Veggie patch progress - in more ways than one...

It was frustrating trying to blog via my cell phone whilst we were at the farm.  The one entry I posted took me over an hour and four separate connections / attempts before my phone / laptop allowed it.  And as for commenting on those blogs that I follow - each comment was given two chances, if it failed, well, that was it.  But, rest assured, I did read your blogs :)


Also, taking loads and loads of photo's was fun - but now I have to sift through them and pick the ones I need, reduce them all in size, and then get them onto my blog.  Quite a task - so please bear with me as I collate and organize everything...

My shadecloth veggie patch - overflowing with
growth and produce :)

With that said, my mission today is to fill you in on more veggie patch news :)


I have so many tomatoes planted in the veggie patch - I was anticipating failures, but they have all survived to be viable plants, so I foresee plenty of preserving taking place in the months ahead.


And one of my nicest surprises was to finally see an heirloom tomato - my first ever.  They are amazing, and the plant is overflowing with fruit which will no doubt ripen in the next couple of weeks.  I do so hope that I am able to pick some, and that the locals don't discover my treasure trove before we return and clean it out before I have that opportunity.

My first heirloom tomato

(Here in Hout Bay I returned to find that only a couple of cocktail tomato plants are bearing fruit - the heirlooms didn't make it.  With our house having been built on a reclaimed sand dune, no matter how much compost I add to the soil, it sinks down deep below the surface level - similar to loosing your keys in the sand when you're out for a day on the beach.  How anyone thinks they can take back land from the sea is beyond me - it just doesn't work...  In a way, I am thrilled with this comparison, because previously I had thought I was at fault.  Now I have proof that it is the soil, location and climatic conditions which are determining the outcome.  We averaged 36oC temperatures daily on the farm - again, here in Hout Bay, we are achieving mid to late 20's - with plenty of cloud cover too - a very strange summer thus far.)


I have not been on the farm to pinch out the side shoots of my tomato plants, so they are all growing madly (and bearing loads of fruit) to the point of running along the ground.  Where they touch the soil, those side shoots are sending out their own roots - thereby creating another completely new plant.  My paths inside the veggie patch were completely blocked with growth.  I had to both stake the plants on bamboo poles, and also suspend twine down from the "roof beams" and tie tomato branches to that too, in order to be able to get inside.  Well, I didn't want to squash the plants LOL

Tomato plant rooting one of it's side shoots

Here in Cape Town I have been pinching off those side shoots, as always.  And the fruit production seems to be severely hampered.   Guess I now know better for next year... :)


My aubergine plants on the farm are also full of flowers - many more and much larger than those on the plants in my garden in Hout Bay.

I had a box of potatoes whose eye's were sprouting.  They had been hidden under the kitchen counter - patiently waiting until I had enough time to sort them out.  This was their time :)

I planted them in the tyres from a lot that RMan had scored at the auction he went to. The lower tyre was half filled with soil, the potatoes were planted (5 - 6 per tyre), and then the balance of the lower and the top tyre was filled with well composted soil. They have been well watered, twice, and the next bit of TLC they get will be when we return to the farm in 2 - 3 weeks time.  Mr H gave me this idea for growing potatoes on this posting of his - if it works for him, why shouldn't it work for me?  I won't be there to hill the potatoes anyway, so might as well give it a try.. :)


I also placed the tyres on Weedguard to prevent the veld grass growing up inside the tyres.

Some of the potato filled tyres

But, I also discovered a few rogue potatoes which had escaped my previous harvesting and which are growing inside the shadecloth veggie patch.  They are doing extremely well.  The flowers of these plants are blue...

... compared to potatoes which I planted in a berm outside the next veggie patch at the beginning of November 2011.  Those flowers are white.  I'm not too sure why there is a difference - guess I'll have to wait until harvest time to discover.  I'm not aware of having planted different types of potatoes.  But I'm not complaining - as long as they are growing I'm happy :)

But, you can see that the one's growing inside are doing exceptionally well when compared to the plants outside which were planted a whole month earlier!


Finally, I harvested 5 complete armfuls of spinach - 3 were given to neighbours, one we converted to creamed spinach for dinner and the last one I snipped just as we were leaving.  That one I am planning on using for dinner tonight :)

To give you an idea of how big the leaves are, Teach asked me to take this photo of one of the leaves she went home with...

I am so chuffed - thankfully things are going really well in that veggie patch :)

Oh, and for the best news of all, RMan is so blown away with the success of our vegetable patch that he is planning a second one :)  Yeehah!