Garlic

Have your downtime this Holiday Season.

We all know gardening can be all consuming, it can be difficult to drag your partner, parent or even yourself out of the garden during the holiday season, to set up in the kitchen, lounge or the garden for some quality time, good food and relaxation.

It has been a tough year for many and for a lot of us, our gardens have helped us through it all! That much needed therapy session with your budding plants, putting wholesome food on your table, taking out your frustrations while ripping out those weeds, helping you to feed your family and perhaps a few extra hungry mouths, and so much more.

It might seem hard to take a small break from your garden now….Your harvests are coming in, you need to clear out that patch of weeds you’ve been meaning to get to, or plan out your next planting, and we encourage you to do just that, but do it early, do it now! Don’t wait until the last minute, give up and feel guilty when you sit outside, braaing through your holiday, your garden looking on in sorrow. Follow our simple steps and reward yourself with a holiday. Trust me, you deserve it!

For your garden to run smoothly this holiday season here are some tips and tricks:

#1 Weed! Weeding is not the most exciting activity, however, doing it for a mere 15 minutes a day will drastically change the way your garden looks and feels. It is also one of the biggest problems faced when you go on holiday or leave your garden alone to celebrate with your family….you end up coming back to a jungle of weeds. Clearing out your weeds will also help reduce your pest load. So, pop on some Christmas music and get those fingers to work.

#2 Mulch, after your weeds are under control apply a thick layer of mulch to your garden. This will help suppress weed growth, ensure that your soil maintains moisture and if the person watering your garden forgets, your plants will not be put under too much stress.

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A good mulch consists of any dried organic matter, applied as thickly as you can. Shoot for 5-10cm of mulch.

#3 Feed your plants with the relevant Talborne Organics fertilizer before you leave, to ensure your plants have adequate nutrients, they deserve a Christmas dinner too!

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Vita Grow – For root crops and the stimulation of root growth in new transplants.

Vita Green – For any leafy greens.

Vita Veg – For a general fertilization, usually mid-season.

Vita Fruit & Flower – For all fruiting and flowering plants and plants in heavy production.

Organic Fertilizer

#4 Do a major harvest of all fruit, even unripe. Donate your bounty to charity or give them to friends and family. This will ensure that the plants pick up production while you are away, celebrating, or lazing on the couch, and you will come back to a great harvest instead of heaps of vrot fruit.

Some great gift ideas will come from pickling, canning, or just bundling up some of your freshly harvested veg.

The Livingseeds favourite from Sean:

Sean’s Chilli Pickle Relish

This is a raw pickle, the only thing that is cooked is half of the onions.

1 Cup Yellow Mustard seed (Our sprouting seed works well)

5 Cups Brown Sugar

3Lt Brown Grape or Malt vinegar

800 ml Chopped garlic

10 onions sliced thinly, fried to transparent stage in olive oil.

10 onions, raw, sliced thinly into strips

1 1/2 cups salt

100g Tamarind

250 ml Lemon juice

Approx. 4 kgs of mild chillis (both red and green) sliced into rounds

Chillies can be de-fuzed by removing a % of the seeds, we generally do not add any loose seed that falls out and just keep what is in the rounds.

Method:

Heat 2 cups of vinegar, add the tamarind, dissolve and strain. Discard bits.

Place everything in a plastic sealable container. Except onions.

Using a stick blender, roughly blend half of the mix.

Now add onions.

Wait 2 weeks and bottle.

Put bottles in the sun turning every day for a week. Keep bottle in a dark place until ready for use.

To use, roughly drain the vinegar leaving about 1/5th vinegar in the bottle and add olive oil, shake and use as a relish basically on anything.

This recipe is original and supplied by Sean Freeman of Livingseeds.

There are so many great recipes out there, here are some of our favourite resources linked below:

For your marrows:

Jills Zucchini Pickle

For your tomatoes:

Tomato Jam

Tomato Jam

Tomato Sauce

For your cucumbers:

Pickled Cucumbers

Gherkins

For a seasonal piccalilli:

We recommend cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, onions and whatever you fancy and have an excess of.

Piccalilli

For herbs:

Preserving and Storing

For basil pesto:

Pine nuts can be substituted with other nuts or sunflower seeds.

Pesto without Pine Nuts

Pesto

Some fun festive refreshments can be made using fresh cucumbers, garden huckleberries, gooseberries, jelly melon pulp, borage flowers, fresh chillis, or tomatillos.

The beauty of growing your own, is the ability to walk into the garden and decide what you can put together based on what you have ripe and ready in that precise moment.

Have fun with what you grow, the joy is in the journey….

Garlic

Goggas….the good vs the bad & the ugly

Everyone knows that ladybugs are a gardener’s best friend, and when faced with an aphid infestation everyone’s first thought is,” Where are the ladybugs?”

Ladybugs are beautiful and extremely useful in the garden but there is so much more to IPM than beautiful ladybugs.  There are many aspects of IPM and it’s not just a quick fix, but more of an interconnected system of pest control.

 

 

Black bean aphids carry Bean Mosaic Virus from one one from to another.
Black bean aphids carry Bean Mosaic Virus from one farm or garden to another.

 

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has a long history in agriculture, of which South Africa is definitely a “Johnny Come Lately”, only beginning to use insects in the late 1990’s as a form of pest control. We have been slow adopters when it comes to this important tool in organic agriculture. IPM started as a science in the US in the early 1960’s but the Chinese were using crude forms of IPM on citrus trees as early as 300BC.

Very basically, IPM is using a mix of approved chemicals and insects to reduce the population of pests below a point of acceptable economic damage. The point of acceptable economic damage will differ from farm to farm and crop to crop. Suffice to say that small scale farmers and home gardeners will experience a far greater percentage of damage in a shorter space of time than a commercial farmer.

So nature creates balance, and sorts out all the baddies right? So if that’s the case, what happened to all of our beneficials then?

First-off what needs to be understood is that beneficial insects have a really tough time. They need pests to multiply efficiently and surprisingly, the pest “crop” actually needs to be a clean and healthy pest crop.

If the pests were sprayed with chemical pesticides and they in turn build up a tolerance to the pesticide, they will kill the beneficial population off. Think of the owls that die from eating rats and mice that have been poisoned. This is exactly the same, just on a smaller level.

Gooseberry plant showing a severe Red Spider Mite infestation
Gooseberry plant showing a severe Red Spider Mite infestation

 

Farmers very often have to increase the pesticide dose as the pests have built up a resistance. Or even scarier, they will mix pesticides to increase the efficacy or just to save money by only spraying once. All of this allows pests to build up tolerances to pesticides. This is critical when two different pesticides are mixed for two separate target species, the one pesticide has no effect and is absorbed into non-target pests, but still kills off the beneficials.

