News, Views, Comment, Feature Articles, Information and Advertising about Elhovo, Bulgaria, and the surrounding areas.
THE GARDENING YEAR IN BULGARIA
This is a new addition to the website which attempts to help ex pats with gardening tips delivered on a monthly basis throughout the year. I think it is true to say that because of the extremes of temperatures in this region from summer highs to winter lows that some knowledge of what grows best here needs to be looked at. However, much of what we learned in the UK still stands but, as the summers are longer we are able to grow plants and vegetables we were never able to do so successfully in the UK. In following what the Bulgarians do we can learn much, of course over time we will introduce many more things that we would like to try and the articles try to inform you where things can be sourced. Good luck. Jill Frost
If you have any questions you want to ask Jill or useful comments please send them to :-
gardening@elhovonews.com
gardening@elhovonews.com
GARDENING CALENDAR
JULY 2012
We are now truly in the throws of a tremendously hot, hot summer. July can brings many treasures in the form of your harvest and beautiful flowers, but it can be a tricky time for a number of plants. What I have found is that unless you water substantially the water only reaches the top centimetre of soil and does not penetrate to the roots of the plants. Water should ideally take place in the early evening when the scorching heat of the sun has reduced. Plants in pots are especially vulnerable because the pot heats up and if you water during the heat of the day the roots are likely to cook somewhat. So leave it until around about 4.30-5.00 pm to start. It does take a long time to do this and it can be such a chore to do each day, but in these temperatures it is vital, you will see plants that are largely watery in nature such as cucumber and courgettes/marrows - start to wilt in the heat, if any plants look as though they are about to expire then do water them quickly and then water again in the evening.
Regrettably, the weeds still keep pace with the plants and it takes a lot of work to keep them in check - bindweed is a particular problem as the roots are very robust and can go very deep indeed. When pulling these you need to ensure that all the root is removed, even leaving a small amount will serve to generate a new plant. I dont have the names of many of the common weeds that grow here that I am not familiar with. You see its one thing calling plants by their common name but there is a massive drawback to doing this, every country is likely to call it something completely different. Therefore, I used the latin names more often than not. I have noticed on a few of the seed packets I have bought here that the latin names are sometimes quoted. During the winter period I will do a section on how to understand the latin classifications, its a lot lot simpler than you would imagine. Honestly!!
THE VEG PLOT
By now you should be enjoying pretty fully all the fruits of your hard labours from your plantings during March onwards. Important to keep up with the weeding as they are taking the precious water from the plants you want to receive it. By now you should have picked your peas and cleared the plot you can now plant another catch crop, its up to you what you wish to plant, you can of course plant most things. I am still deciding what to do with my spare plot, maybe some winter cabbage.
It seems we here we have a lovely underground pest called the mole cricket, a handsome (not) looking beastie - thankfully he is only about 2 inches max in length and not bigger, looks like something from another planet to me, but hey beauty is in the eye of the beholder, below is a picture of this delight. No doubts you keen gardeners have met this chap already.
Meet Mr. Mole Cricket!!!
Extract from Wikipedia regarding this lovely creature below:-
Description
Mole crickets vary in size and appearance, but most of them are of moderate size for an insect, typically 3-5 cm long. They are muscular, as one may verify by holding one in the hand; they are inoffensive, but the confined insect will try to dig its way out with considerable force. The abdomen is rather soft, but the head, forelimbs, and prothorax are heavily sclerotised. The hind legs are shaped somewhat like the legs of a real cricket, but are more adapted for shoving while digging, rather than leaping, which they do rarely and poorly.
Biology
JULY 2012
We are now truly in the throws of a tremendously hot, hot summer. July can brings many treasures in the form of your harvest and beautiful flowers, but it can be a tricky time for a number of plants. What I have found is that unless you water substantially the water only reaches the top centimetre of soil and does not penetrate to the roots of the plants. Water should ideally take place in the early evening when the scorching heat of the sun has reduced. Plants in pots are especially vulnerable because the pot heats up and if you water during the heat of the day the roots are likely to cook somewhat. So leave it until around about 4.30-5.00 pm to start. It does take a long time to do this and it can be such a chore to do each day, but in these temperatures it is vital, you will see plants that are largely watery in nature such as cucumber and courgettes/marrows - start to wilt in the heat, if any plants look as though they are about to expire then do water them quickly and then water again in the evening.
