This post is late in coming, but I wanted to save face and let you know that there is something I can harvest from my modest veggie patch. I have not put any effort into the garden this month and yet it still produces happily. I know I promised last month that I would toil and sow seeds, but alas! I might as well have gone fishing!! That’s how much I did [...]

Since I have started my organic gardening craze and the blog as well, I have been purposeful in keeping it all natural and organic. I raise chickens for their great personalities – oh, yes as well as beautiful eggs and the natural manure to feed my pesticide-free garden. I have learnt so much but if I do not put it into practice, then I am just a big wind bag of hot [...]

After a week of work committments, my head has hardly moved away from the computer. This has left me with the feeling of “cabin fever”! I was so pleased that we had a holiday on Wednesday – International Workers Day (Labour Day) – and I was NOT going to spend another moment sitting! I was in the garden, playing with the newbie chickens and Skollie (who has calmed down quite abit!) and [...]

All I can say is that we have had some really sad days in the Hen House! Our sweet little Vanilla died very unexpectedly. She was always small and frail – we sometimes called her “Cardboard” because she was so lightweight! But she was the noisiest one of the lot!! Always ran out first and complained when lunch was not served on time!! We are going to miss you, little one! This [...]

I was so excited when Christine told me that “We are in the Fair Lady Magazine!!” It was such a surprise to the both of us that our “little” blog made it in one of the top woman’s magazines here in South Africa! We are both grinning from ear to ear and had to share this with all our gardening friends! And the Article reads: “Life long friends Barbie and Christine are [...]

The weather is changing and so has the gardening energy. The tempo has died down to a slow pace. The time to reflect and review has set in. The blooms that have decided to stay are still delighting the soul. Here’s what’s blooming in Barbie’s garden in April 2013 The enthusiasm has been packed away and replaced with a more relaxed view of where to go from here. Funny, that autumn always brings this [...]

Sorry my Harvest Friends!! I have been so preoccupied with other things taking up my time that I have neglected the veggie patch. I spent no time with my seed bank preparing new seedlings and to my sadness now have little to show. Here are the meagre non-harvestable edibles in my garden. I am going to spend alot more time sowing seeds and seedlings this month to try and have a harvest [...]

This Easter, I had great pleasure arranging an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt in my garden for all the children !! The little “Easter bunnies” had to prepare for the big event by putting on their bunny ears and bunny tails. Hannes created such a fun video of the day and it went smoothly without one forgotten easter egg. Thank you Mr Easter Bunny!!   For all the blogging friends – the two [...]

I normally miss all these important dates – like “Earth Day” and “Water Week” and read about them in the news paper I lay in the chickens bedding weeks later. So I decided that Earth Day (wednesday, 20 March) was my day in the garden. I spent time cleaning up and looking at ways to help the Earth in my own backyard. We have been thinking of adding a greywater system for [...]

I had to post this photo my sister took of a huge centipede she found. Oh My Word!! It has a long tail and this one was about 10cm long without the tail. The legs, for me, are the creepy part! I get goosebumps just looking at it! Centipedes Centipedes (from Latin prefix centi-, “hundred”, and pes, pedere, “foot”) are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are [...]