This is the single most common reason for low beneficial insect populations worldwide. The beneficials are actually killed off by the pests they are trying to control, as the pests will carry a pesticide load that is toxic to any beneficials.

In addition to the pests actually killing off the insects that are predating on them, pesticide residues are persistent in the environment, and will have a lasting negative effect on any beneficial population that is trying to establish itself. So the farmer or gardener that regularly uses any form of chemical pesticide, will not only be killing off the “target pest”, but any beneficial that is trying to establish itself too.

For home gardeners and small scale farmers, you may be doing everything right on your own property, but you are unable to control what is happening at your neighbours’. What your neighbours do, will have a direct impact on beneficial insect populations as well as pest loads on your property.

Aphidius parasitic wasp laying an egg in an aphid
Aphidius parasitic wasp laying an egg in an aphid

 

The most important question when introducing IPM’s onto your property is: Are they safe for the environment?

Common questions are; Will these guys breed up and harm the environment? other beneficials? create a plague? etc etc.

These are good questions to ask, and it’s critically important for people to ask the questions, as is providing the correct answers to these questions.

Water hyacinth blocking light and starving water of oxygen
Water hyacinth blocking light and starving water of oxygen

One analogy that was recently brought up is the Water Hyacinth that has been released into our waterways.
The Water Hyacinth was smuggled/released into South Africa illegally in the early 1900’s mainly for its beautiful flowers in waterscapes. It has now become a major invasive weed and has created significant environmental and economic damage.
For more information on how it’s being controlled, please see here. It must also be noted that IPM’s are currently being used to try and combat Water Hyacinth, but not all of them will adapt to our environment.

When it comes to insects, they are a lot harder to control, one needs to be more circumspect and rightly so.

The Harlequin ladybug is one invasive insect that was probably unintentionally introduced when someone probably smuggled a plant cutting(s) with a few eggs attached into South Africa.

This ladybug has in a matter of a few short years, invaded every province in the country, and has developed into a major problem, even predating on our own smaller indigenous ladybugs. (This is the exact reason why one should not smuggle plant/seed material into the country.)

The harlequin ladybug was never released as an IPM agent and was never subjected to the stringent vetting and bio-control process required when bringing any new IPM agent into the country. The Harlequin Ladybug is such a massive issue that a citizen science project has been established. To get involved click here.

It is interesting to note that the majority of invasive species are smuggled in by people that think they are smart by bucking the system. Yes, there are accidental releases (Khakibos and the Argentine ant come to mind) but by far it is people that break our Bio-sanitary laws that are the greatest problem.

Are the BioBee IPM’s that we supply, safe?

This is an important question and one that properly needs to be addressed. I’m going to run through a number of points below, and any one of them will hold up their own, however all of them combined should give you real peace-of-mind.

  • First off these beneficial insects have gone through years, yes, years of testing and vetting via DAFF to ensure that they will not have any detrimental impact on our environment. In addition, private agricultural Co-Op’s have done their own investigations and studies to ensure that they will do no harm to our local fauna and flora. These scientists have, over the years built up a body of evidence and testing protocols to ensure that there are no adverse effects to the environment.
  • It is critically important to note that every single one of these IPM’s have previously and independently established themselves in South Africa prior to being released as a commercial IPM product. How they became naturalised is unknown, however as with the Harlequin ladybug example above they were probably imported along with plant material either legally or illegally. DAFF will not issue an import permit for any organism that does not already occur in South Africa.
  • Some of our IPM’s are locally bred and others are imported on permit. They have been vetted and that vetting is a continuous, ongoing process. At any point, approval can be recalled if anything untoward is found.
  • In South Africa BioBee IPM’s have been released onto thousands of hectares in various provinces in both open field and enclosed greenhouses and a very wide array of crops from orchards, vineyards, open field vegetable production, ornamentals like roses, carnation etc and in enclosed controlled greenhouse environments and have been monitored since 1999.This gives 18 years real solid data that has been used to verify that none of these IPM’s have had any negative or detrimental impact to our environment.
  • One argument that I hear is: “This is corporate agriculture and they will do anything to make a quick buck.”  Yeah…actually, it’s faster, cheaper and far easier just to spray pesticides.
  • If you look through our IPM catalogue, you will note that the majority of these IPM’s have a very narrow target pest range. Once the pest is gone, the IPM will invariably die out as they cannot feed off other pests. Those that have a more catholic diet and eat a variety of pests will be able to control more pests for longer, but once again cannot make the jump to an alternate food source and will again die out.
  • Many of our common pests that that are targeted with IPM are imported invasive pests that do not have any natural enemies in South Africa, which is why they are so successful. If you are looking for a predator to control these pests you will have to get a predator that does not occur here. The added benefit of this is that one can be selective and only choose a predator that is pest specific, targeting only that pest. Which is exactly what BioBee has done.

If you look at all of the reasons above, either singularly or combined, you will see that this is not a light endeavour just to make a quick buck, we are here for the long-haul.

Predatory Swirskii mite busy sucking the juices out of a two spotted mite. (Red Spider mite)
Predatory Swirskii mite busy sucking the juices out of a two spotted mite. (Red Spider mite)

 

Why is Livingseeds selling IPM’s?

Very simply, many of our clients have asked us to source IPM’s via our Newsletter and via our Facebook page.

We have done the due diligence, and BioBee IPM’s are the best available, they have the longest track-record and provide tangible solutions that work.

Typically, IPM’s are un-affordable to the average home gardener or small scale farmer, there are many costs that need to be accounted for and it only makes sense if these are sold in large volumes to commercial farmers.

We have an agreement with BioBee that we are able to use the purchasing power of thousands of home gardeners and small scale farmers across the country to enable access to these important IPM’s to small scale users.

If you are a small scale farmer or home gardener, then Livingseeds is your only source for the most comprehensive and more importantly, affordable range of IPM’s.

 

How to use IPM’s

It needs to be understood that using IPM’s is a combination of using both beneficial insects and approved pesticides. Livingseeds has only supplied BioGrow organically certified pesticides for many years. It’s what we use on our farm, and we know that they work.

BioBee has confirmed that they have approved all the BioGrow products as complimentary treatments for use in conjunction with their IPM products. (The two companies are unrelated)

It’s very interesting to know that certain of the BioGrow products actually stimulate the breeding of certain beneficials, once again proving to us that we have made the correct choices from the very beginning, choosing only the best products for our customers.