Regrettably, the weeds still keep pace with the plants and it takes a lot of work to keep them in check - bindweed is a particular problem as the roots are very robust and can go very deep indeed. When pulling these you need to ensure that all the root is removed, even leaving a small amount will serve to generate a new plant. I dont have the names of many of the common weeds that grow here that I am not familiar with. You see its one thing calling plants by their common name but there is a massive drawback to doing this, every country is likely to call it something completely different. Therefore, I used the latin names more often than not. I have noticed on a few of the seed packets I have bought here that the latin names are sometimes quoted. During the winter period I will do a section on how to understand the latin classifications, its a lot lot simpler than you would imagine. Honestly!!
THE VEG PLOT
By now you should be enjoying pretty fully all the fruits of your hard labours from your plantings during March onwards. Important to keep up with the weeding as they are taking the precious water from the plants you want to receive it. By now you should have picked your peas and cleared the plot you can now plant another catch crop, its up to you what you wish to plant, you can of course plant most things. I am still deciding what to do with my spare plot, maybe some winter cabbage.
It seems we here we have a lovely underground pest called the mole cricket, a handsome (not) looking beastie - thankfully he is only about 2 inches max in length and not bigger, looks like something from another planet to me, but hey beauty is in the eye of the beholder, below is a picture of this delight. No doubts you keen gardeners have met this chap already.
Meet Mr. Mole Cricket!!!
Extract from Wikipedia regarding this lovely creature below:-
Description
Mole crickets vary in size and appearance, but most of them are of moderate size for an insect, typically 3-5 cm long. They are muscular, as one may verify by holding one in the hand; they are inoffensive, but the confined insect will try to dig its way out with considerable force. The abdomen is rather soft, but the head, forelimbs, and prothorax are heavily sclerotised. The hind legs are shaped somewhat like the legs of a real cricket, but are more adapted for shoving while digging, rather than leaping, which they do rarely and poorly.
Biology
Meet Mr. Mole Cricket!!!
Description
Mole crickets vary in size and appearance, but most of them are of moderate size for an insect, typically 3-5 cm long. They are muscular, as one may verify by holding one in the hand; they are inoffensive, but the confined insect will try to dig its way out with considerable force. The abdomen is rather soft, but the head, forelimbs, and prothorax are heavily sclerotised. The hind legs are shaped somewhat like the legs of a real cricket, but are more adapted for shoving while digging, rather than leaping, which they do rarely and poorly.
Biology
Most species of mole crickets can fly powerfully, if not agilely or casually. Usually they fly only when moving long distances, such as when changing territory. Some species of adult mole cricket may fly as far as 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) during the mating season, is active most of the year, and spends the winter in hibernation. Younger insects can have shorter wings, and their appearance varies by species, with some resembling grasshoppers or very large ants or dark-coloured "termites" when wings are short.
Mole crickets are omnivores, feeding on larvae, worms, roots, and grasses. Common predators of mole crickets include birds, rats, foxes and blue ants. Mole crickets are relatively common, but because they are nocturnal and spend nearly all their lives underground in extensive tunnel systems, they are rarely seen. Mole crickets amplify their song by chirping in a burrow that they've carefully sculpted into the shape of a double exponential horn, which acts as a megaphone.[1] They inhabit agricultural fields, lawns and golf courses. They are present in every continent with the exception of Antarctica, and are commonly considered pests. In East Asia, however, they are sometimes used as food (fried). (anyone fancy opening a business in Elhovo to sell these as a snack.....!!)
I already know I am not going to get any parsnips from my garden as this endearing creatures needs clearly were greater than mine as he appears to have eaten all the seeds I planted. Sweetcorn should be firming up nicely but won't be ready for a while yet. It's also time now to pick those onions, leave the tops on and then plat them so they can hang proudly in your kitchen or cellar (cool cellar, frost free and without mice or insect life). Tomatoes and cucumbers are all ready to pick, eat or preserve either pickled or chutney, I found a recipe the other day for cucumber jam.
The marrows are getting larger now and unless you want them for seeds don't let them get too big, it's a chore picking courgettes everyday but necessary. Runner beans are now harvestable and its important not to let them get too large as they become woody. Pick and clear all the garlic now and you can use the site again for other crops. Try some potatoes which should be ready before wintertime and delicious to eat. Still time to plant these, if you cant find any seed potatoes just use those from your kitchen, let them get some growths from the 'eyes' and then plant. Easy.
Peppers, aubergines, and chillis should all be thriving and some now ready to pick and eat.
NO A-Z VEG THIS MONTH will recommence in August.
FRUIT
Time to spray again to ensure a healthy crop of apples, pears, and peaches, you can buy a mixture for sprays from Elhovo agricultural supplies, remember not to pick or eat the fruit for 10 days, not that apples or peaches are ready yet anyway. Figs shouldn't need any treatment, they dont appear to have any problems. The small plums are very ripe now and need a final picking, Victoria plums are just ready about now too. Trees may well be under stress now because of the high temperatures so don't forget to give them a good watering not just at the base, remember a trees roots have as much spread as the canopy above. You can tell when a tree is stressed its leaves will die and drop.
