May 2015 Part II - The 'Dirty Hands' part of Clean Food

I think the hardest work of all in a garden is getting a bed ready for its first planting... 

...that and waiting for seedlings to germinate. This is especially true in our case where we're trying to grow garden where previous property owners saw fit to dump builder's rubble.

"Dietes grandiflora or Fairy Iris" by Rojer Wisner
Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

So I planted the top bed a while back and my new seedlings were just about ready to be transplanted, so the time came to start up the second of the top beds. I wish I had taken a photo of this bed before I got hold of it! 

It was also full of rubble - many of the rocks you see making the middle path in the image below, I dug out from under the ground. The swales or mini-terraces on either side were also made out of the builder's rubble I extracted. 

"Rhoeo Tradescantia spathacea" by Tauʻolunga
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

It was full of Dietes grandiflora (Fairy Iris), Chlorophytum comosum (Spider Plant / Hen & Chicken) and Rhoeo spatheca (aka Oyster plant aka Moses in the Cradle) and with a bunch of weeds in between.

I started by taking out the Rhoeo and Dietes plants and ended up replanting them in the front bed that was looking a bit spare. The Dietes is apparently indigenous, and the Rhoeo is referred to as 'naturalised' - and I haven't had a chance to figure out what I'm doing with that front bed yet, so it seemed a good spot!

Hen & Chicken / Spider Plants (Chlorophytum comosum)
Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 

I dug down about a spade deep throughout the whole bed, except for a spot you can't see in the bottom left hand corner - the spot that gets the least sun. I got all the rocks out by hand then used them to make the mini terraces - something I had missed when irrigating in the bed above it. The terraces help to prevent soil from washing away in heavy rain, and help to dam water slightly, and I plant slightly taller plants (like peas) directly in front of the terraces for minimum shade impact on the plants behind them. 

Click on the image above to view a larger image.

I raised the beds slightly by digging soil out from the path. I also spread 4 bags of compost around - it didn't go as far as I'd like, but it will have to do until my own compost is ready. I did this whole bed myself in a day - I felt quite stiff and sore for a couple of days afterwards, but it helped me come to the conclusion that gym would be a waste of time for me! Gardening is a full body workout for sure!

Once the preparation was done I planted this bed with some brassica seedlings that were ready to go - Romanesco Broccoli, Sugarloaf Cabbage, Red Acre Cabbage, Green Sprouting Broccoli, and Chou moullier Kale. I also planted beets and turnips in alternating sections, as well as Greenfeast and Oregon Sugar Pod peas just in front of the terraces, lettuce bordering the path for easy reach and spinach wherever there was a space. Against the wall I planted some red onion seeds and some baby onion plants. In between all of these I put some nasturtiums, marigolds, comfrey and sweet basil.

In the picture below you can see plastic circles on the right - those were lids from polystyrene take away containers with a large hole drilled in them that I placed around the base of each seedling with the name of the type of plant written on it - all those brassicas can get confusing! It worked well until we had uncharacteristically strong wind for two days in a row... But by that time the plastic labels were the least of my worries! It does give you an idea of the spacing I used for the brassicas though.

The full side bed - view from my kitchen window!
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Anyway, I was so glad to have that second side bed done. In this pic you can also see the herb garden in the top left hand corner. I want to use the little shelf below it for my larger seedlings - like my moringas. You can also see all the Rhoeo plants stacked up on the far left before we were able to transplant them.

In May we also did an overhaul of the bottom garden - the one you have seen most often in the blog so far. That involved cutting down the Natal Fig that was growing into the wall - you can see my gorgeous hubby working on it there - and also weeding the next batch of weed seeds that had come up. As much as it feels like a losing battle sometimes, every batch of weeds seeds that sprout and grow before I've managed to plant, is a batch of weeds that I won't have to pull out later!

The bottom garden.
Click on the image above to view a larger image.

