We’ve had a shocking week with all sorts of things going wrong at work and its been extremely stressful. I’ve had barely a moment to look at my garden and even less time to go and do any shopping. I felt a bit like “Old Mother Hubbard” last night when I went to the cupboard and all we had was a single tin of tuna!
Nothing to eat, what to do? We thought about ordering in a pizza when I had a brain wave – what about a Tuna Salad? We have a veggie planter full of all sorts of greens growing and begging to be harvested. So dinner was all freshly picked from our garden and added to a tin of tuna! And it was YUMMY!! A mixture of cos and butter lettuce, a tomato, basil, some chopped chives, a pepper and a bit of parsley sprinkled on top! Very rewarding and cheap too.
[one_half]The Vegetable Harvest[/one_half]
[one_half_last]More from the Veggie Planter[/one_half_last]
I’m inspired now to start planting more edibles! What a pleasure to take a basket and go and “pick your dinner”, fresh from the garden.
Its not complete chaos but the euphoria of fast growing veggies of two weeks ago is over and has been replaced by fear-of-failure. Not all is hunkey dorey in the veggie planter – my Strawberry plant is looking terrible, covered in what I suspect to be powdery mildew as well as something that looks like ‘burnt leaf ends’. The actual strawberries looks terrible. The cauliflower have been invaded by two different bug types – the first one appeared a week ago which prompted me to use a garlic / soap spray on them which got rid of that batch of critters to be replaced with different ones which took up residence on the cauliflower plants two days later. And that’s just whats happening in the first basin …
Fortunately that is the worst of it – all the rest are doing really well. Some overcrowding happening which I expected as I soon realised I had planted too much in the space I have which I will be sorting out next week as soon as we have he new bed “vegetable bed” ready for planting. (will show before, during and after photos when its done – am having a tree moved to allow more sun into one of my beds so we can convert it to a vegetable bed).
Here is my “Veggie bed photo report” … (click to enlarge)
So my question is … what to do with the Strawberry? The cauliflower I am guessing requires more spraying against bugs. I’ll use the home-made garlic / basil / soap spray. The rest … everything looks really great but they need to be separated out so they have more space to grow. Right?
The new Vegetable Planter is exactly a week old today and imagine my excitement when I found all sorts of activity! Surely veggie gardening has to be the most rewarding type of gardening? I’ve planted so many things in my garden and waited months or years (and in many cases I’m still waiting!) for something exciting to happen with a plant. But I put a few vegetable seedlings in a few basins and hey presto! one week later I’m eating my own sweet basil, cooking with my own home-grown coriander and watching in total amazement as a chili plant sprouts four new chilis overnight! Yesterday the “Long Red Cayenne Slim” had one new chili sprout and this afternoon when I proudly showed my daughter our Chili Plant with it’s one chili, we were both amazed to see it now has FIVE! That’s four new ones, overnight!
The strawberry plant is making strawberries and the tomato has the beginnings of what look like they are going to be lovely juicy tomatoes! Seriously, does it get more rewarding than this? Its been such a short time and already my sweet basil plants are producing enough leaves for me not to have to buy basil any more – it seems the more I pick the more they produce (sorry Woolies, you’ll have to find something else to sell me now!). And is it my imagination or does ones own “home-grown” really taste better? Our coriander tastes better than any I’ve ever bought!
So here are the photos taken this evening of my new veggies … (click to enlarge)
[one_half]The Tomato Plant[/one_half]
[one_half_last]Lots of Sweet Basil[/one_half_last]
Thank you Barbie for encouraging me to try this! That very first little Tomato you gave me was the start of all this and I’m loving it (not to mention the amount of money I’ll save which I can now use to buy other plants!)
I have set up the new veggie planter, purchased seedlings from the nursery, studied up on companion planting to see which of the seedlings will grow well together and then lovingly planted all the new herb and vegetable seedlings. With the new vegetable planter it has been incredibly easy to do and surprisingly, it was lots of fun! Now it’s time to sit back, give the plants a good daily watering and lots of TLC and then see what happens. As this is my first foray into vegetable gardening I’m excited but also just a little sceptical. Can I do actually do this? Time will tell …
I thought you might be interested in what I’ve planted. As I have negative experiences with planting from seed in the past, I decided my first attempt at vegetable gardening should be planting from seedlings (“Instant gratification” is what I was really going for here. We’ll leave the seed planting for a time when I am a little more experienced with this).
So here is what I’ve planted in the basins: (see photos below)
[one_half]Basin number One: In the first basin (Far left), I have a Strawberry plant which is a fair size and already flowering. I couldn’t resist, it was such a pretty plant and we love Strawberries. I’ve planted cauliflower (bonny hybrid) and one rocket lettuce plant in there as well. Cauliflower is supposed to work well with Strawberries. I bought the little Bumble Bee as a “scare crow”, so that the birds don’t come and eat the strawberries (wishful thinking!)[/one_half]
[one_half_last]Basin Number Two: In the second basin (Centre Left), I’ve planted two chili plants. The first is called “Long Red Cayenne Slim”. Its supposed to be very hot with green to red fruit. The second Chili plant is called Golden Habanero. Together with the two chillis we’ve planted parsley (type: Big Ben moss curled) and three little seedlings that lost their label. (I think they are lettuce but am not 100% sure. They look like lettuce).[/one_half_last]
[one_half]Basin Number Three: In the third basin (Centre Right), I’ve planted at the back, Oregano (Rosenkuppel), a Sweet Pepper star yellow, a few Cherry Tomatoes and Sweet Basil (because I already know Tomatos go well with Sweet Basil).[/one_half]
[one_half_last]Basin Number Four: In the fourth basin (Far Right), I’ve planted at the back: Lemon Grass (which Stefani uses a lot in her Thai cooking) and Coriander (which we use a lot). In the front: lettuce (green Cos) and spinach (bright lights).[/one_half_last]
As usual, I bought too many plants, so some extras still need to be planted out into the garden. These include Rosemary and Garlic Chives and a few cherry tomato plants I didn’t have space for. I planted them in the bed with the existing Sweet Basil and Tomato Plant (which are both thriving!) If I’d know vegetables grow so quickly … I might have started this a long time ago!
