GARDENING
by Jack Hardy
By now your winter vegetable garden should be well under way and you should
be starting to enjoy the fruits of your labour. If you are late in starting,
sow anything because the next four months are ideal for growing veggies.
If you are on top of everything, don't forget that the secret to continued
crops is successive sowing. Put down a new set of veggies every month until
the season runs dry.
Broccoli sprouts are the in anti-cancer items at the moment. I know, I
know. If you read the latest medical journal info you'll find, in the end,
that everything is good for you - and bad for you. Remember that aspirin
caused stomach ulcers, then saved you from heart attack? You can only get
broccoli sprouts by growing them yourself, so go for it. I bet a medical
journal will, in about four year's time, let us know that broccoli sprouts
turn your pancreas green, or overload the libido, or something.
Your fruit and citrus trees need an autumn application of fertilizer and
minor nutrient treatment. While you are at it, don't forget your faithful
hibiscus, yellow elder and other flowering shrubs. They need TLC too.
This is a great time of year to put in bulbs and tubers of all kinds. One
of the great aspects of a frostless winter is that you don't have to dig
bulbs up and over winter them. Once they are planted they'll give you good
service for years. Many of them multiply, allowing one bed to become many.
Don't forget you are in the sub-tropics so gingers, heliconias and other
plants you may consider exotics feel right at home here.
While on the same theme, plant banana suckers. Anyone with a six foot square
lot can produce bananas. Obtain a sucker (ask around), dig it in and treat
it well. In time, a bunch of bananas will be produced and they'll taste
better than any you have ever eaten. Cut the plant down and allow the new
suckers to produce. Eventually, buy the lot next door and start your own
banana export company.
Bananas are incredibly productive and easy to tend. They sell in Europe
for a fraction of the price they sell for on Abaco. And that's your fault,
because you could be growing your own.