Day 78...

Wow!  This morning I had a whole crowd of winged visitors playing in the Lavender.  These are 4 of about 150 photos I took from all possible angles trying to capture them on film...er digital film that is...Nature is so incredibly amazing!!!

Day 77...

The nearly deceased...hmmm nearly-murdered - cucumbers are doing extremely well in our summery autumn...let's pray the weather will last for these little ones to find their feet...

...and the sweet peas are showing some fantastic growing potential...hahahaha...Am I the only person who can look and look again and yes, look again and convince anyone that they just grew by a millimeter?! :)

The GREENhouse kids are ecstatic in their new home...The Borage are showing buds...and the cabbage plants which survived the Trying-to-be-ruthless day...also seem to have joined on the band wagon...Welcome to my Winter Wonderland :)

Day 74...

Very excited about the baby sweetpeas, I had to do something about the trellis issue...I replanted a tree fern that weren't doing too well in the pot, and had a fantastic day playing with the saw and the drill today...Took apart an old piece of fence and screwed the shape together using the drilled holes...Sprayed it with clear lacquer and looking now...don't think I did a bad job of creating a centerpiece trellis for them...

We've had fantastic weather in Pretoria the past week...and Autumn seems very close to summer...One of the Clivias are flowering...yay!! Hopefully this will add some colour to our garden...

Day 70...

AM
Today I'm having salad for lunch from our own garden...pity tomatoes are not big in winter...or cucumbers...hmmm...

I also planted some multiflora sweetpeas today which I received with the gardener magazine...In time I'll have to build a trellis, as these guys can apparently climb to up to 2 meters!

While watching The Edible Garden series I heard that one should be ruthless...sometimes you have to take out some established plants in order to make room for new ones...Hmmm...That will be my mission for today, except instead of just making room, taking out the ones that doesn't seem to do well...

PM
9 days ago I planted some cucumber seeds I bought at the Crazy store...Cucumis Sativus it's named, and can be sown all year round...From my Googling I presumed that cucumbers are only summer plants and should be sown in the spring...but holding thumbs I planted them in a small pot instead of the growing pack and covered it with a ziploc bag...I left it on the windowsill for a few days, but was afraid it's too hot in the direct sun and moved it to the GREENhouse instead...

During my trying-to-be-ruthless mission today, it seemed that nothing was going on in that container, and as I started pouring out the growing medium I saw that all 3 seeds sprouted...With a handful of seedling soil and  a heart filled with a apologies I planted them back just below the soil...Wow! Cucumbers in Autumn! Fantastic! :)

Day 68...

But not all is bad in Winter Wonderland...I think I've finally found out what the seedling box we bought at the coast contained...The obvious ones - the chard, cabbage, peppers, onions and beetroot are doing extremely well next to the fish pond...and some of the mystery plants started to flower...

If my matching up with Google images are correct, then ladies and gentleman, we have an eggplant! :)

I found an upside down tomato planter from way back when and cut some holes into it, now serving as a hanging strawberry planter, without having to build or buy another one...More stuff for the GREENhouse! Woohoooo!!! :)

Day 64...

The opening above the door, seems too inviting to those white cabbage butterflies...

So I got a piece of wood from our neighbour and painted it black...but it still needed something more exciting....Armed with a screwdriver I carved the name on the board and while I'm catching up on some very neglected Leverage episodes, Quinni coloured it...On went the butterflies...maybe these will scare the cabbage ones away...and I lined the lettering with the glow-in-the-dark paint....

Meanwhile I'm taking leaf by leaf off the Broccoli and Cabbage plants...the one cabbage plant right at the back is about a quarter of the size of the rest...the hair on my neck rose as I turned over the leaf...hundreds maybe thousands of aphids...Took it out completely and discarded of it. I then sprayed the rest with the garlic/oil/water/peppers mix...I also found a few green worms presuming they're Cabbage white larvae...caught in the act while scrumptiously munching away on the succulent leaves...Ughhh I wish summer would come back....I loooove growing summer vegetables....

Day 60...

Ok so the other side and bottom were netted today...Just about finished...complete with rolling windows and all :) I bet you wish you had such a handy Quinni with fantastic ideas, hahahaha :)

Bought some cucumber seeds in a Grow-your-own-kit today...The instructions included suggest that it can be sown all year round...I guess that's if you keep it on the windowsill...I thought cucumbers should only be sown in spring...but I guess I have nothing to lose...Let's try it...