We would strongly recommend that you release the IPM’s in the manner directed on our website and/or on the packaging. If it is not done correctly, they will not work.

Certain IPM’s need to have any symbiotic ants removed, as the ants will attack the beneficials to protect the aphids / mealybugs. The ants will also transfer the pests to other plants, further spreading your pest infestation. The easiest way to do this is to mix Borax and Sugar in a 50:50 ratio with a little water, to make it very slightly moist. Place this in a jar lid or bottle cap near the ants nest, the ants are drawn to the sugar, and the borax will alter their internal pH, killing them. This mix is 100% safe and will not harm any other animals or fish.

Next, use our BioGrow products at the lowest dose recommended on the bottle in conjunction with your IPM release.

We have solutions for many of the most common insect pests that you as a home gardener will encounter, very often one beneficial will control more than one pest in your garden.

Here is a brief rundown of pests that are controlled by beneficials and the appropriate IPM solution.

Aphids
BioAphidius
BioNesidiocoris
BioOrius

Spider mites
BioNesidiocoris
BioPersimilis
BioSwirskii

Whitefly
BioNesidiocoris
BioOrius
BioSwirskii

Mealybugs
BioPerminutus
BioCryptolaemus
BioAnagyrus

Leafminer
BioDiglyphus
BioNesidiocoris

Thrips
BioSwirskii
BioOrius
BioNesidiocoris

Discounted Packages

Aphid/Mite/Whitefly package

Mealybug/Softscale Package

Spider-mite Eliminator

Please note: Not all target pests are covered (example not all aphids are equal, certain beneficials will only attack certain aphid species).

Please make sure that you choose the appropriate beneficial, if you need assistance please call our offices.  073 141 7101

Garlic

Save Water, use Drip Irrigation

With the drought that we are experiencing watering your garden is a real chore.  Drip irrigation is a must in your garden.

Gardening in drought conditions is difficult, especially now that severe water restrictions are in place. The drought has the added effect of increasing the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables, so home gardeners are turning to their own gardens to feed their families. The only problem now is that cannot use hoses and sprinklers to water these cost saving gardens. Buckets are not efficient and the only reason you can use them is that the labour required to carry buckets is the disincentive to water the garden.

With drip irrigation, that issue is solved as you are able to precisely water your plants and there is no wastage.

This is our story on how we saved close on 90% of our farms water consumption as well as thousands of Rands every month.

Looking down a newly planted line of tomato seedlings.
Looking down a newly planted line of tomato seedlings.

For a long time Livingseeds Farm relied on a patchwork of different sprinkler systems in our fields. These sprinklers where bought with small fund allocations, as and when we needed to expand. They were made up of 3 or 4 disparate makes that just never did exactly what we needed them to do.

As we irrigated from a borehole, if we needed to run the sprinklers, it would run directly off the borehole pump. So, if we wanted to water just a small section the borehole pump ran. We found that to ‘save’ on the electricity that was being used, we would actually over-water certain sections, and this had its own set complications with diseases, over-watering etc.

In the spring of 2010 we made the move from overhead sprinklers to drip irrigation. The outlay was painful for the first month, however it was a real eye-opener over the next few months. We also doubled our planting area at the same time, as I figured that we may as well just bite the bullet and roll out a larger drip system in one go.

Immediately our Eskom bill dropped by R5k per month (note that this was pre Eskom rate hikes) and the amount of water we required to irrigate dropped by 80%! Yes an 80% water reduction on double the land use. (We have since installed a solar borehole pump, further reducing our Eskom dependency, but that’s a different story)

Combined with a regular and heavy mulching regime, drip irrigation could see you saving close on 90% of your vegetable garden watering bill.

An heirloom tomato seedling flourishing with drip irrigation.
An heirloom tomato seedling flourishing with drip irrigation.

So, to say that we are a little biased when it comes to drip irrigation is an understatement.

Our system has been designed around agricultural grade drip system. We have used this grade system on Livingseeds Farm from the last 6 years and apart from the occasional punctured line, they are still operating flawlessly. Our winters can drop to -15 and our summers peak at 40+, so you can rest assured that this is not a cheap retail grade drip system.

The emitters run at 1lt per hour at 1 bar, the water is directed at exactly the point that you want it and there is no wastage.
Because it only runs at 1 bar, there is no need to open your tap to full pressure, just a slight opening of your tap will give you more than enough pressure to run this system.
The kit comes with a full colour 13 page manual that will help you install your drip system in a matter of hours.

3 sizes are available.

30 SQM

60SQM

100SQM

Garlic

Succession Planting: Do it correctly.

The two biggest assets that you as a home veggie gardener have in your Spring and Summer garden are Open Pollinated Heirloom vegetable seeds, and Succession planting.

There are many reason why we plant Heirloom seed in our gardens, one of the biggest benefits to the home gardener is that they do not all ripen at the same time.

Industrial hybrid seed needs 100% uniformity. They build machines to plant, maintain and harvest crops, if the crops are not 100% uniform, the machines don’t work properly and the harvest is delayed or messed up. Simply put, commercial farmers need to harvest the entire field on the same day. For that, the plants need to be uniform, and special seed is bred for just that reason.
With Heirloom seed, the trait of uneven ripening is perfect for home gardeners, as nobody wants a glut of any vegetable in the same week. As a home gardener, the last thing you want, is to be required to harvest everything at the same time and either have to give, or if ripens at the wrong time and you can’t process, throw most of your crop away. What you are looking for is staggered and uneven ripening. This will allow you to use and process your crops over an extended period.

You can plan and use the uneven ripening of heirloom seed to your advantage. It’s easy to spread that harvest of a number of weeks or months, and that’s just perfect! It still allows you some extra to be charitable with, and your planting just goes so much further.

Succession planting is the next weapon in the home gardeners arsenal. To be used effectively, you need to understand how it works. It’s no good just planting all your seeds every week or two weeks in order to have a staggered harvest. And unfortunately is how most people understand succession planting. The most common explanation by ‘experts’ is to just plant every X days or weeks. Personally I’m not a fan of this technique as people often miss a ‘pre-set’ day and then give up as they missed their critical day.

Proper succession planting is used with the understanding that certain crops and varieties have a bearing ‘sweet spot’, and it’s making good use of that sweet spot, and then having another variety waiting in the wings to replace it.

