'N Boer maak 'n plan...

(translation of the title of this post : a farmer makes a plan)

There are roughly 40 lemon trees in our orchard - 98% grown from pips, and the balance from cuttings.

Yeah, I know - what are you going to do with the fruit from 40 lemon trees?

I have a couple of idea's.  But I will have to wait until they actually start producing fruit in quantity (and hopefully quality lol).

So far I am getting flowers, and a couple of really small baby lemons, but 99.9% of those are falling off.  Why?  I have no idea.  We are feeding the soil, adding the ashes from the Rosie, keeping them watered, and have even put up more of the privacy wattle fence to protect them from the hectic south easterly winds which blow in summer.

My worm farm is also due an empty out - which means worm casings and worm tea.  And I intend using some of that worm tea on the lemon trees.

Which means I need a sprayer :)

I tried using a 10 lts spray bottle (which has to be pumped in order to create the pressure to use) slung over my shoulder, but found that it took 3 - 4 hours of back-breaking walking, and spraying, and refilling in order to complete the task.

We needed something more hard-core :)

I spotted this beauty (in the pics above) for sale, which would work with my quad bike.  But, at over ZAR10 000 (without the trailer in the far right pic) it's a bit more than we were prepared to pay.

So, RMan set to making one :)

We purchase a pump.  And a 100 lt water container.  And some tubing.  And some straight tube joins and t-joins.  And hose clamps.  And spray heads.  And a hand held sprayer.  And a couple of in-line taps.  And an electrical isolator switch.  And a ratchet tie (to secure the tank to the quaddie).  Electrical wires and cable ties we already had.

The pump and the container were the most expensive parts - the pump was + / - R900, and so was the container.

But, a bit of fiddling here, and a bit of fiddling there, and this is what we ended up with...

1  the outlet hose from the tank to the pump

2  the water pipe to the handheld pump

3  the water pipe to the back spray heads

4  the in-line tap "valve" to prevent water being sent

 to the spray heads when it is not required

5  an in-line filter from the water tank

 to the water pump

6  a return pipe from the pump to the tank with

 in-line  tap "valve" - to regulate the water pressure

 and redirect excess water back to the tank.

Note : I took these pics shortly after RMan had

 completed his construction and whilst he was on

 his first trial run.  He has since secured those

 wires leading to the battery with more than

 tape...

Now we are able fill the tank with the organic "muti" (translation : medicine - which in this case = nutrition), hop on the quaddie, start it up, and take a slow drive whilst we smell the scent of lemon blossoms:)

The pipe labelled 3 in the first pic leads to the 3 X
 spray heads (1) at the back of the quaddie in the
 pic above.  When the red in-line tap valve
 (below the tank and in the middle of the pic above)
to the the spray heads is closed, then the water
is pumped to the hand held sprayer only (2).
But, that tap also allows us to regulate the
flow of water to the spray heads and the hand held
 sprayer simultaneously - which means we can spray
from the top / middle, and down on the bottom
 branches at the same time when necessary

We can fill the tank with worm tea from the worm farm, or with tea from alpaca poo.  Being 100 ltrs the contents of the tank last ages - we have to fill it at least twice in order to do the lemon orchard.

That is soooo much easier than walking round with a shoulder strapped 10 lt spray bottle which entails having to keep stopping, removing, pumping (to increase the pressure) before re-hoisting it onto my shoulder again in order to continue spraying before the next re-fill - which always came too quickly lol.

The pump is powered from the quaddie battery.
When the pump is not in use, the isolator switch
1 is in the off / disconnected position.
2 shows you the in-line tap "valve" to the back
 sprayers
3 shows you the in-line tap "valve" on the
return pipe to the tank

And, by closing the in-line tap to the back sprayers completely, we can, if we so desire, feed the ground / root area only of the lemon trees, fruit trees, grape vines and my veggie patches by means of the hand held sprayer.

Clever RMan :)

The cost?  Just over a 1/4 of the cost of purchasing the "real McCoy" :)

Crop rotation

I  spent the end of this last disastrous summer season planning my vegetable garden for next year - I do not want a repeat of the mouse invasion, nor white fly, which attacked my tomatoes, and left me with very little to harvest.

