Traditions

I am, mostly, a traditional person.

Thus, when MKid came to spend his first term holidays with us last month, we had to repeat what we did last year.  In April 2010, I had just purchased a Stack-a-Tub and MKid and I had planted that up with basil, peas and baby spinach.

The peas sort of worked, I had a rogue tomato plant raise it's head, and that did well, the baby spinach - nada, and the basil - perfect.  Since then I have converted the Stack-a-Tub to my version of a "herb spiral" - that works much better.

But this year MKids aim was bigger, so we planted up an entire (small) raised bed with peas...

RMan and MKids favourite vegetable - peas

... and a small raised bed of each for the last of the onions and garlic, as well as spinach and beetroot.

My broad beans are coming along nicely, although the south easter is playing havoc with them.  I have had to give them front and back support.  I have also sown a row of Franchi Sementi yellow, white and orange carrots in front of the beans - my space is so limited, I have to try and make use of all, and any, space I have.  I can't wait to grow vegetables on the farm - so much space - how am I going to control myself?

Sowing carrot seeds is a breeze
with the Magic Seeder :-)

It is brilliant growing the multi-coloured carrots - come supper time there is a whole rainbow on your plate of food :-)  Did you know that the original carrots were purple in colour.  The orange carrots (full of beta carotene) that we eat today are as a result of the Dutch, many years ago, creating a carrot for the House of Orange - the Dutch Royal Family.

And I am still harvesting egg plants and capsicum - I can't eat green peppers (like fresh coriander and cucumbers, they repeat on me too much) but red, yellow and orange - hmmm delicious :-)  I have a feeling that I am going to have to pickle some...

Tradition works for me - as well as being a repetitive lesson for grandkids :-)  I sent him home with his own packets of pea and carrot seeds so that he can have a small veggie garden at his mum's place.  I can't wait to see how his garden grows LOL

Oh, and, before I forget, I discovered a gardening tip yesterday.  Did you know that tea leaves, especially Rooibos (Red Bush), scattered around vulnerable plants, discourage slugs and snails?  (It must surely also work with normal tea leaves.)  And the Rooibos tea leaves are simultaneously feeding the soil with copper, iron, potassium, calcium, zinc, manganese and magnesium.  Now that's the kind of tip I love!

Biding time

Our grandson came to visit us for the Easter holidays - how lekker (nice is the normal translation, but obviously you all know that I mean much more than nice :-) ) that was.  Very special!  All he wanted to do was swim - but late March / early April in Cape Town is not really swimming weather - and the water has already cooled down quite substantially, although he did get in twice - very briefly - the water was 21oC.  Much to cold for me!

BUT, whilst he was here I took delivery of my Stack-A-Tub - the name says it all.  I have placed it on our back patio - the only place which gets sun in winter, and, co-incidentally, it is right outside our grandsons' bedroom window - so when he's here he can peep out of his window to see how "his" vegetables are growing.  We planted baby spinach and a (centre) garlic clove in the top section and peas in the middle section - aiming for them to grow down the tubs as opposed to needing support.  Trial and error - if they don't do that well hanging down then I'll give them support to climb up.  My other half loves peas in the pod, which I can't find anywhere in Cape Town, so, providing we get enough from the nine plants, I know who I'll call if I need some shelled for dinner.  In lower section I planted some basil, but I think I'm going to replace them with lettuces - basil will grow perfectly in a stand alone pot.  The beauty of the stack a tub is that as all three tiers are detachable, it's obviously mobile, so when we go to the farm I can take it with us.  I'm thinking of using it as a herb garden on the farm - close to the kitchen door.

I have also ordered some very special lemon tree cuttings from overseas.  But I'm not going to say anymore until I have some fruit photo's to share with you - sorry, that'll take two or three years.  But I'm very excited and can't wait for them to arrive.  If they arrive alive, and I manage to root them successfully, then I will be ordering more.  I can't see why I shouldn't be successful as I have managed to root two pomegranate cuttings in the past four weeks.

We are still unable to get away to the farm - perhaps later this month...  We  need to install the newly painted security gates, and, of course, my freecycle kitchen counters.  But we have a neighbour who is also building his house there and he tells us that our plants / trees are all doing well with our irrigation system, and we've had a bit of rain, so we don't have to worry about them.

Would be nice to get away to the peace and serenity again though...

Magic Seeders and April in Cape Town

Our grandson is coming to visit us for 10 days - he arrives on Monday 29th March.  Can't wait!  Although we Skype him at least once a week, having him here, in person, is what we need - hugs anytime of the day, bedtime stories, answering countless 'why' questions, walks along the beach looking for treasure which may have fallen off passing ships, and for me, getting him into the kitchen to help me prepare the evening meal.  He loves cooking, and at 7 years old, confidentially and happily makes scrambled eggs for breakfast at the weekends.

Also, the timing is perfect, as he can help me plant up my Stack-A-Tub "veggie patch" which should be delivered on the 1st April (available from http://www.growingstacks.co.za/).  I've given up on my veggie patch here in Cape Town as I've discovered that no matter how much compost I add to the beach sand which makes up the soil in our garden, I'm going to lose the battle.  Two years ago I personally dug up approximately 4 mtrs of garden soil to a depth of 1/2 mtr, lined the area with plastic to try and retain whatever water I supplied and to prevent intrusion from the nearby tree roots, and then I worked in 8 bags of compost - last weekend I re-dug the area and discovered that all the compost had sunk down to the plastic.  And the nearby trees had burrowed through the pastic to get at the water!!  Absolutely useless for the vegetables I was trying to grow - no wonder all I succeeded in growing was tomatoes, onions, rocket and carrots.  But at the end of last year I planted some seeding potatoes into deep tubs / buckets and this week we had the first of our baby potatoes!  Absolutely delicious.  We are going to grow potatoes in old tyres on the plot - they will take up less space and be far easier to harvest.  And we will be re-using worn out tyres.  Perfect!

Lemon tree saplings

So I've converted a part of the old veggie patch area to a nursery for the lemon pips which have sprounted into saplings - at last count I have 27!  And two naartjie plants too - only two of the pips which I saved from some delicious naartjies (mandarin oranges) we purchased at Woolies last year took - hopefully the fruit they eventually produce is as good as the original!   It is also housing all the cuttings I've taken -  all of which we want to plant on our plot in Rietkuil.

What I did with the pips was to save them in a half shell of lemon peel (to keep them moist), and which I stored in the fridge for a week.  Then I planted them in some potting soil and ensured that the soil stayed damp.  Lo! and behold! green shoots started appearing about 7 weeks later!!  Very chuffed I am too!  Patience is the key - and keeping the soil moist.

I have recently been awarded the distrbution rights for Southern Africa for the Magic Seeder - a seed dispersing tool which facilitates the control and sowing of seeds smaller than 2mm. This seed dispenser is unique in this country. It won the award for Best New Retail product at the 2004 South West Regional Growers Show in England.

The Magic Seeder

It is an established horticultural product, used by the Royal Horticultural Society, and which, with just a bit of practice, is simple to use and is an efficient hand held seed dispenser.

For more information, please click on The Magic Seeder page at the top of this blog.  And if anyone would like to purchase one, please contact me via e-mail at dani (@) ecofootprint (dot) co (dot) za.

It really does work well!