Certain crops lend themselves to succession planting and others not. Long season crops like onions and garlic, and perennial crops like asparagus and artichokes are just pointless being succession planted. Plant them once in a dedicated bed and harvest / process when ready.

tomato_seedlings
Tomato seedlings in one of our tunnels. These will produce next seasons seed.

So onto the meat of how to use succession planting.

Check your maturity dates on the varieties that you are looking to plant.

1) Different varieties if planted on the same day will have different maturity dates.

A good example is Tomatoes. (Note that these dates are from transplant.)

Most indeterminate tomatoes will start producing from around 85 – 90 days. And they can produce in well fed soil for 2-3 months. So in effect you only need to replant tomatoes every 2 months or so.

If you add a short season determinate tomato into your planting, you can get sun ripened salad tomatoes in 65 or 75 days, that’s almost a month off your first harvest date!

The nice part about this method is that even though you are harvesting tomatoes continuously, each variety tastes different and lends itself to different styles of cooking, ensuring that you don’t get tired of eating the same crop every week.

2) Look at what type crop you are planting.

Tender Delight Bush beans a real winner in the garden
Tender Delight Bush beans a real winner in the garden

 

Let’s use Bush Beans for this example. It will start bearing from around 55 days and will bear well, for a good 6-8 weeks (yes I know you can push it further).
So it makes sense to replant Bush Beans every 6 weeks to replace your production stock with young vigorous plants.

Adding Runner beans changes this dynamic, as they only start giving beans at 8 or 9 weeks, but will produce very well if picked over properly for a solid 3 months. So only plant a new runner bean crop every 8-10 weeks.

3) Cut once crops like heading lettuce can be put on a stricter schedule.

It’s pretty easy to work out how many your family will need on a weekly basis. And then plant to that schedule every 2-3 weeks. However, here again, using different lettuce varieties can extend your harvest. Loose leaf varieties are generally more heat adapted, and they can tolerate a bit of shade, which will slow down the bolting and extend the harvest.

Mixed lettuce look great in the garden and on your plate.
Mixed lettuce look great in the garden and on your plate.

 

When watching your garden progress over the season, if you see that something is not working. Lift it, don’t try and coax an unhappy plant, rather replace it with seedlings that you have waiting for garden space.

Having a constant seedling supply is important and you will be using crops out of your garden, as these are consumed, they will open up space for a new crop to go in. So either grow your own or order some in.

Garlic

Organic Cutworm control in the garden

Cutworms are the bane of a gardeners life, when planting out seedlings cutworms can make short work of all of your diligent growing out.

There are a number of different ways to protect your plants against cutworms and the most commonly recommended solution is to plant the seedling into a collar (or grow them in a collar) these collars can be cardboard tubes like toilet rolls or even PVC tubes.

This is a great idea, especially if you only have a few seedlings to plant out. However here on Livingseeds Farm we plant out thousands of seedlings and that adds up to a lot of toilet rolls.

I have heard and read about using soil calcium to combat cutworms, and that soils that have a proper calcium availability will have a lower or no cutworm incidence. I’m not sure if it’s soil pH or if it’s the actual calcium availability? However, looking at what we have experienced over the last two years I think its the physical calcium that makes the difference.

So, all very good and wonderful, how do we go about proving it. This is all anecdotal and it’s pretty hard to prove conclusively, however read along and see what we have found.

Typically here on Livingseeds Farm, we never had any specific cutworm program besides going into the tunnels early in the morning and manually catching the cutworms either in the act or just post act. Cutworms typically do their dirty work early in the morning and catching them is simple. As long as it’s done within an hour to two of the decapitation, they can be found by scratching around the severed seedling and collecting all the cutworms. They are typically found in a 2-6 cm zone around the seedling and about 1 or 2 cm deep. These were then fed with glee and much appreciation to our laying hens, who turned them into lovely eggs for us.

Tunnel with about 300 heirllom tomato plants. Sheaves of wheat are drying waiting to be threshed.
Tunnel with about 300 heirloom tomato plants. Sheaves of wheat are drying waiting to be threshed.

We would lose about 10-15% of our seedlings every year and basically accepted the fact that this was part of the deal when growing organically and not wanting to use pesticides.

I had been speaking to a few people about the Calcium – Cutworm theory, and 90% of the people shot the idea down as a waste of time. Always up for a challenge and proving people wrong I though we would give it a bash.

Knowing that all calcium is not created equal I decided to do a few simple tests. The kind that are easy and simple to replicate in the garden or in our case, in the fields.

Just a quick look at the different Calcium’s available to the gardener. (No need to go into cations anions and CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) of soil and how things are locked up and released. Suffice to say it’s interesting and very important, but not right now.)

Dolomitic Calcium is the cheapest, has the lowest availability, and takes years and years ….. and years to become available. Has a high Magnesium ratio that when it’s release, unfortunately also locks up other elements and tends to harden up your soil.

Calcitic Lime also known as Landbou Kalk, comes in various “kinds or sources and grades” and is the most commonly available. This is what is mostly sold as gardening lime. Nothing wrong with it and it works. (Again depending on the source / quality)

Bone Meal a superb source of highly available calcium and is held beautifully in the soil, it’s readily absorbed and is a much preferred source of calcium.

Gypsum. The most highly available source of calcium, also has a good ration of sulphur. If you are low in calcium this is a great way to fix a shortage very quickly as the plants can use it almost immediately. The Sulpher (anion) is locked onto the calcium (cation) making it freely available for absorption.

OK, onto our cutworm story. Last year we started our trials in two of our tunnels and found the following. (Both tunnels were planted to tomatoes)

All of the other tunnels were treated as normal and we harvested cutworms every morning for our hens.

In one tunnel we added in Calcitic Lime (Landbou Kalk) at around 150-200 gr per running meter and planted into the soil. Our cutworm activity was not noticeably reduced, and we had to control by hand.

In the second tunnel we used the Talborne Organics Vita Bone Phos at a similar rate. There was less cutworm activity, but we still had losses in the tunnel. There was a clear drop in cutworm activity and I felt it was well worth pursuing the reasoning that calcium reduces cutworm activity.

I decided that this year I would do a bit more to test this theory out. We ran the following calcium regimen in all of our tunnels and any open beds where we transplanted seedlings.

First the Vita Bone Phos was added to the soil (at approximately 150- 200 gr per running meter) and lightly worked into the top 5 cm of soil. The seedlings were planted directly into the soil along a drip line and then a tablespoon of the BonePhos around the seedling.

5 week old tomato seedling with NGP Soil Build around the base.
5 week old tomato seedling with BonePhos around the base.

