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also five notches below zero, cold and sudden unexpected hurt the darling buds newly hatched, burnt the flowers of fruit before dell'allegagione, damaged the leaves of vegetables. As legumes, which sown in the autumn and to be free after spending the winter, were then surprises in their most vulnerable moment when imbued with new life had awakened.
Here then in open country have suffered so much even the hydrangeas and flowering will be poor this year, made up of minute flowers: the first buds that contained the largest buds are cooked and then dried miserably.
late May Still the appearance of the plant is quite poor, so we will content ourselves with a few small flowers arranged around the long fence while one or two of spectacular size, survivors do not know how we will remember how it would have been if ... ... ....
too unyielding in the garden has taken it badly, it's true I did not even protected as indeed did not happen even when it was cultivated many years ago by the women of my family and the winters were winters! In spring new shoots from old yellowed clumps emerald green, stimulated by the warmth began to spread and soon the sull'aiuola covered.
I was on the point of believing does not remember well then the other day in the country, in a small garden between the houses and rare, unlikely to survive the fashion gazebo and "meadow", I saw nearly a square meter of lush "spinach New Zealand "resurrected ...
Question of microclimate, unfortunately this does not affect me either from the garden or the garden, I know for some time but often do not want to remember. Luckily
Nature has its resources by mid April, though with difficulty, in bed of tetragonal started the first plants to sprout from seeds dropped last year. So even though I have not been sighted in the collection, assuming that the plant would be entailed by perennial, I have not lost their ilk.
Therefore, if we have not already done so, May is just the right moment to sow it and who does not know the merits or it - in this case the under-report what I have written about this generous vegetable in "The gourmet gardener "
The tetragonal
"Spinach of the Antipodes"
The great British cartographer and navigator James Cook in 1769 he went to Tahiti in the South Pacific in search of the mythical Terra Australis. His first stop was New Zealand, who believed a peninsula and which drew a good approximation of the contour of the coast. It was part of the consignment, naturalist and botanist Sir Joseph Banks, to which we introduce in our continent of many plant species that are acclimatised then there: the unyielding is among queste.Tetragonia tetragonioides belongs to the family Aizoaceae, known as "the spinach New Zealand ", is a perennial herb that has no degree of" kinship "with spinach but can be a viable alternative.
richer in minerals and vitamin-C-oxalic acid contains less than is consumed both raw and cooked, great if combined with a seasonal salad aromatic salad, is a precious vegetable, little known, which may have in our everything about a place to garden.
Unlike the spinach, which during the hot season is inexorably shortly after seed germination, the steadfast, if it is wet on a regular basis, will continue to produce leaves, juicy and crisp for our piatti.Trovatene a rightful place in the garden, where sun exposure is good without being excessive, in part devoted to the cultivation of perennials and other horticultural two years.
The soil must be well worked in depth: a digging done before winter to a depth of 30 cm of the flower after a good supply of mature manure is the basis for obtaining valid results during the year and the plant for many more to come.
winter frosts will then "flourish" even the most clay lumps, and in spring you can easily prepare a suitable ground seed crushed and tied.
The unyielding as an adult has a very expanded posture, characteristic of which we take into account at the time of sowing, height and reach 40-50 cm in the jets that will flower.
The sowing must be done in May, and can be anticipated where the climate is more favorable as the southern or coastal regions.
You can put the seeds in pots and let them germinate in the heat, maintaining optimum temperature around 20 ° and then transplant the seedlings have formed when the thermometer rises. In this way anticipating the harvest of about a month.
We train in the parcel of growing the small basins, only a few inches deep and a good distance from each other. Consider that every team needs a spinach this area to relate to a circle with a radius of 40 cm will therefore be the conformation of our bed to tell if arranged in rows 80 cm apart and orthogonal to each other or offset by half, that is, with the plant layout is said to quincunx. The stems will stretch it up to a meter and a spread in lateral jets, pointing upwards producing new leaves in a special shape, the flowers, yellowish, are inconspicuous and appear in the tops of the shoots that come with the armpit leaves. In autumn, mature fruits containing seeds from four to ten, you should gather up and preserve them for future plantings, and your many fans are aware of: you because you realized that a vegetable is not readily available!
For each small basin we drop 3-4 seeds we have left to soak in water for one or two day, cover with about 1.5 cm. of soil, press lightly and watered.
For New Zealand spinach as other horticultural this is useful to soften the outer capsule, leathery promoting germination.
The mild temperatures will be anticipating the birth of the seed even after two months we will start the first leaves to pick up gradually, and according to our needs we have them available until the first cold simply by following some details of cultivation.
When the plants are not yet fully developed it is important to keep the soil loose and mostly clean from weeds, another major factor is humidity, that should be kept constant in a well drained soil.
So unyielding is stimulated to produce tender leaves and fleshy and "discouraged" from going to seed, it is also important to remove the tops to form just mentioned: in this way, in addition to prevent flowering, to support the enlargement of the base of the plant.
During the summer, especially where the hours of much sun causes evaporation of a large, agrees with straw mulch after the ground hoed, weeded and well watered.
There are diseases and parasites that can cause significant damage to this generous vegetable, which will continue to be available in your kitchen.
If you can extend the harvest before the onset of the first frosts have built over protection of the flower, a kind of low canopy covered with PVC film and free sides.
In early March you can remove it, and you can remove the mulch of straw. The plants will be pruned vigorously, particularly by removing the branches longer and the parties that suffered most from the cold.
The soil of the flower, as fertilized with organic manure into pellets, it should be moved careful not to damage the roots.
Later, stimulated by the temperature, the plants will resume the tetragonal to produce new shoots and leaves to your table.
From The gourmet gardener Cristina Bay and Gotthard Bonacini, Ponte alle Grazie, Milano 2008
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