Footstep 42: Painting the Square Foot Gardens: Primer 102

At last!  The second coat of primer is on!  Yay!  Actually, once one starts, it actually goes quite quickly.  It is the idea of starting that makes it slow.  This time round I had to open a new tin of 5 litres of the bitumen.  This took forever.  Pharmacies need to get lessons from hardware stores on the concept of childproof lids.  This one had a plastic circle all round the lid with the lid tucked firmly below the plastic circle.  It sounds simple, but it took my biggest weeder and ages of twisting to get it open.  

This coat needs to dry, then one further coat needs to go on the base.  The then final coat needs to dry for seven days before I flip the boxes over and start inside.  Flip sounds so flippant.  Those boxes are jolly heavy.  I am hoping that I am going to manage on my own.  Otherwise, I'll have to weep behind my fence until some kind person stops and asks if they can help :).  No picture today, as they look exactly the same as they did last time.

I continue to traipse buckets of sand and garden waste to the dump.  Today it was the scurvy weed, well rotted, but after two months hidden in a sealed black bucket, there was still evidence of green, which means that wherever it lands, it has the ability to start growing again.  Initially, it was targeted for the compost heap.  When I saw the green, I decided against it.  The last thing I need is a more widespread distribution of the pretty but pesky plant.  The municipal dump has so much garden waste, and when it is turned so much steam rises off it, that I have absolutely no doubt that the scurvy weed will not survive the process.  This means that the buckets are now free for accumulating more kelp.

I had two buckets of kelp.  The one went into the compost heap when I first built it.  The second has been rotting down in a sealed black bucket.  I opened it this morning to find a rather smelly liquid, which I simply know is going to be lapped up very happily by my plants.

Unfortunately, the return trip of the dump is quite hazardous.  It includes my favourite bakery which has a shop with lovely specials on muffins.  This morning it was strawberry muffins.  Yum!  Just further on from my favourite bakery is my favourite nursery.  I always pop in to see if there is something interesting.  I saw the most beautiful lacy pansies - really the prettiest I have ever seen.  I managed somehow not to buy them, but a very pretty punnet of very pretty ground cover snuck into my hand and stuck there, so I had to pay for it and bring it home.  It will make a lovely addition to my baskets and pots of pretties.

I also learnt that Thursday / Friday is veggie punnet delivery day.  I am going to do my very best to grow from seed.  It is just that all of those luscious punnets of greens look spectacular when they first arrive, and one does find some very tempting plants to buy, like the Giant red mustard that I bought when I was last there.  It is not possible to get these plants in seed packets.  So the only way to get them is to buy the punnets.  And actually, it is cheaper these days to buy a punnet of say, lettuce, and pop it in the ground and let it grow and pick leaves off it over time, than to buy pre-washed lettuce in the veggie section of a supermarket.  I see loads of people are now doing that.  They also buy their mint that way, although, mint is so easy to grow that it doesn't really make sense to keep buying it and using it from the punnet, which many people seem to do.

Footprint 41: Second step into knowledge

My second, and last for a while, batch of purchases arrived today.  Here they are:

The Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening was a lovely surprise!  It is enormous, comprehensive and well illustrated, giving history, practical tips, extensive soil advice and wonderful ideas for planting.  It is a Canadian book.  I used to think that one had to buy local.  That is definitely true of indigenous and water-wise gardening guides.  It is most certainly not true of vegetables, herbs, annuals and perennials most of which are international.  In today's world, if they are not internationally indigenous, you can probably find them at your local nursery anyway.

This is the book that has given me so much practical advice about the Square Foot Gardens that I have built and am now busy planting in preparation for filling with appropriately prepared soil and planting up with vegetables, herbs and some pretties.  I had read up about it, managed to borrow the book from a friend, and have now sourced my own copy.  For those of you who are working in small spaces and looking for a book loaded with valuable information, whether you are planning to build raised square foot gardens or not, the advice in this book is priceless.

Footprint 40: Gardening progress

It has truly been wonderful.  Today was another perfect Cape Town autumn day.  These days are so hard to describe.  The air is balmy with no wind.  In fact, there is almost a breathlessness.  Because of our Cape Doctor, being the South Easter, Cape Town, on the whole, has less pollution than most cities.  As a consequence, the air is clean.  And there is enough sun to feel it baking on your shoulders, yet not enough to dry out the air, the soil and the plants.

Ok, so maybe I am avoiding painting the boxes again.  I did, however, finish up the rest of the plants that were queueing to be planted:

Lemon Verbena

I put the lemon verbena outside my lounge window.  I am hoping that in the summer, when the window is open, it will waft its beautiful lemon scent into the lounge.