The tunnel where we had the Vita Bone Phos in last year had no seedling losses at all. We have to date lost only 6 seedlings this year, we have planted out thousands, both in tunnels and in open ground.

So do I believe that calcium stops cutworms, oh yes 100%. It just needs to be the right calcium.

Our seedling loss as a percentage this year (based on calcium treated soil) is less than 0.25% !! Going from a 10% loss every year to .25% is a huge drop.

The only place that we did not do the calcium treatment was on the Corn and Bean plantings. It’s noteworthy to see that we lost 15-20 % of our bean and corn plantings. What we also did not do, was the cutworm follow-up every morning in the bean and corn fields, so the damage was higher as we were not concentrating our efforts there. We were more concerned at what was happening (or not happening) with the calcium treated seedlings. Patting ourselves on the back and revelling in getting a grip on the cutworms by using the soil against them. By the time we woke up, the damage was already noticeable in the untreated areas.

Talborne organic Vita Veg and Vita Bone Phos
Talborne organic Vita Veg and Vita Bone Phos

 

My recipe now for cutworms, not just scratch them out manually. Add in 150 – 200 gr of Vita Bone Phos per running meter, and sprinkle just one tablespoon of BonePhos around each seedling. It’s simple, 100% organic, improves your soil quality and most importantly, IT WORKS!

 

Garlic

Hydroponic’s for the home gardener

Here is a new product for those of you interested in hydroponics. I know we have a few clients that use hydroponic techniques with our seeds. This is not a system that we use, however the feedback that I have received has been good.

On my personal quest to make a difference in this life, I have been seeking ways to be more self-sufficient and to reduce my carbon footprint, and that of my family. The Lord has guided all this, in my opinion, as I have inadvertently ended up on paths that in the past, I’ve had no interest. It all started with me working for a waste management company, and then starting my own waste management company. From there I have seen a need in various arena, be it environmental, social etc.

We started a sports programme for the local community, whereby we have built an indoor skate-park for the youth to make use of, keeping them off the streets and out of trouble. The park is free, and open to anyone who follows the rules. http://www.bincleansa.co.za/sport-and-recreation/

In addition to this, we have also initiated a reward system with staff at our waste company, where by selected staff are supplied with the necessary containers, seeds and knowledge to grow their own vegetables at home.

http://www.bincleansa.co.za/sustainable-living/

We also saw the need to reduce our carbon footprint on a personal level, by recycling as much as possible, be it, home, work, composting, vermicomposting etc. We started growing our own greens, trial and error, and also built a chicken coop for 4 chickens to provide for our daily eggs. This eventually led me to aqua-ponics and then hydroponics. I moved from aqua to hydroponics as I made a careless error of disconnecting my greenhouse power this year when we went to the Midmar for the mile. I though I was switching off the Mac and printers etc. but lo and behold, it was all power to the greenhouse. We returned 4 days later to dead plants, dead fish and the most awful smell. After paranoidly flushing the fish tank /reservoir, I changed over to hydroponics. My then systems were NFT made from 110mm drain pipes and ebb and flow system made from 210lt plastic drums cut in half.

To my amazement, 6mnths later, and the earthworms I had living in the hydroball grow medium in the aquaponics system are still alive in the now hydroponics system. This is all good, as they digest the old root systems in the grow media.

The hydro-patch hydroponic system
The hydro-patch hydroponic system

But through all of this, with a keen sense of enjoyment, I was quite frustrated, as one could not purchase a complete hydroponics active system in SA, at a reasonable rate. Just recently I sourced a supplier, but their system, as good as it seems, is based on NFT with a shallow grow bed, and in my opinion, would not be adequate for big root crops, like tomatoes, cucumbers etc. I found a niche and wanted to fill it. So out of that, I have considered many avenues and ideas and concepts, and settled on the “Hydro-Patch”. This is a recirculating top drip system, based on Hollands commercial greenhouse technology. I started designing and sourcing, trial and error and finally had what I was after. A reasonably priced, aesthetically acceptable, versatile hydroponic system that could be used in small or large spaces, indoors or outdoors, summer or winter. The unit is a 1m2, 9 pot system, but the limitations are down to the purchasers imagination. We can custom make them in 18 and 27 pot systems, with standardized frames for staking vining crops, or to cover with plastic to use as a mini greenhouse to extend the growing season. Should the budget be limited, we have cost effective ideas to build the frames, which are freely given on request.

I feel that we have successfully built a versatile product for a niche market, that will enable people to contribute towards a better tomorrow. The advantage of hydroponics are endless, and yes, sometimes it is fun to get your hands dirty, but we can still get all dirty by growing potatoes, carrots etc in soil. Yes it can be grown in hydroponics too, but why only have your cake, when you can eat it too?

Should you be interested in the unit, or accessories, watch for our upcoming web site www.hydro-patch.co.za or find us on Face book, under Hydro Patch.

I can also be contacted on 082 903 6068 / 011 664 7581

 

Garlic

Matthew and Daniels veggie patch

This year I have help 3 friends start veggie gardens, Mike and family were the first and as promised (by him) here is the first instalment of how his garden grew.

My efforts to show my four year old (Matt) and his 18 month old brother (Daniel) where their food comes from has turned into quite an obsession for their dad…

In February, we moved from a townhouse to an old house on a relatively big stand (1500m²).  A while after we moved in, Sean and his family came for a visit.  Sean took one look at the dark corner of the garden, and said chop out these trees, and we can build a fantastic vegetable garden.

The dark corner....
The dark corner....

So, dad put on his lumber jack shirt, headed off to Springbok hire to hire a chainsaw, and the some trees were turned into firewood, which would later be traded for seed.

Part of the wood used to trade for our seed.
Part of the wood used to trade for our seed.

I was quite proud of my efforts, until Sean arrived and informed me that vegetables need at least 8 hours of sunshine per day, and that more chopping was needed.  My wife, who loves the trees, was not overly impressed, but, the trees came down, and the firewood pile grew substantially.

10:00 am and still one more tree to take down.
10:00 am and still one more tree to take down.

Many bags of compost later, the rows were dug out, and planting commenced.  As it was fairly early in the season (23 July 2011), we only planted the frost hardy seeds.  Sean split the rows into areas, and seed was sewn.  We put in:

  • Peas
  • Asparagus (3 year old)
  • Beetroot
  • Radish
  • Carrots (2 varieties)
  • Lettuce (2 varieties)
  • Broccoli

Note to self – do not sew a whole bag of lettuce seed in 3 lines of 1 meter long…

The plan is to cultivate seedlings for Tomatoes, Peppers, Marrows, Cucumber, and plant these after the September cold snap.

