A Lizard in my Lettuces

Today there was a lizard in my lettuces. A copper skink (Oligosoma aenea) to be exact. I was out picking some leaves to from our Green Oak Leaf and and Pink Freckles lettuces and it quickly scuttled away. It was a beautiful rich bronze-brown, and about 10 cm long (or 4 inches for my USA readers).

Copper skink. This isn't the one from my garden (that one wouldn't wait for a photograph) but another one  seen recently in Auckland. 


As an ecologist, this is something to be celebrated. Copper skinks aren't like slugs or snails - introduced pests that voraciously prey on my vegetables - but are a lizard species unique to New Zealand that FEED on my garden pests. I feel honoured that this "production-focused" area of my garden has been deemed an appropriate residence by local wildlife. Copper skinks are only found in New Zealand, and whilst still the most commonly occurring native lizard in my city, are increasingly under threat from land "development" - that euphemism for "bulldoze the trees and build something", and are preyed upon by many of the mammalian predators we introduced to this land (including stoats, ferrets, weasels, ship rat, Norway rat, house mice, hedgehogs, and the list goes on). We really did stuff it up when we set about enriching this land with species from our respective homelands! But what copper skink really like is not so much pristine native forests but lots of cover and hiding places, some sunshine to bask in, and plenty of small invertebrates to eat. So my garden with compost heaps (three of them!), and ramshackle wooden garden edging, dense plantings of vegetables to smother the weeds, and lots of thick mulch, is quite a happy environment for my local reptiles. In fact, in my professional work, its sometimes surprising where this species turns up. I have searched through mature forest within proposed subdivisions and roads, only to find them in wood piles or under discarded rotting carpet and corrugated iron or in piles of broken concrete. Which tells me that "biological treasure" can be found in strange places, even a lettuce patch.

So how can we be better stewards of our world in our vegetable gardens? How do we encourage courgettes and copper skinks? (hey, I am a sucker for alliteration). As I have previously alluded to, encouraging helpful wildlife and increasing the food production within your patch is, for the most part, complimentary. Here are a few starters:


  • Mulch heavily to retain moisture and reduce weed growth. As the mulch rots, it will also add humus to the soil, further increasing moisture retention and soil nutrients. Mulching is great for skinks, as they love to hide under it to avoid predators such as rats. 
  • Raise your garden beds using wooden surrounds (I use railway sleepers and whatever other scraps of timber I can find). Raised beds improve soil drainage and increase soil temperature over the wet winter months, and provide additional hiding places for small creatures. My railway sleepers have holes in them where they formerly had bolts going through them. 
  • Minimise the use of pesticides. I occasionally resort to some pesticide use for problematic infestations of aphids, but I only do so if plants are getting very stressed by them. Don't leap for a chemical fix until other options (including "do nothing") have been exhausted. If an insect isn't causing harm, its probably performing some useful purpose in nutrient or soil cycling, or is prey for something else that is of benefit.
  • Compost. While emptying a compost bin I once found a copper skink happily living inside the compost bin! I guess it gained plenty of warmth from the decomposition process, and didn't have to go far to get its dinner. 
  • And for something more controversial, don't get a cat, or if you do have one, don't replace it when it dies of old age. Cats are notorious predators of our reptiles, many of which are threatened species. Did you know there are about 100 species of lizards in New Zealand, which gives us more species by land area than Australia (which is regarded as the global hot spot for reptile diversity). Living in the city doesn't excuse cat ownership -  the ornate skink, which has an conservation status of "At Risk-Declining", is found throughout Auckland City.
All of which is quite a digression from my usual gardening prose, but then I did promise to write about anything that makes me tick. 

Till next time,

Tim 



The Recipe for Tomatoes

Some people, upon seeing my  garden, declare that I must have "Green Fingers" (defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a natural ability to grow plants"). The term conjures up some magical explanation for why some people's gardens flourish while other people, despite their best efforts, only seem to fail. It implies that from birth, some people have a 'hidden gardening gene' that ensures that everything that person attempts to grow will thrive, flower, and fruit. But above all, I suspect the kind of people who label others as "green fingered" are first and foremost justifying their own inability to grow things. This inability I suspect is firmly and simply planted in a lack of gardening knowledge, or perhaps just a lack of time to tend the crops.

