward for Christmas.

*This is an old article that we’ve digitised so our readers have access to our full catalogue.