So the seed is planted, watered regularly, and…  Nothing.  The boys expected to see something overnight, and after a week (and some rather cold weather), Matt thought dad was telling fibs, and that vegetables do indeed come from Woolworths.

But then, a few days later, some green started to protrude from the soil, first the lettuce, then the peas, and the rest followed soon after.   There was much excitement, and dad does not tell fibs.  Dad was a little worried about the asparagus, but even these came up eventually.

Bird-proofing the veggies. Two kinds of lettuce in the foreground.
Bird-proofing the veggies. Two kinds of lettuce in the foreground.

Next thing, the birds arrived, and decided that they liked the taste of the broccoli shoots, so these were quickly covered with some netting, framed with some discarded curtain rails (aluminium no less, so no rusting).  Why they didn’t go for the lettuce is still beyond me, there’s so much of it after the whole bag of seed was sewn that I’m constantly thinning it out.

An old pool fence was hacked to pieces, and the bars used to make uprights for the wire for the peas to climb up.  Amazing things those peas, they cling onto that builders wire, and the following day, they’ve made 5 to 6 loops around the wire.

Potatoes were planted into hessian bags.  2 seed potatoes per bag, where the intention is to add compost as they grow, and just roll the bags up as the plants get taller.  To date, there’s no sign of the potatoes, but Sean says give it a week after I’ve given up on them, and they should show…  I was just as impatient with the asparagus.

Seed potatoes have been planted into very cool hessian coffee bags. I think a few more would be in order.
Seed potatoes have been planted into very cool hessian coffee bags. I think a few more would be in order.

Last weekend Matt and I built a compost heap, so now the kitchen peels, cuttings, mom’s flowers and anything else that can compost are being added to the heap.

I’ve been looking for some rectangular planters to build a border around the patch, and today finally found something suitable at the right price.  So hopefully this weekend, we can plant some Strawberries into these planters, and get the tomatoes, peppers, etc into the remaining rows.

Mom’s been planting herbs, these need to find a space in the garden though, so some shelves are needed on the walls.  Dad also has a mission to make some hanging pots by recycling 2L cold drink bottles and some fishing gut, and using these to plant seedlings.

All of these plants need water too, so we’re looking for a suitable container to harvest rainwater when the rain finally arrives, probably a 1500 to 2000 litre tank that I’ll direct a downpipe into from the gutter.

So far, it’s been a very rewarding experience.  We’ve not yet eaten much out of the garden, but it’s been a great way to spend time with Matt, building something together and watching it grow.  Daniel loves to pull stuff up, so let’s hope the carrots and radishes grow soon, so he can harvest.

Looking forward to salad from our little veggie patch…

 

 

 

Garlic

Planning an Orchard..

There is not much left to now in our season, but if you are determined to do something in your garden that you are sure to gain years of pleasure from, an orchard is the way to go. It need not be a full blown orchard but even a few fruit trees will make an immense difference in your persuit of self-sustainability.

The idea of a conventional orchard conjures up vast plantings of a single type of fruit tree, orchards full of well manicured trees that are control-watered, sprayed with fungicides, pesticides and fertilized according to a regimented plan. They are pruned to allow easy access with mechanical harvesters and then they are scheduled for replacement on a short term cycle. All of this to ensure maximum production and predictable cropping, within a very narrow production schedule. The fruit is most often picked early, treated with waxes or chemicals to inhibit any unwanted growth of fungi or moulds. They are then probably force ripened utilising an artificial external environment that can use temperature, gasses, or additional chemicals to ensure that your ‘healthy’ fruit is delivered to your local grocer in the best state possible for sale to you, the health conscious individual. The scary thing is that you could be eating a ‘fresh’ apple, that when bought from your local grocer could be as much as 8 months from when it was picked from the tree, not too fresh any more is it? Any locally produced apple (or fruit for that matter) bought out of season has been artificially tampered with.

I would like to propose a real alternative to what is available to the average person on the street. This alternative is planting your own orchard. Whether you only plant some trees in old wine barrels, a few trees in your back garden or a full blown orchard on your farm or plot, having one’s own orchard is a thing of beauty. Designing, planting, feeding, tending and watching your orchard grow from knee high plantings into fruit bearing tree’s gives one a unique satisfaction. Tasting your own first fruit picked straight off the tree and eaten immediately is a truly unique experience, one that can never be compared with the best of organic store bought fruit.

In today’s world it’s a rare thing for the average person to own their own orchard, and it’s not often that one gets to plant an orchard. If you are lucky you will get to plant one, or probably at the most two orchards. The greatest limiting factor to having your own orchard is space. Many of you who read this site will be people that have an active interest in self-sustainability and are owners or are soon-to-be potential owners of a smallholding or farm. Our family did the rural migration about 7 years ago and have not looked back since. We are still learning the lessons and enjoying every step of it. However, even if you are not looking at a smallholding and are more interested in urban self sustainability, you should not feel excluded. There are many ways that you can have your own producing fruit trees, first take out those botanical abominations, Flowering Plums, cherries and other useless exotic trees. They were designed for lazy gardeners that wanted the show and not the mess of dropped and rotting fruit. (They would not be dropped or rotting fruit if you used them!) Plant a fruit bearing tree in its place. If you are still limited for space you can plant dwarf trees into an old wine barrel or large pot. This gives you the additional versatility of have trees that would not normally grow in your area as you can move the tree out of frosts or killing winds in winter. A dwarf tree is generally created by grafting a normal tree onto dwarfing rootstock to keep the size down, either for small gardens or for putting into large pots. Have a chat to your local nurseries and see what they can do for you. Don’t make the mistake of planting a full-size tree into a pot, you will only come unstuck after a few years.

Another option for those with limited space, is to graft a number of varieties onto a single rootstock. They will need to be the same kind of tree naturally, apples onto apples, plums onto plums etc.  I have a friend that has a few trees in his garden that have been multi-grafted and he grows 3 or four different peach varieties off a single tree, with each variety ripening slightly later than the next, so he has a constant flow of peaches. There are many ways for you to get around the space issue, all it takes is a bit of imagination.