By planning, I mean that I spent quite a bit of time reading up on crop rotation - and crop rotation geared towards what I grow.  I don't grow every vegetable, but focus only on growing what we eat.  Growing other vegetables for vegetables sake would be a waste of water - even with the porous pipe irrigation system we have in place - and, I'd have the additional problem of trying to get them into RMan's mouth LOL

For instance, knowing now what yield I got growing mealies (sweetcorn) last year I definitely won't be pouring precious summer water onto another crop - not even with the rain water which we are going to collect in our 6 X 5000 lt water tanks this winter.  Pink popcorn - that was worthwhile, so that has a place in one of my veggie beds next spring :)

I use John Seymour's "Complete Book of Sufficiency" quite religiously, and my interpretation of his recommendation on crop rotation goes like this:

My crop rotation spreadsheet. I omitted
onions and garlic, but am treating them
as roots.

So, the bed that held the corn crop last season, will, next spring, hold my tomatoes, sweet peppers and swiss chard in the front.  But what is it holding now...?

I  asked RMan if he could make me the following structure with the Black Wattle poles left over from the "screen" we erected between our neighbour and ourselves.

RMan made me this structure in the old corn bed
which is 4mtrs X 7 mtrs in size

The corners of the structure are buried deep within the soil and it is cross braced on all four sides, so it should be able to withstand the hectic winds.

Excess Black Wattle poles were put to good use

The soil from the tyres which held the potatoes have been added to the soil in this bed and the bed was planted with broad beans and peas.

The broad beans were planted along the porous
pipe and the cross poles positioned above them

 I asked RMan to place the cross beams there specifically.

The rows of beans should make them easy to harvest
(pic from 6th May 2013 - you can see the broad
beans are just below the bottom cross pole)

As the broad beans grow, I will support them by means of the garden twine which I've strung around the end poles and down the length of each "passage".

Supporting the broad beans with garden twine -
I'm anticipating a bumper harvest :)
(pic from today - the broad beans are currently
overtaking the 2nd support - roughly
my waist height)

The peas - they were planted on the outer edges, and for their support, I inserted more garden twine between the cross poles.

Even the pea plants got their required support

Next Spring / Summer I will interplant the tomatoes, chard and peppers where the beans / peas are now and the existing structure will allow me to support the tomatoes perfectly.  (I will almost be able to palisade the tomato plants LOL)

As for my shadecloth veggie patch, that is currently planted up with carrots, garlic and onions - it's going to have a long break before it houses tomatoes again :)

Homegrown popcorn

Last year I purchased some Heirloom Pink Popcorn seeds, which due to the fact I was not on the farm full time, I decided to try and grow a few in my shadecloth veggie hut, which was under irrigation.  I also planted a few outside, which would only benefit from whatever rain fell.

Outside was a disaster.  Not one survived.  And inside - well, a few heads were produced, but the plants succumbed to ants / scale.  Nevertheless, I did keep whatever I could harvest - not only to scoff on a cold winters night in front of the telly, but also to provide seeds for this season :)

The head of corn is roughly 4.5 - 5 cms (2 inches)
long

Pink Popcorn is a darling little head of corn.  As the head dries the kernels stay plump - one could almost be tempted to pop it into a pot of boiling water in order to have a "corn on the cob" feast :)

Tiny kernels - about the size of half a lentil

Getting the kernels off the head is another story, as the kernels are quite sharp...

Sore thumb - wish I was ambidextrous LOL

My thumb definitely suffered during this task.  But, I kept with it as I had a reward in sight.

RMan could smell it - so he came investigating.
One handful meant half the bowl was empty.

The popped corn is smaller than normal, but, oh, so delicious!  And the best thing is that it's home grown with no chemicals added.

Popped in a dab of melted butter and sprinkled with
a sprinkling of salt - delicious :)

And the surplus has been planted... :)

Bits and pieces

Boring I know, but I also managed to harvest yet more swiss chard over the Easter Weekend.  Wow, I now have so much parceled up in the freezer - we certainly won't be running out this winter.  Spinach soup, spanokopita (hopefully cooked in the Dover stove) spinach omelettes, creamed spinach - yummy, another firm favourite vegetable that even RMan will eat.