Meanwhile we're very excited about the new GREENhouse...And the kids seem very happy as well....

Day 58...

AM


An early start today...While Quinni drilled and secured the frame of the roof, I removed the grow tunnel covers and tried to save all the teenagers from the wrath of stepladders and booted feet....It's hot, and they will have to get some serious comfort after suffering full direct sun today...

PM


Lunchtime...woohoooo...Attaching wire over the top to create a sturdy structure for the netting...

This is where the fun part begins....the 40% green netting goes over the top :)

While I'm preparing lunch and is carrying juice hence and forth, these 2 are having their own fun attaching a latched gate...

It's late afternoon....and time to call it a day...Wow!! It's really starting to take shape...

  

Day 54...Building the real thing

After Dave left, Quinni, my partner in crime - and in all other ways :) - came back home with the most fantastic idea on building a real greenhouse/cold frame...She found some steel pipes that would fit neatly together...These were laid out according to plan, then lightly sanded to remove the most of the rust and finally painted by our ever loyal garden boy Amos...After a few leveling attempts the structure were secured at the ends with cement...next step...wait for the cement to dry...then...the roof... woooohooooo!!!!!

Day 48...

The Bright lights chard surely brightened my my...they seem slower to establish that the other Swiss Chard, but nothing can beat the beautiful colours...and were surely worth the wait...

Day 45... 

So today I'm starting to suffer the effects of empty nest syndrome... Dave is gone...interesting how he would choose to go find a girlfriend instead of staying with his nurturing mother...Ahhh I guess they grow up too soon... :)

The 6-day old Baby Leaf Spinach is starting to show some real potential...They're kept in the grow tunnel and seems to cope very well...

 Meanwhile the sweet bell peppers ended up being roasted with other yummy veggies...hey I think I'm starting to get the hang of it...Plant the seeds...wait...wait some more...wait just a little while longer...and then...when you reap the benefits...you chop it all up and enjoy it because it's something...a real edible veg that only came from a seed...Wow!!

 ...and there's more to come...yeah!!!!!

Day 42...

Baby Dave became a man! Wooohoooo!!  I found this as I was cutting off the broken leaves off the plants that suffered during the hail storm the other night...I took a picture of him, and when I came back later I had to make myself comfortable on the grass waiting for the process to finish...Thanks to the Nikon camera which captured this very special moment :)

                                                          This is Baby Dave at 16h30...

16h52...It took me a while to see what was happening here...you do remember that baby Dave is only 1cm long :) 

The old Dave is left behind...

      17h10...The new and improved Dave...so colourful...our little boy, just became a man...                         

Day 40...

AM

Oh gosh, I nearly cried as I walk up the steps to the garden...First stop DAVE!!! He's perfect, sitting on his favourite leaf at the fish pond, almost as if nothing had happened...Glancing to the right, this was my view...Fortunately on closer inspection, the plants under the cover was only slightly on the flatter side due to the collapse, but at least not broken....I was pleasantly surprised to find that the crop cover wasn't torn and mostly still attached to the spikes in the ground...I must admit I expected worse..

...Wish I could say the same for the rest of the garden...hmmm damage control.... 

PM

So this is the way we learn, trial and error...lucky not at expense of the veggie patch...went back to Chamberlains today and bought another roll of 25mm pipe...Erected the first one on the same principle as the second one, as it seems to have survived better...Also used a few more strings in between to reinforce the structures...Thank goodness we don't have storms like these everyday...

                                      

Day 39...

I covered the other part of the garden...thanks to my 2-legged helper, it went considerably faster today...thank goodness...

As I was driving home later, lightning lit the sky...it was beautiful, until I woke up later that evening to something that felt like a thunderstorm-meets-cyclone!! Gushing wind and the deafening sound of the hail on the roof resulted in near palpitations...awaiting the heart attack I just went back to bed...I'll face the music tomorrow...ugggghhhh.....

Day 36...

I still haven't come around to put the greenhouse/grow tunnel idea into practice...so as I looked at the thirsty leaves of the cabbage and Brussel Sprouts around 10am, I decided to at least try and improvise (again) on my previous idea, just as a temporary solution...