One of my dreams was to have my own orchard with fruit and nut trees that would provide my family with wholesome produce. It is not our intention to have a commercial operation, just one that would provide for us and possibly a bit left over to barter with neighbours and friends. So based on that departure point, we started planning what fruit trees we could plant. My initial idea was to have an orchard where different trees produced fruit over the whole summer season. Mainly because we could have fresh fruit available for our own consumption for an entire season, without having to resort to the grocer for fresh fruit. Secondly, we could stagger our fruit preserving over the whole season so that we would not be inundated with bucket loads of fruit in a space of just a few weeks or months. Next, we would have lower waste as the chances of getting tired of a particular type of fruit would be reduced. Lastly anything that did go to waste could be re-cycled into pork and provide us with another healthy, organic protein source.

Now, I’m a great believer in learning from someone else’s mistakes and hard earned lessons. So we set about chatting to nurserymen and owners of existing orchards, specifically asking them what to plant and how to go about creating the ultimate orchard. Each person has their own ideas as to what the best way is to plant an orchard. What we did was take all of the advice and distil it to our circumstances. I would like to set this down mainly to get people excited to plant their own orchard and secondly, those that are thinking of creating an orchard, NOW IS THE TIME. Winter is one of the best times to plant fruit trees, Spring is possibly the second best.

The first thing that we learnt was that an orchard that has staggered ripening is possibly one of the worst planting methods. Especially if one is looking at an organic orchard where the closest thing to a harmful chemical or pesticide is the exhaust fumes from our milk cow. Next come pests, fruit fly is one of the prime threats to your ripening fruit. Having staggered ripening will give fruit flies and other pests a start in early summer and allow them to increase exponentially through the rest of the season, almost guaranteeing a total crop failure in late summer and autumn. Based on that information we opted for an early ripening orchard. We would rather have a lot of work early in the season and minimal fruit loss than loose fruit to fruit fly and other orchard and fruit pests. A late ripening orchard was also a possibility, however we decided that due to the number of established fruit trees on neighbouring farms we would do better to get our harvest in before pests made the move from those trees onto ours. We finally planted a 38 tree orchard with mixed fruit from apples, pears, two kinds of nuts, cherries, pomegranates, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, olives, fig and a few others. We also planted 3 kinds of grapes and are busy with our berry section. The only fruit that is still outstanding on my list are Kiwi fruit and I have reserved a special place for those vines, when I find a supplier with both male and female vines.  All in all, our orchard will provide enough for our families seasonal fresh fruit, annual jam requirements, dried fruit and some left over for me to play backyard brewer with. Any waste goes to the pigs or sheep. So all in all it’s a balanced orchard that will allow us to have a broad spectrum of fruit and a busy early summer preserving and drying.

Something else to look at are ‘bridge trees’ these are trees that ripen in the ‘off’ season and allow pests to survive and gain an early foothold in the next growing season, one of the most common is the loquat. The Loquat is a winter bearing tree that will give pests a source of sustenance and accommodation in the off season when the pests should be dormant, killed by the cold or lack of food. So if you specifically want one of these trees plan accordingly. Unfortunately you may need to resort to chemical remedies in this situation.

I’m not going to spend much time on what trees to plant as each area in South Africa has particular types of trees that will do better than in other areas. We live on the Highveld and would dearly love citrus trees in our orchard, but with winters that can get to – 8 C so this is not an option for us. But we do grow stunning nectarines, peaches and other deciduous fruits like sweet cherries, almonds, apples and apricots. Something that many people cannot grow as they do not have the required cold for proper dormancy of stone fruits. Speaking of cold requirements, many fruits require a period of cold to set fruit properly. This is typically termed as chill units, and trees (depending on variety) require between 300 and 700 hours of chill for them to complete their dormancy correctly and set fruit properly the next season. The trees that are most affected by chill units are deciduous trees. Chill units are counted as temperatures below 18 Deg C. The chill units are also offset by warm days or nights and typically you would like an extended run of cold to ensure a good fruit set. So if you are in a warm area and would like to have deciduous stone fruit, check your annual weather charts and work out if a stone fruit will produce in your area, just because a tree is available in your local nursery does not mean that it will produce in your garden. Growing and producing are two totally different things. I for one will always think twice about buying from a nursery that is offering fruit trees that are not suited to my area. Especially if they do not give the correct advice or caution about it’s bearing ability in your area.

So your best bet is to speak to the local growers in your area, they should be your first stop. They have been growing fruit trees in the area for years an they will know what works. I’m horrified at some nurseries that offer totally inappropriate fruit trees to new or unsuspecting gardeners and will sell unsuitable trees without batting an eye. Take a drive down some back roads and stop in at a few farms where you see fruit trees growing and have a chat, hey you might even make a new friend or mentor, it’s also the perfect way to find your dream property.

Finally a word on planting your trees, all fruit trees like well drained soil, so dig your holes 1 meter cubed, it’s a fair whack of work but at the end of the day (actually 3 or 4 years later) you will be well pleased with the results. We fill the hole with 100% pure compost that has been well compacted and then back fill the last 30 cm with topsoil. In addition, before the hole is filled we insert a length of 40mm black irrigation pipe that we use to water the trees. Our trees get watered once a week via this pipe and all the water is then directed at the root level and ensures water conservation and water retention in the soil. The trees roots will also become established at a lower level thus ensuring that the tree is well anchored. Finally, every 6 months each tree gets two barrow loads of compost added to the top surface where it creates a living mulch encouraging earthworm and beneficial gogga populations to aid in soil health.

Garlic

How to plant your Heirloom Seeds

I’ve had a number of requests on what the best way to plant your seeds are. So here’s a quick planting guide.

Most seeds get planted in late winter into cell trays, and then get put into a cold-frame to help them germinate. The reason for this is to ensure that each seed gets the best chance at germinating. Generally we will only plant 5 or maybe ten seeds of each variety and then transplant the resulting seedlings into a bed once they have pushed out two true leaves. The varieties that gain the most from this treatment are tomatoes, peppers and brinjals.

Cell tray numbering
Cell tray numbering

All of these have slower germination times and can take up to 14 or even 21 days to show any movement. They also require at soil temp of at least 17 deg before anything will happen. There are a few tricks that you can use to speed up and ensure better germination, one trick is to cover the seedlings with an old electric blanket or alternatively if you have under floor heating place the seed trays directly onto your floor. Basically what you are trying to do is to give them an even sustained heat so that you can assist with the germination of your seeds. Our Brassicas are also planted into cell trays to give them the best chance at germination.

We use a simple numbering system where each tray is numbered, and then every 5 cells are numbered, this way we can keep track of whats planted in each row with a planting diary. It also give you a good way to track your germination rates.