Yet more swiss chard ready for harvesting

I had previously harvested the only pumpkin off a withered stalk and I was delighted to find another one - growing on the last plant I left in situ "just in case".  I'm not sure if it's going to gain much bulk as I fear it is too late in the season - I'll have to wait and see.

A baby pumpkin lay hidden - waiting to surprise
and delight me :)

You recall we left our potted Christmas tree behind in our town garden, and that we had to purchase a pomegranate tree from a local nursery in order to use it as a Christmas tree.

The pomegranate tree we used as a
Christmas tree

Well, before we left the farm in January we planted them, ensuring that they were watered via the timed irrigation hose.  One of the trees had had three small pomegranates hanging from some branches.  At Easter they were ripe, so we picked one.

Our first pomegranate fruit

To give you a sense of proportion, the fruit we picked was the size of two of my hands loosely cupped together (roughly 8 - 10cms diameter).  We cracked it open and delved into it's deliciousness.

All those arils (seeds)with their delicious juice are
carefully stored in different protective
compartments within the fruit

Pomegranates are delicious in a salad (a green or fruit salad), added as a garnish to meals, as an ice cream topping or squeezed for their juice.  Pomegranate juice can also be made into a syrup and used as a cordial, or added to sauces / gravies.  Dried pomegranate arils (seeds) can be used in granola bars.


A single pomegranate with a 10cm (4") diameter (weighing approx. 280 gms) has a high anti-oxidant content and is also high in Vitamin C and Vitamin K - the latter being essential for the proper absorption of calcium - obtained either from your diet or when taken as a supplement.

The fruit from one pomegranate - we shared it
between us :)

The other two fruits were too ripe and had cracked open.  So I scooped out the seed, rinsed and dried them off and set them aside.  I will and try and grow a couple more pomegranate trees next spring :)


RMan and I are very encouraged to finally be reaping some "fruits of our labour".  I have so many ideas of what I want to do, especially with the lemons and pomegranates - I can hardly wait for them to produce more fruit...




By the way, I am unable to post in the new Blogger GUI - I finally thought of, and have changed back to the old Blogger GUI to post this.  I have reported it, but, if the Old Blogger should fail, then I fear you are going to have silence from me until the problem is resolved.

Gone to seed...

I'm terribly confused.


A good percentage of the overseas blogs (in US of A) I follow are all talking about going through, and ordering from, seed catalogues.


Now, I've been growing vegetables seriously for the past 3 - 4 years, and the only seeds I ordered last year were my first ever planting of broad (fava) beans, heirloom tomato seeds and the Franchi Sementi purple and yellow beans.  And the year before that I ordered the Franchi Sementi yellow, orange and white carrots.


I only ordered those seeds because each year I have let a couple of each of the plants in my vegetable patch go to seed, and, when they were ready to be harvested, I've dried them out thoroughly and stored them for use the next year.


I am, I reckon, an OCD seed saver.  Not just lemon pips either - my seed collecting fetish has now also grown to encompass apple and naartjie (mandarin) pips too.


All other kinds of seeds from vegetables which I have grown in my garden get gathered together and put away until the next season.  I can't fathom why anyone would allow a plant to go to seed, rip out the now dead plant with seeds unharvested, and then chuck it in their compost heap.


I cooked butternut in the solar oven today, and these are the seeds that one gourd gave me...

Butternut seeds

... more than I could ever use.  But it'll get added to the storage container labelled "butternut" LOL


Due to our three week farm break in December/January, one of my beetroot plants went to seed...

Beeroot seeding

... and, what I thought was a giant garlic seed head turned out to be an onion...

... but that's fine, 'cos we go through a lot of onions :)


A couple of parsnips are providing me with their off-spring...

A parsnip plant providing me with seeds for this winter

... and I've never bought a seed potato in my life...

Potatoes sprouting at the eyes

RMan is assured of his most favourite veg...