Costs involved:
I’ve worked out that the amount of money I spend buying Sweet Basil and Parsley alone from Woolies in a period of one year, pays for all the seedlings, potting soil and the vegetable planter I bought! So as long as the sweet basil and parsley reward me with usable leaves, we’ve broken even. Any additional crops I harvest from my new little Vegetable Garden will be a bonus! And how wonderful that I won’t be wasting left-overs anymore. I really hated throwing away what we didn’t use every week because it was no longer fresh. So that alone will make me happy and if it tastes better than store bought I’ll be ecstatic.
If this works we’ll progress on to growing cucumbers, onions, potatoes and who knows what else … but for that we will allocate a bed in the garden. I already have my eye on one!
I didn’t make it to the nursery today – too many things going on at work – but we did manage to unpack the box and set up the new veggie planter. So what was in the box?
the wooden box
4 plastic ‘baskets’ with drainage holes (for planting)
3 irrigation stems
irrigation pipe
irrigation timer
some hose fittings
batteries
some very basic (read: stupid) instructions
I had someone help me unpack the big parcel, we carried the wooden box to its intended “spot” and then I tried to set up the irrigation pipes and stems. Well, clearly I am way too stupid for this because I had to get my daughter to help me. I felt a bit better when she agreed that the instructions were inadequate and we had it all set up by pushing, pulling and forcing! The baskets are in, now all that’s left to do is to connect the irrigation timer and connect it to the water. Then I need to populate it with vegetables and herbs … which I will buy tomorrow and plant over the weekend.
Oh, and anyone that knows me well will know that I’m not a huge fan of the very rustic look so this wooden box will be getting a lick of paint one of these days. I’m thinking white but maybe french blue although that would clash terribly with the green plastic baskets. I’m wondering if I can find white baskets in the exact same size…
PS: In fairness to the “stupid instructions”, I am not the most patient of people and I expect things to slot into place quickly and easily (like Lego!). Truth be told, the whole set up took about 15 minutes, so maybe the instructions are not that bad after all.
Hi Barbs, Great excitement, the veggie planter I ordered from Home Organics last week has arrived!
The planter arrived whilst I was out today and by the time I got home it was too late to do anything other than take a photo or two, rip it open to see whats involved in setting it all up and then making a list of what I’m going to get tomorrow to get it all started.
First off let me say that the service was fantastic! I found them online a while back, then read about them again in this months issue of The Gardener Magazine and I was sold. I ordered it online from Home Organics on Thursday, paid on Friday and it arrived from Durban today. I’ve opened the box – inside are some very basic instructions, the simple automatic watering sprinkler system, the 4 baskets that fit into the planter and that’s it.
Tomorrow I’m off to get potting soil (the specially prepared type from Ferndale for vegetable planters), and vegetable seedlings! Then its will be time to set up and plant!
I have not had great success with my veggie patch in 2010. Check out the first harvest from 2008 – I think it was beginners luck. First of all, I started way too late in sowing my seeds last year. What held me up was, I had to keep the ‘feathered gardeners’ out of the veggie patch because they scratch and peck and destroy the whole area in a matter of hours. Hannes built me a fence to keep them out, but I needed a better locking system, so I did a slap-dash job of propping the wheel barrow up against it and used a piece of cardboard….don’t ask, I know – it sounds like a hobo-special. Anyway, I started sowing seeds in November and meticulously watered and tended the first shoots. Then came the howling wind. For days it blew and it was drying everything out. It also blew my makeshift fence open and……yes, you guessed it! The Girls were in there – lead by the ringleader, Buffy! All my new seedlings were gone, eaten!! I did not speak to The Girls for two days!! They knew I was upset. Four weeks of labour turned into chicken food!
So that was when you and I went to Ferndale Nursery and bought the seedlings. I had a few tomato plants surviving, so I took photo’s of the salvaged few. Along side these I planted my seedlings – and guess what? The hottest days came! It was too much. Some of the cabbage plants just fizzled up and died. It is just too hot to start planting in December. I have learnt my lesson. I will start planting in Spring!! I also prefer to plant seeds direct into the ground – firstly, it is cheaper and easier. Secondly, it is less work and thirdly, if they don’t grow, no love lost there. The strong ones will flourish and the weak ones will pack their bags and go!
The first photo:- Here is the start of the patch in 2008. A great deal of time and energy went into the preparing of the soil. This is very important. Here you can see no fence up yet for marauding chickens. As you can tell, this is back-breaking work.
The second photo:- The first harvest – fruits of my labour (of love!). It takes anything from 6 to 10 weeks to harvest from seed. We had veggies galore!
I found the old photos of the garden when we first bought the house in 2005. I cringe when I look at what we fell in love with! When I would dream of my ideal home I used to say to Kristen, my daughter, I want to have a farm with lots of chickens ……Check out the chicken coop. Got rid of that pronto.
The garden was full of higgledy-piggledy plants and flowers. There was no structure and the veggie patch was stuck in the far corner and no one could access it because it was so over gown – and full of snails! Yuck! But the love was there – the chickens were fat and the plants were lush and green.
We’ve had a shocking week with all sorts of things going wrong at work and its been extremely stressful. I’ve had barely a moment to look at my garden and even less time to go and do any shopping. I felt a bit like “Old Mother Hubbard” last night when I went to the cupboard and all we had was a single tin of tuna!
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