For larger seeds like pumpkins, melons and cucumbers, you have a few choices, first you can plant them into pots and treat them just like the cell trays or you can wait until the soil has warmed up and plant them straight outside into their beds.

An alternative to pots, using toilet rolls or home made tubes that can be planted with the seedling. The roll biodegrades and transplanting does not set the seedling back.
An alternative to pots, using toilet rolls or home made tubes that can be planted with the seedling. The roll biodegrades and transplanting does not set the seedling back.

Root crops like carrots, beetroot and onions get planted straight into the beds where they are to grow, of the three, onions are the only ones that will forgive you for transplanting them. Carrots and beetroot should not be moved as you are sure to set them back permanently.However you mjst thin them to get the best growth

We plant our corn, peas and beans straight into the garden, and just ensure that they have adequate moisture to assist in germination.

So what’s the best soil to use in your cell trays? We have a mix of commercial germination soil mixed with compost and or vermicompost. It’s up to you to decide on what the best mix is for you, just make sure it’s fine. We find that it’s best to fill the cells just short of top so that when you water (With a fine rose/spray) you don’t wash the soil and the seeds out. Once the seedlings are out it’s good to give them a weekly soaking with either compost tea or ‘worm wee’.

We are very much blessed with great weather in South Africa so it’s not often that we will have bad frost after the 10th of September and in some area’s they don’t even know what frost is. So you can safely start planting out from the beginning of September. Planting out is generally best done in the morning and then following the planting with a good soak. Just make sure that the seedlings have been ‘hardened off’ so they are used to full sun before you transplant, otherwise they are bound to get sun-burnt.

Garlic

Companion Planting

The question that most people ask is “What is companion planting?” or “How does companion planting work?”

OK, here’s my take on companion planting, think of it as a friend or friends with a bad case of Halitosis or Stinky feet, you want to stay well away from this person…….. Cool, you can speak to them and they are a good people, but just keep your distance. Or on the flip side, Companion planting can be like a homely kitchen with the smell of baking biscuits and warm vanilla. You either want to be real close for a taste or far away enough to appreciate but not partake.

Now, not all plants in the ‘Halitosis’ category are bad for other plants, they are just bad for insects and other pests, the plants don’t seem to mind the ‘smell’ where as for others the halitosis is overwhelming. Now where does this come from?

Companion planting is using the plants allelopathic ability to create or produce an environment that will allow for either beneficial growth, pest or disease resistance or on the opposite scale repelling effects. If you are a gardener you have experience the effects of allelopathy in your own garden, some just did not know what it was.

Here is a good example, have you ever tried to grow something under a Pine or Bluegum tree? Not much grows under these trees specifically because of the ‘exudations’ of the plant gives off, either via the roots into the soil or the fact that it drops leaves/needles that taint the soil. There is also some very interesting research that there are chemicals that are airborne and are released into the air that can affect other plants nearby (Of the same or different species).

On the other side, companion planting can extend into occult practices and are subject to very blurred interpretation where people start speaking about the vibrations and rhythms that these plants give off. Very dubious interpretation in my opinion.

In addition, certain plants will produce an abundance of macro and micro nutrients into the soil that can then be taken-up by other plants. Everyone knows that legumes will add nitrogen into the soil, this is one blatant example of companion planting (Not everything needs to be planted at the same time to be classified as companion planting) I have seen it this year with wheat that was planted into beds that had beans in over the summer, the wheat is doing far better in the beads that had beans in, and well (but not as well) in the other beds.

We have all heard the age old advice of planting garlic with your roses, to keep aphids away, does it work? Yes of course. But this is only the start of companion planting. There are many ways that you can improve your crops in the vegetable garden using companion planting. Some quick examples are Asparagus and Parsley, one protects the other and improves the flavor of the asparagus. Next don’t plant melons near corn, I learnt this the hard way this year and if you have a look at the photo you can clearly see what looks like succession planting, is actually corn that grows better the further they are away from the melons. One of the companion ‘teams’  that are more obscure are cabbage and mint, the mint protects the cabbage patch, I’ve never had the nerve to let mint grow rampant in my garden but I do move pots of mint close to the cabbages. The only problem is in winter when the mint dies down.  Also for those of you that are planting both potatoes and tomatoes in your garden this spring, keep them on opposite ends of the garden…. Unless you like glassy ‘taters and small hard tomatoes.

Mielies planted next to melons (on the right) pumpkins are coming out of the mielie patch.
Mielies planted next to melons (on the right) pumpkins are coming out of the mielie patch.

One of the most famous companion planting techniques is the Three Sisters Technique that was pioneered by the North American Native Indians where they planted Corn, pole beans (Runner beans) and pumpkins in the same patch, the corn gave support to the beans and the big leaves of the pumpkin helped with moisture conservation in the plot. While the beans provided nitrogen for both of the other crops.

I find that a lot of the companion planting advice on the net is conflicting and is dubious at best. I have found only one site that I think is really worthwhile,  but if you would like an in-depth look at companion planting, or if you are like me and you love books, do yourself a favor and get a good book that specifically concentrates on companion planting. There are two that I can recommend.

Either one of these books will give you a good grounding on how to use companion planting to your best advantage, and increase your yield or reduce your need to spray pesticides.

What’s in my Garden?

We have broken the back of winter (Winter solstice) and every sunrise from now on is one day closer to spring. YeeeHaa roll on spring!!!

Our winter here on the Highveld has been very mild so far , but we are expecting a big cold front to hit tomorrow morning. This evening I was running around and getting some of my more tender plants undercover and making sure that nothing will get lost with the mornings frost.

Asparagus cut back, and two types of parsley on the left.
Asparagus cut back, and two types of parsley on the left.

Most of the cleaning up has been done, the gooseberry’s and asparagus bushes have been cut back and they are waiting for a nice thick compost dressing, A lot of my beds are now empty and have been receiving their winter cloak of compost and are waiting for next seasons seed and seedlings. All that’s left growing are cabbages, carrots, beetroot, onions, garlic, spinach and some lettuce, oh and the wheat of course.

I have one peach tree in the orchard (a De Wet) that is bursting forth in blossom for what reason… I don’t know. But I fear that it is going to get properly whacked by the frost in the next few days. I don’t think I’ll put my hopes up on a good harvest from that tree. For the rest, the apple trees have still not lost all of their leaves, but I’ll be pruning them this weekend come what may.

The edible quote.

The first three men in the world were a gardener, a ploughman, and a grazier; and if any man object that the second of these was a murderer, I desire he would consider that as soon as he was so, he quitted our profession and turned builder.
– Abraham Cowley