Pea seeds - still in their protective pod :)

I think, though, that my favourite seeding plant has got to be the carrot.  I allowed some of the yellow, white and orange carrots to go to seed.  The flower starts out all round and snowball-looking...

In front is the carrot flower-ball
and behind you can see the
flattening process taking shape

... and gradually becomes less puffy and flatter and flatter...

... until that perfectly shaped flower head has flattened out completely.  So flat that I can imagine butterflies use it as a dancing surface when no-one is looking.

All they need to do now is dry out and I'll
harvest them

Did you know that the original colour of carrots was purple?  The myth states that orange carrot was apparently grown Holland in the 16th Century to honour William of Orange.  But the ((orange) carrot was adopted as the royal vegetable in honour of the House of Orange :)


I have also harvested home grown aubergine, radish, corn, black pearl chilli, peas, beans, rocket, lettuce seeds.  All my tomato plants this year, except for the heirloom, have grown from seed I saved from last year.  And those tomato seeds originally came from shop bought organic tomatoes - thanks Woolies :)


Growing pumpkin, gem squash, zucchini and butternut from seed has thus far eluded me, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up.  I never give up... :)  The farm awaits you...  (Actually, I have no idea how my pumpkin plants on the farm are doing - they are under irrigation, and the plants have acres to spread out LOL, so maybe...)


But, back to my original question - why does everyone overseas seem to purchase new seed every year?  Are your seeds treated that their seeds aren't viable?  Is your cold weather the reason that you don't have the time to allow your seeds to dry out in order to store them?


Or are you not permitted (by Montsano) to preserve your own seeds?  Not that I'm trying to talk you into breaking the law, but it's far cheaper growing your vegetables from your own seeds LOL


How can there be a law against providing your own seed...?  If there is, then I reckon that's a crock.

It works!

You all remember that RMan bought a second hand ride on lawnmower a couple of weeks ago?

Well, after getting a new 12 volt battery, changing the oil, giving it a major clean, changing the belt and sharpening the blades, and then firing it up, he decided to give it a whirl at our town house before schlepping it to the farm.

Cutting, cutting, cutting...

It worked a treat - it even has a reverse gear LOL


So, naturally, we put it in the trailer and took it to the farm with us.


Bless him.  RMan was itching to try it out, but we had to finish the veggie shade cloth structure first - well, a happy wife is a happy husband - or so I'm told.  And a happy wife doesn't nag the happy husband, who is then naturally free to do what he wants - and thus the happy husband ends up even happier LOL


But eventually RMan got to play on his toy...

It worked really well.  Really, really well.

Elytropappus rhinocerotis

Image source:

httpwww.plantzafrica.complantefgelytrorhino.htm

Even the renosterbos closest to the house was no match for it.  Not that that is a long term solution.  This renosterbos actually needs to be ripped out of the soil.  (I'm not talking about the threatened renosterveld plants, rather I'm talking about one particular bush Elytropappus rhinocerotis, which is perfect for a snake to slither under to obtain shade in the heat of the day.)  Slashing the top will probably make that more difficult in future as the roots are just going to get bigger, deeper and more tenacious I fear.  And this member of the renosterveld family is very common and not threatened.  It is widespread (and spreads like crazy) and is a drab, uninteresting plant.  And, due to it's resin content, a definite fire hazard on a farm.

But, bear in mind that MKid is joining us for Christmas - and we want him to be able to play freely without fear that a snake could be lurking in the undergrowth.  So the renoster bush has to go - at least that which is growing closest to the house!

But, RMan discovered that the belt that drives the blades kept slipping off.  So he is going to move the jockey wheel to keep it away from the drive slip-ring. Hopefully this will sort out the problem.

So - the fun had to stop until RMan had time to consider and plan / prepare for some modifications.

Which are now arranged :)

So - this weekend, where they are predicting temperatures in the mid-30's (centigrade), we are once again travelling up to the farm.

For apart from the fact that we still have to get the veld grass down to a safe (grandchild) level, there are still so many auction goodies which we have to clear out of the garden and garage of our town "house-which-is-(still)-for-sale". The balance of the wooden battens / planks.  a couple of basic cupboards. More tyres.