I attached the ends of the pipe to stakes in the ground, this time thinking smaller...ie. just to do one half at a time...this way the previously bought plastic pipe seems firmer and I covered it with the crop cover...(Once again:  This will have to be a 2-man job next time...It's at times like these when you wish you had about 8 legs to keep the cover in place while your hands secure the sides...)

I understand this is not the proper use of the crop cover, but it does let light through and a fair amount of water as well...and maybe it will keep the little airplanes away (Laying eggs>>larvae)..I'll have to do some proper research on the shading nets...in order to do smarter ie. more economical, shopping next time...

Day 35...

While I was planting out the new seedlings I discovered a baby praying mantis, on one of the new spinach plants we brought from the coast.  Shame, I have an idea the poor thing had to endure the whole torturous 8 hours drive on Friday...LOL at least he had a lot of philosophical company (that would be my friend and I trying to solve the world's problems), and a wide variety of sing-along music ranging from 'a Thousand miles' by Vanessa Carlton to Michael Paynter's 'Love the fall'...

Learnt a very valuable lesson today...I've named him...Dave, so meet our new guest, about 1cm in length... Serving God's purpose...that is...Purposely driven...no matter how small we (think we) are... Isn't nature just amazing?!

Day 32...

AM

While at the coast we went on a roadtrip trying to find some memorabilia to bring home...needless to say the 3rd thought that came to me...Plant nursery...

We were looking for a mango tree for quite a while and couldn't find one, so as we entered the most beautiful nursery I have ever seen...'Mango Tree' was all that was bobbing in my head...We found one, for a mere R57 and also bought a seedling tray with 18 plants for...wait for it...wait...a mere R22!! (Yes I know I cheated by buying veggie plants but I just couldn't resist, let's rather call it inspiration for the other plants ;)) Very impressed with our bargain shopping we headed home...

Ps If I'm aloud to do some advertising the nursery is just off the N2 Margate off ramp between Uvongo and Margate called the Froggie Pond...an absolute paradise...and the ladies there...well 'passion for plants' are written all over their faces...these people love what they do... :)

PM

Well we're back from the coast and I'm very exited to see that all is well...I assume that the weather at home was lovely as well...seeing that they all look very happy...(and slightly less chewed than I expected)...These guys are turning into strong young adults now...Amazing what a bit of rain and sunshine can do... :)

Day 24...

Aaaagghhhh something is chewing on the spinach?! Thank goodness for the wonderful world of Internet...again...

It seems like it's some kind of squishy worm causing this frown upon my forehead as I look at the tender leaves of the spinach...I checked all the plants for any traces - obviously I found nothing - guess they hide during the day...I'll check tonight with a torch (wooohahahaha evil laugh)...We're off to a nice place at the beach on the South Coast tomorrow...surely I can't just enjoy my holiday, while they feast off the suffering leaves...

'Ping'!! means a plan....Armed with a potent improvised home-made mix (Crushed garlic, water, - dish washing liquid -Sunlight soap and few splashes of Tabasco)...I sprayed all the plants...Just in case the Tabasco isn't quite the peppery scent that they supposedly hate, I cut up a few chilies from the herb garden and sprinkled the contents between the plants...just to make sure...O gosh I hope I don't kill them just because I was too lazy to go to the store to buy the right ingredients....

Day 23...

After a lot of prayers and thumb-holding...the babies are turning into real teenagers now...I'm so proud!  As I was browsing through my gardening book this afternoon, I read that a good way to keep snails away from cabbage plants are to make collars with carton boxes or plastic...I cut up a few old herb pots from the nursery and voila!! Now, hopefully they're safer against the wrath of sluggish snails and suddenly look almost sophisticated :)

Getting so excited - on all the sites I could Google on natural pest control, the praying mantis has been a word I have seen more than a dozen times...Discovered these two this morning on a bell pepper plant scouting for food...or just having a rest on the cool green leaves...I wish now, I had taken this picture with a measuring tape...they're as big as my hand...I have never seen them this big...

Day 20...