As I can tell, green fingers don't exist. If they did, I think I would have them, and I am certain that I don't.

My best efforts at growing watermelons end up with unripe fruits the size of a golf-ball, before the plants shrivel and die. I have tried multiple times, but have in the end given up in disgust. Its a bit puzzling, since other cucurbits such as cucumbers, courgettes, and pumpkins I grow with ease. I am also particularly adept   at growing carrots that compete with Medusa for their number of extremities, and pencil-thin parsnips.  Winter cabbages are a flop to the extent that my wife questions my sanity each time I valiantly try again, and again.

No, if I had green fingers, several crops that defy me would regularly grace out tables.

But for most things, I think gardening is akin to baking. If you can follow a recipe, you can grow a crop. Skimp on one thing, and your efforts may well be doomed. Forget the baking powder, and your cake might be better used as a landscaping paver.

So given it is early summer, here is my recipe for a good tomato crop. Follow it to the letter and you will be giving them to your neighbours, or making chutney, before you know it.

Ingredients

  • One tomato plant (for beginners try Moneymaker, or a cherry tomato (e.g. Sweet 100)
  • A sunny part in the garden with well-worked soil that has not previously grown tomatoes in the last 3 years
  • A strong stake at least 2 m tall (bamboo is great)
  • Two heaped spadefuls of compost (bought or make your own)
  • Something to tie the plant up with (I use strips of old pantyhose)
  • Fertiliser (something with N, P, and K (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) and trace elements. Or you can use blood and bone, or fish-based fertilisers. 
Makes enough tomatoes for one person from New Year until late April or May. Multiply the recipe for the number of people you want to feed. 

How to make them:
  1. In late October through till early December dig over the ground until it has a crumbly texture.  If growing multiple plants, prepare planting holes at spacings of at least 0.8 m (between plants and between rows).
  2. Push the stake firmly down into the ground and test for firmness. The top can wiggle but the stake should resist being pulled back out.
  3.  Dig in the compost and a heaped tablespoon of fertiliser at the base of each stake.
  4. Remove the plant from the pot and plant it 2-3 cm deeper than the soil level. This encourages more roots and a sturdier plant. 
  5. Give the plant a mulch of hay or pea-straw 2-3 cm thick over an area at least the size of a dinner plate. Don't let the mulch touch the stem. 
  6. Wait until the plant is 30 cm tall and then tie it loosely to the stake with a strip of pantyhose or other soft material.
  7. Remove the side branches that grow in the forks between the main stem and each leaf - do this by regularly by pinching them off with your fingers. 
  8. Keep on tying up at regular intervals before the unsupported top is long enough to flop over.
  9. Only water during dry spells, keep the water off the leaves, and water deeply. Once or twice a week, with several litres per plant, is a lot better than a sprinkling once a day.
  10. Pick tomatoes. If any develop that have brown or black spots pick them and dispose of away from the crop. 
  11. Pick more tomatoes.
  12. Enjoy them sliced, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and home-grown basil leaves.
  13.  Invent even more ways of eating tomatoes.
  14. Give tomatoes away.
  15. Freeze tomatoes.
  16. Make chutney.
  17. Save seeds from your favourite plants (put them through a sieve to remove pulp, dry on a saucer, and then store them in a labelled plastic clip-seal bag). 
  18. At the end of the season, when the plant is dying, pull them up for the winter and compost them. Remember where you grew them so you can plant them somewhere else the following spring. 
For the more adventurous, I love the following varieties:

Tommy Toe
Garden Peach
Tigerella
Black Cherry
Oregon Spring

I find the larger tomato varieties  are very prone to rotting in the humid Auckland summers. If you want a tomato plant that produces huge trusses of up to 20 medium-sized fruit, try Tommy Toe.

http://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/shop/Vegetables/Vegetable+Groups/Tomatoes/Search+by+Colour+Height+or+Fruit+Size/By+Fruit+Size/65-120g/Tomato+Tommy+Toe-8605.html


May you be inundated with tomatoes this summer,

Tim