And seedlings. More seedlings.  And even more seedlings.  I think I have about 160 in all.  If not more.  Which means that I have to dig up / pick axe some more of the veggie hut soil, and rake, rake and rake the stones out / away, add plenty of compost / bonemeal and Talborne Organics nutrients, complete the installation of the porous pipe and then get busy planting....  But at last I will be doing it in the relatively shaded veggie hut :)  And I will have my broad brimmed hat on!

Lemon tree saplings

And, talking about seedlings, we also plan to plant another 15 lemon trees too.  That will give me a total of 30 lemon trees planted thus far.

So, a busy time all round.  Hopefully we can fit it all in - but I think that will depend on how hot it actually gets.  Working in the garden at 34 - 35oC (93 - 95oF) is very hard work and not ideal.  Stressing the plants with that kind of (planting) heat is also what we hoped to avoid.  But we will link them up to the irrigation system (with the porous pipe) as soon as possible after planting.  I have a feeling that we will be up just before first light, work until the heat becomes unbearable, have an early lunch and a siesta, and then continue in the cooler late afternoon until sunset.  Which is, naturally, the perfect time to sit on the patio, glass (or bottle of beer in RMan's case) in hand and end off a day with a braai (barbecue).  I have a overwhelming desire for some barbecued baked potatoes with crisp skin, and corn on the cob, both slathered in cholesterol reducing butter and a sprinkling of freshly ground salt and pepper...

We're leaving at, or before, sparrow fart tomorrow (Friday) morning - so I'll see you next week :)

Getting going, getting growing... part 3

Wow - we only meant to go for Saturday and Sunday, but instead we had another unplanned four day weekend - but we had to get finished LOL

True to form it was blowing a gale as we started to erect the shade cloth roof. But, working from the wind direction made the process easier - the wind just spread the cloth out over the structure - the hardest thing was keep it from blowing away - into the neighbours land...

Fighting the wind to erect the roof...

We managed to get the roof on, and using some of the battens RMan got at the auction, we, firstly, used them to install some top side supports and then, secondly, we used them to give extra strength to the shade cloth on the walls.

Then came the door...  Bear in mind that RMan is not a carpenter, of any sorts. In fact I'd say he's more of a 'reluctant' handyman.  But what he has created is absolutely, ruddy marvellous!

Measuring for the door

I can't believe the thought, planning, effort (as well as an occasional bit of blue language when something didn't go exactly to plan), and physical output that he expended, to achieve this masterpiece :)  But he persevered and this is what he created!

We have left the excess shadecloth at the base of the structure.  Behind it, and under the lowest wooden cross brace I have jammed in rocks of all shapes and sizes.  In front of that is the excess shadecloth which has been wrapped in long (pretty heavy) gumpoles - the "extra" we ordered and didn't use.  This will hopefully prevent snakes from gaining access to the cooler interior - and boy -it's much, much cooler in there!  Eventually, we will dig a trench around the structure and bury the surplus shadecloth - that should make it impervious to snakes / slugs / etc.  It will be wonderful to be able to grow veggies without the need of any kind of pesticide.  Am I being too optimistic?  I hope not.  There is no reason why anything should gain access to the interior.  Certainly no flies, beetles, moths, locusts, grasshoppers or snakes.  Slugs, I'm not sure. We'll have to wait and see...

A perfect door :)  We still need to add a lock to
prevent uninvited visitors from helping themselves
and to stop the door from blowing in or outwards
in high wind.  For now it's secured with a piece
of wire LOL

I even had time yesterday afternoon to plant some seedlings (tomatoes - about 12 different plants), onions and basil inside - and beans, aubergines and borage outside.  I also sowed some carrot, lettuce(three different types) and rocket seeds in the internal well composted bed.

Finally, it was time to install the porous pipe... But that I'll tell you about in my next posting.

All in all, beating the wind, 33oC (92oF) temperature, and my, in comparison, pathetic assistance, we finally completed everything by 5.00pm yesterday. Driving back to town exhausted by physical effort and from the draining heat we were both elated and happy.  Finally - my shadecloth veggie patch is finished.