AM

I tried virtually every possible way re-positioning the pipe, nearly lost a thumb somewhere in the 5minute intervals between moving the stake within a 10cm square, trying to align the frame, and trying to get our 2 cats to either help or stop playing under, over and through it...The 20mm pipe is way to thin...and wobbly...and definitely not sturdy at all...I didn't think this through properly...It would be perfect if the garden was about 2m in diameter...not 4.5 x 5m...This means that I'll have to think of a more sturdy construction...(Oh and next time I'll get someone - with 2 legs - to assist)

PM

As fate might have it...the dark clouds gathered and thunder rumbled closer quickly...HAIL!!  I frantically searched for as many tallish structures I could find...and pulled the crop cover over...luckily I bought 2, one for each side...(Forget the whales, PLEASE save the babies...)

Day 18...

So I went on some sporadic shopping...with virtual measurements and not quite sure what I'm looking for...I bought some 20mm water pipe in 25m lengths and a Crop Cover... apparently shading cloth has different densities...hmmm so once again back to my favourite activity....Googling...

The internet is a weird and wonderful place with answers for just about anything...(That is if you live in the USA, or the UK or in Australia) I could find very little on what density would be suitable for my veggies in Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa, Southern Hemisphere....Where are all the South Africans? Don't they also wonder about this stuff? Nevertheless, the crop cover will have to do for now, especially with the end-of summer storms we're experiencing....

Day 17...

So I went to Chamberlain's and a few nurseries this morning...browsing around...hmmm I can buy a small greenhouse (DIY Kit) for about R8 000?! Seriously! 

What's worse...it would only be half the size of my current veggie patch...Ok so that idea left, a found a few do it yourself sites on grow tunnels...of course this sounds easy enough...and surely it would be a whole lot cheaper...Tomorrow,  first stop - the hardware store for some DIY stuff!

Day 16...

Woke up this morning on a mission...I need...hehehe no correction - I WANT a greenhouse...or a grow tunnel...or something to make me feel like I'm a serious gardener now ;)  Don't those greenhouses on the telly always look so happy...and free...and country life-like...?! Surely it will also help with the slightly colder winters in Centurion...while protecting them against the grazing sun? (Hahaha who am I trying to convince here?!) That's it, the more I think about it...the more....aghhh I can't resist...off to Google...

Day 13...

Well holding thumbs as the babies are released into adult world...dug a hole and used a handful of seedling compost...Hmmm note to self, the big seedling trays are NOT very user friendly as it's not soft, thus quite difficult getting the little ones out (without damaging the root system at the same time)...Nevertheless, managed to save a handful and off they went...Shame, they almost seem lost in the big garden...

I read that Marigold flowers are the wonder-drug of companion plants...thus at R20 for six at the Strawberry Pot, they also deserved a space over here...

(I need to get around to the Plastic warehouse some time to buy some of the smaller - softer - trays)...

Day 11...

The babies are turning out too darn cute...According to the instructions the Brassicas should be planted out when they are about 5-7cm, so as to not damage the roots...but they're so small...wondering if they will survive in the big world...hmmmm...

Day 4...

Hey there are little green angels already!!!!!! Little Brussel sprouts and Cauliflower are peaking just above the ground...in only 4 days? Wow!! :)

Day 0 ... 

Time to get my hands dirty again...woohoooo!!! Planted some winter vegetable seeds today... Used only potting soil in the seedling trays..hope this will do the trick! The winterbabies in the making are: Leeks, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, some more Swiss Chard Spinach...and a handful of mixed herbs which I can plant elsewhere... I also found these very exiting Spinach seeds with a bit of colour variety called Bright Lights - I can't wait to see them... Also read a bit about companion plants.  Wikipedia has a great article on companion planting...thus I have to find some Dill seeds somewhere, and the Borage seeds I had went into a different tray...

This journey starts in the middle

This journey starts in the middle

Winter Garden...Progress...

This journey starts in the middle as winter is lurking around the corner, this will be my second successful - well almost anyway - season for vegetable gardening...

I was stunningly surprised that the sweet bell peppers keep on coming even though it's much colder at night, being fall season in Pretoria now, the days are still nice and warm (about 25degrees) and at night the temperature drops to around 13 degrees...As I understand Sweet Bell Peppers are more of a summer vegetable...but hey, who's complaining, they're beautiful!

These were my inspiration for starting this blog, they're too beautiful not to share

So let's get started on the winter garden...(more on summer later)