There is still so much to be done in this bottom garden! We need to make some basic terraces, get rid of all the builder's rubble, and the syringas and possibly put some aquaponics / hyrdoponics gutters up on the wall... This whole area is about 500m2 altogether so there really is lots we can do! But, it all takes time and effort and sometimes a bit of cash too. So we are just taking it step by step  - increasing our own capacity as we increase our growing capacity. 

I feel like I haven't said very much in this post - but I think these images serve as important 'before' pics for the 'during' and 'after' pics that are coming soon!

March 2015 Part II - Our first big planting!

Our first foray into the wilderness...

If I was you I'd wonder what this crazy woman is doing posting pictures of organized dirt. I agree, that's what it looks like right now! But that's the thing about gardening isn't it? Understanding that I can facilitate good growth, but I can't force it or speed it up. When organised dirt becomes an oasis of edible greenliness then everyone wants a pic!

Recovering perfectionist confession time: those pictures of established gardens intimidate and even paralyse me - I won't get my garden looking like that in a weekend, or a month or even a year, so why try?  So maybe my ineptitude will  encourage to start your own garden.

I read once that gardening is a great way to teach kids about delayed gratification, as it includes a long period of waiting between the labour and the fruit of that labour. I think it should be compulsory for adults too... Back to the organised dirt:

We have a wonderful gentleman called Ali who comes in to help with some muscle in our garden every Wednesday. You can see in the background of this image how overgrown the space had become with blackjacks and sweethearts and syringa seedlings. This planted area looked just like that until Ali got hold of it! Yay for Ali!

You can see a white railing in the top right hand corner of this organised dirt image - that is where the original picture was taken from. 

So what have we got here?

I had bought some seeds from Living Seeds in February - including their Late Summer / Autumn Starter Pack - and planted them on the 24th of that month - so I had some seedlings ready to plant a month later as you see them here. I started with the 6 beds on the right, and added the 3 on the left later. 

Even though you can't see all of it - these are the plants I have in this spot:

(Links redirect to LivingSeeds.co.za)

Swiss Chard Fordhook Giant

Carrots in Atomic Red, orange (Cape Market) and Cosmic Purple

Detroit Dark Red Beetroot

Early Purple Wonder Turnips

Peas - Greenfeast & Oregon Sugar Pod

Sugarloaf Cabbage

Marigolds

Forget-me-nots

Bok Choy / Pak Choi

Nasturtiums

Spaghetti Squash

Spring Onions

Lettuce

And some Sweet Potatoes I grew from slips from my mom-in-law

Still in seed trays:

Romanesco Broccoli

Red Acre Cabbage

Sicilian Violet Cauliflower

Onions

Green Sprouting Broccoli

You can see the diagram I made in my gardening journal - although in the diagram the bottom edge is the edge of the garden against the wall - as if you are leaning over the railing looking at the garden from the top. 

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but there's a whole lot of potential under that soil! I have been known to go check my seeds the morning after I sow them - waiting for seeds to germinate is a big challenge for me! But I guess that is one of the difficulties about gardening - we can only give a good environment as far as it's up to us - but that seed has to do its work all on its own in the dark underground!

The soil down here is very sandy and full of weed seeds so it looks like we'll just need to be vigilant with our weeding.for a while. I did have a chance to let a batch of weeds germinate so I could pull them out all in one go, and not let them go to seed - but beyond that we just have to keep at it. For these beds I aerated the soil up to a spade's depth and removed rocks where necessary. The paths you see are made of discarded roof tiles left by our previous owners - upcycling builder's rubble for the win! There was some lovely black compost from the garden refuse pile, also left by the previous owners, so I mixed that in where I could. You can see I used some straw over the beds on the left - actually, it was dried grass from the plants we cleared - but it does the same job!

I know I could have raised the beds more and done more to improve the soil, but I just wanted to get plants in there as soon as possible!

So join us to see how it grows! Make sure you subscribe so you can see the 'after' shots of these 'before' shots!