Tea Tree

This I have put in the front of my garden next to my driveway.  They are reputedly wind resistant and can be used as a windbreak.  I am hoping that this is the case.  Because it has tiny wide-spaced leaves, which are tiny, it should not impact the plans that I have for my square foot gardens on what is now the front lawn between the Tea Tree and the house.

Tansy

The tansy that served me so well through the past few months by warding off flies in my worm bin now has a permanent home.  It is a vigorous grower, and had become quite pot-bound in its plant bag.  It also already has several tiny babies.  So next summer, when I need tansy again for my worm bin, I will dig up one of the babies and put it in a pot to stand on top of my worm bin.

Giant red mustard

 And then I cheated a bit.  When I went to the nursery again today to change the hose fitting that I bought yesterday, I spied a six-pack of these and bought them.  They taste delicious.  I have put these into the tub where the lettuces were.  The lettuces are still there, looking somewhat 'verlep'.  I am hoping that they will seed themselves.

Violas with chocolate mint

And these.  I simply could not resist them.  They are so pretty.  So along with my Giant red mustard, I bought a six-pack of violas.

We are very fortunate is South Africa.  We have so many pretty winter flowers.  Violas are one example.  

Below are some indigenous wild violets in flower:

They are so pretty and so delicate.  it is a tragedy that their flowering season is so short.  Whilst they are flowering, they are prolific, and therefore a pleasure to brighten up an autumn garden.

I was really quite pleased this afternoon.  A friend dropped by and commented on how wonderful my garden is starting to look.  And yes it is looking so much better than it did a mere three months ago.  Yet, there are still so many plans.  I am grateful to have the opportunity to explore the wonderful gifts that nature has for us through our gardens.

Tomorrow, given another balmy autumn day will definitely be box painting day.  The only plants that are left to plant now are the lemon balm and a chamomile that snuck into my purchases at the nursery today. 

Footprint 39: More preserving

I am finally getting this preserving thing sorted.  This time, I did not hopelessly over-purchase.  I bought six guavas for the princely sum of R5.11, and three quinces for the princely sum of R2.88:

Guavas and quinces

The preparation was so easy.  I peeled and sliced the guavas and put them into honey jars.  Then I added about two teaspoons of honey to each.  I then turned the bottles about five times, giving the accumulating honey and syrup time to sink to the bottom of the jar each time.  The honey acts as a preservative and it pulls some of the juice out of the guava slices.  The guavas acquire the texture of tinned guavas, but the fruit and honey is preservative free and has not been cooked.  

 The quinces I peeled, cored and chopped.  Then I put them into a pot with about 1cm of water and set them to boil.  Once boiled, I turned the stove off and put them in a honey jar which was still hot from having been soaked in hot water to sterilise.  I then added about two teaspoons of honey.  These I also turned to let the honey soak through.  All three bottles will need to go into the fridge, but will last about a month, unless, of course, they get eaten in the interim.

These are lovely preserves to have.  They are quick and easy to make, very, very inexpensive, and can be used as additives to breakfast, or served with custard or cream for pudding, or just nibbled to satisfy a sweet craving.  In terms of the quince, raisins and/or cinnamon can be added for alternative interest.  The quince can also be served with chicken and pork.

Footstep 38: The ultimate pea

Of all the little miracles in my garden, the pea has stolen my heart.  The intricacy of the leaves fascinate me.  The tendril of the pea plant found its stake all by itself:

Pea tendril

And then a small flower developed, and out of the middle of the flower popped the first pea pod:

First pea pod

I am grateful for the opportunity to watch these little miracles unfold in my own garden.

Footprint 37: Progress in the garden

One of the really nice things about not blogging for a while is that the progress between posts is so much more apparent.  With the lovely drenching rains and cool weather that we have had, the veggies have grown from strength to strength:

Shallots

The previous time that I posted the shallots was when they first sprouted.  My, how they have shot up in the interim. 

Carrots, looking like, well REAL carrots

Coriander

Dill

Bean in flower

 And a real pride and joy.... my first ever bean flower.  Because all of this is so new to me, each new event unfolds before me as a little natural miracle.

Footprint 36: It's been a while

It has been a while since I last blogged.  The weather has not been conducive to painting boxes outside.  There has been quite a lot of obligatory sorting out to do, which unfortunately took place on hot days.  Yet life went on.  On cooler days, I took time out to do things inside.

Here is rather an amusing picture of Pigaloo:

Pigaloo sleeping in an empty plant pot

She is a strange little cat, finding the oddest places and positions to sleep.

And here is one of the thieves pretending to be an ornament:

Pigeon on Pelmet