Grapes should be filling out nicely now so continue to tie up foliage and make sure fruit bearing stems are tied in well to support the heavy weight of each bunch.
Here is a link to watch a short film on grape cluster thinning which may prove of interest to our wine makers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2caNI3OS6aQ
just click on this and you will go directly to the clip.
Peach tree branches are very vulnerable to snapping now they have a lot of fruit on them, so make sure they are suitably supported with stakes and ropes if needs be, Peach tree branches are not particularly robust in nature so if you want good fruit make sure you really water this and give it some granular feed at the base making sure to water it in well. If you are growing melons make sure you have a flat stone for the fruit to rest on whilst growing otherwise it may start to rot if left on the soil or be prey to insects or fungus growth. The first lot of strawberries have now finished of course but if you are lucky you should now see some new flowers and fruit starting to form, keep well watered and weed free.
FLOWERS
What a joy the flower bed is now, with marguerites, evening primrose, zinnias, sunflowers, dahlias, roses, and now in the last few days gladiolas. So many beautiful flowers are coming through too many to mention, but its now that they are competing for water and need to be as weed free as possible, if you have any compost apply this around the plants to help with water retention in the surrounding soil. To boost flower growth apply any superphosphates you might have, you can get some of these from Kaufland in bottle form but thats expensive so get some granular feed from the agricultural supplier in Elhovo.
Continue to deadhead roses to ensure continuity of flowering. Make sure baskets, pots and planters are kept well watered ideally twice a day if in full sun, but don't water midday. Stake tall flowering plants such as hollyhocks as they are prone to wind and rain damage and are too beautiful to loose, also stake dahlias and like roses deadhead those that have finished blooming. If you wish to have show blooms with dahlias you should confine your plant to a minimum number of blooms to ensure they have larger blooms, but for the ordinary gardener just let the blooms do there own thing and flower away without pinching any blooms out.
Well it's a shorter article this month, but lets face it now is the time to admire all your handywork, enjoy your garden, sit in it, enjoy any produce you have grown. Caring for yourself. Don't work at midday or mid-afternoon as the sun is at its zenith then and you may suffer from heat exhaustion which is very serious indeed. The temperatures seem to peak about 3.00pm in the afternoon. Wear a hat and keep out of the sun during these times.
Above all enjoy and I will see you next month.
Jill Frost for Elhovo news.com
Here is a link to watch a short film on grape cluster thinning which may prove of interest to our wine makers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2caNI3OS6aQ
just click on this and you will go directly to the clip.
Peach tree branches are very vulnerable to snapping now they have a lot of fruit on them, so make sure they are suitably supported with stakes and ropes if needs be, Peach tree branches are not particularly robust in nature so if you want good fruit make sure you really water this and give it some granular feed at the base making sure to water it in well. If you are growing melons make sure you have a flat stone for the fruit to rest on whilst growing otherwise it may start to rot if left on the soil or be prey to insects or fungus growth. The first lot of strawberries have now finished of course but if you are lucky you should now see some new flowers and fruit starting to form, keep well watered and weed free.
FLOWERS
What a joy the flower bed is now, with marguerites, evening primrose, zinnias, sunflowers, dahlias, roses, and now in the last few days gladiolas. So many beautiful flowers are coming through too many to mention, but its now that they are competing for water and need to be as weed free as possible, if you have any compost apply this around the plants to help with water retention in the surrounding soil. To boost flower growth apply any superphosphates you might have, you can get some of these from Kaufland in bottle form but thats expensive so get some granular feed from the agricultural supplier in Elhovo.
Continue to deadhead roses to ensure continuity of flowering. Make sure baskets, pots and planters are kept well watered ideally twice a day if in full sun, but don't water midday. Stake tall flowering plants such as hollyhocks as they are prone to wind and rain damage and are too beautiful to loose, also stake dahlias and like roses deadhead those that have finished blooming. If you wish to have show blooms with dahlias you should confine your plant to a minimum number of blooms to ensure they have larger blooms, but for the ordinary gardener just let the blooms do there own thing and flower away without pinching any blooms out.
Well it's a shorter article this month, but lets face it now is the time to admire all your handywork, enjoy your garden, sit in it, enjoy any produce you have grown. Caring for yourself. Don't work at midday or mid-afternoon as the sun is at its zenith then and you may suffer from heat exhaustion which is very serious indeed. The temperatures seem to peak about 3.00pm in the afternoon. Wear a hat and keep out of the sun during these times.
Above all enjoy and I will see you next month.
Jill Frost for Elhovo news.com
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