Thanks RMan - I'm blown away.  And I reckon it's fantastic :)

Getting going, getting growing... part 2

After the digger / loader had finished mixing 2 cu. mtrs of compost into the soil, we sent it off to dig whole bunch more holes for our lemon orchard whilst RMan and I got busy.


Well, RMan got more busy than I did...

We forgot to get the digger loader to dig
two holes, so we tried coring them.  Ended
up being quicker using a "stamper" to loosen
the compacted soil and an empty tuna tin to
remove the loosened soil.

... me, I spent most of my time holding poles in place (and letting them clonk on my head now and then) whilst he drilled and fixed them into position with thread bar, washers and nuts.  And, at pole securing time, I walled up the  little reservoirs (using some of the bigger stones) for the concrete to be poured into - can't have it leaking into my veggie area ;)

So, whilst RMan was busy doing man-things I climbed into removing all the loose stones that the digger loader had churned up.  Boy, was that a thankless task.  Every time I raked, I exposed more stones which had to be removed... Reckon it'll be a while before it's totally stone free.  I'll just have to focus on one area for the carrots, can't see lettuce / beans / peas / tomatoes being too badly affected by a bit of stony ground.

All those stones / pebbles.
Took me 20 wheelbarrow loads to remove them

Our neighbour, CGuy had borrowed our scaffolding, so we had to make do with the odd pieces which were left.  RMan need to climb high, and then higher still...

After a sweltering hot day, the late afternoon was perfect working weather, so we continued working until sundown.

The next morning, what greeted us was the sight of what we had accomplished the previous 3 days - standing there in all it's glory...

So many stones already raked up that I've
created a ruddy great berm in front

.... my future 8 X 4 mtr (26 X 13-odd foot) shadecloth vegetable patch!  Hopefully, it will be locust proof, not too sure about slug proof, and it will definitely be sheep and cow proof, should they gain access to our smallholding.  And, it will offer some extra protection for my vegetables from the harsh conditions which can be experienced there - 38 - 40oC (100 - 104oF) heat in summer, plus the south easter which can blow a gale, is no joke for vegetables.

Just a tad of the compost showing. Reckon another 3 cu. mtrs won't go amiss.  And at ZAR160.00 (US$ 20.00 / €14.40) cu. mtr it's not too bad.

I plan to use this area for growing mealies (corn),
potato, sweet potato and pumpkin.  No doubt it'll
grow as I require more space LOL (but please
don't tell RMan about that plan yet...)

I just love it.  It's not too far from the house, and not too close that it will be in the shade due to the shadow cast by the house because of the sun's northern position in winter, either.  All year round sun - brilliant!

The big hole...

And it's right next to the "big hole".  What's the hole for?  Ah, well you'll have to wait to find out...

I've replanted some potatoes in the little berm
in the foreground of this photo

And this is my plan for the vegetable patch.  And it will, hopefully, be irrigated by Porous Pipe - that way I'll ensure that not a drop of precious water goes to waste... :)  And the porous pipe should also be able to work with the water from the new rain water storage tanks - it only requires 1 to 1.5 bar water pressure to work :)

And, for all our trouble, and after 3 days of solid work in the garden, I woke in the middle of the night feeling something crawling down my arm.  I sleepily rubbed my arm, and felt something.  Panic!  I KNEW what it was.  I immediately broke out the torch and, lo, and behold, there was a nice large nasty tick!

Well, he / she got squashed quick as a flash!  No mercy, not as far as ticks are concerned.  NEVER!


Thank goodness neither RMan nor myself appeared to have been bitten!  All that got squashed out was the tick's own bodily fluids - no blood.  Close though.


Now - to put the shadecloth cover on, build and hang the door, lay the irrigation pipe, connect it to another solenoid on the irrigation system (until my rain water tanks are full) and plant the veggie seedlings I have been nurturing (impatiently) at our town house for the last few weeks...


... that's exactly what we are going to begin today.  Off to the farm we go.  So, see you next week...