A beautiful, warm Spring day. Just the sort that irresistibly invites you into the garden. Bees droning all about in the sunshine. The Flock of Chickens clucking and scratching somewhere distant under trees. Dog joyously hunting rats in the tall grass.
Just the day for digging beds, getting ready for Spring sowing and planting.
Carrots, Beets and Swiss Chard are already in, sown some weeks ago, the Beets just beginning to show themselves. Carrots will be along in another week or two. Pole beans1 planted along the edges of the same bed are slow, but I was being pretty optimistic with the timing; the ground is only now really warming up enough for legumes. The beans will tent up over the root veggies, and not really create enough shade to interfere too much with their growth.
Next up is clearing a bed for Bush beans - Hopi Black, my stock drying bean, and the least possible trouble of any vegetable you could wish to encounter - and the large, white, and totally delicious Greek bean I know simply as Big Beans. Because that's what I was told the Greeks call them. Perhaps they'd be better off growing more Big Beans rather than relying EU handouts.
Another high priority is the Salad Bed. The few stray lettuces that made it through Winter won't keep us in green stuff for long, and I have a huge craving for salads lately.
Meanwhile the first Tomatoes are up in their seed trays. Eggplant and Chiles are predictably taking a little longer. Beds for these can be a little lower priority, since they'll be in the trays a little while yet. Those beds will need a good composting, though.
I've managed to be a little more restrained this year in choosing varieties... last year was a bit of a mad dash to try and get at least a few plants of many, many varieties grown in an attempt to refresh my seed stocks after the drought years. This year I can afford to relax a little and focus on those that have a proven track record.
Spring has sprung, the grass is riz... la, la, la.2
[1] Rattlesnake and Purple Podded.
[2] I'll stop singing as soon as someone pays me to stop!
Showing posts with label planting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planting. Show all posts
02 September 2012
07 August 2012
It Never Rains, But It Pours
After a particularly wet July the ground is saturated and dams are happily full. And now this...
And yet memories of drought still haunt us, so we bless the rain (if not so much the cold) and hope that the wonderful rains persist through Summer.
First sowings are already in trays - Chiles, Tomatoes and Eggplants, Cabbages and Lettuce. It's a bit early yet for direct-sown Beans, but they'll come soon enough, and there's plenty to do in preparing beds.
A small river through the front garden...
...and out back, where beer-bottle cleaning has been brought to a temporary halt...
And Bakkie is stuck, the muddy ground too slippery for it to get moving. We'll have to wait for things to dry out a bit to move it, or get a tractor to pull it out.
And yet memories of drought still haunt us, so we bless the rain (if not so much the cold) and hope that the wonderful rains persist through Summer.
First sowings are already in trays - Chiles, Tomatoes and Eggplants, Cabbages and Lettuce. It's a bit early yet for direct-sown Beans, but they'll come soon enough, and there's plenty to do in preparing beds.
30 July 2010
Early Planning for Summer
Time for me to get busy preparing for the coming Summer. Yes, I do know that it's still the middle of Winter.
I have some contract (software) architecture & design work over the next few months which will see me spending quite a bit of time in Cape Town, starting in mid-August, so if I don't get off my duff and start preparing veggie beds now, I'm going to be hopelessly behind schedule by the time October comes around. The only real problem I face is a huge shortage of compost! There simply hasn't been the water for making compost from the stable-sweepings I usually use.
As it is I'm going to run a week or so late with seed-sowing, but it shouldn't do any real harm. As ever we'll be optimistic over rain this coming Summer, but I really must try and concentrate my efforts on fewer varieties of Chillis and Tomatoes, and on increasing the sheer volumes. Still, it's so great to be getting my hands back into the ground! I can't believe how much I've been missing the dirt under my nails.
Need I say that the veggie garden has been badly neglected, so it is a jungle of weeds. I wish the rotovator was working, then I'd make short work of clearing the beds. Perhaps we'll be able to spare enough money for a new rotovator motor if things go well. The old one bent something vital in the engine, and, given that the motor is a foreign make with no local agents, the cost of repair is up there in the same region as an entirely new motor. When we visited the Barley Breeding Institute, I noticed that they use the same make of rotovator as I have (BCS), and asked them where they source parts. The chap there laughed and said, "Oh no! We replace the motors as soon as we get the machine. The motors they come with are useless. Fine machines otherwise, though!" I can't help but agree.
We're also planning on acquiring a couple of Piggies. Brother-in-law has a mild-tempered boar who has been quite (cough) busy... and they receive a piglet from each litter he's responsible for. They've offered to let us have some, and I am very keen. I just don't know that keeping only two sows justifies the keeping of a boar of our own...
Busy times!
I have some contract (software) architecture & design work over the next few months which will see me spending quite a bit of time in Cape Town, starting in mid-August, so if I don't get off my duff and start preparing veggie beds now, I'm going to be hopelessly behind schedule by the time October comes around. The only real problem I face is a huge shortage of compost! There simply hasn't been the water for making compost from the stable-sweepings I usually use.
As it is I'm going to run a week or so late with seed-sowing, but it shouldn't do any real harm. As ever we'll be optimistic over rain this coming Summer, but I really must try and concentrate my efforts on fewer varieties of Chillis and Tomatoes, and on increasing the sheer volumes. Still, it's so great to be getting my hands back into the ground! I can't believe how much I've been missing the dirt under my nails.
Need I say that the veggie garden has been badly neglected, so it is a jungle of weeds. I wish the rotovator was working, then I'd make short work of clearing the beds. Perhaps we'll be able to spare enough money for a new rotovator motor if things go well. The old one bent something vital in the engine, and, given that the motor is a foreign make with no local agents, the cost of repair is up there in the same region as an entirely new motor. When we visited the Barley Breeding Institute, I noticed that they use the same make of rotovator as I have (BCS), and asked them where they source parts. The chap there laughed and said, "Oh no! We replace the motors as soon as we get the machine. The motors they come with are useless. Fine machines otherwise, though!" I can't help but agree.
We're also planning on acquiring a couple of Piggies. Brother-in-law has a mild-tempered boar who has been quite (cough) busy... and they receive a piglet from each litter he's responsible for. They've offered to let us have some, and I am very keen. I just don't know that keeping only two sows justifies the keeping of a boar of our own...
Busy times!
11 October 2009
Spring Planting
Planted out yesterday: Chiles - 9 or 10 varieties. Some of them only one or two plants each. This is something that's been puzzling me for a while: Many of the seeds I acquire from the North show very poor germination. I wondered whether this was due to their not getting enough after-ripening time, missing out on some cold dormancy, or something similar. I think that Patrick's suggestion is most likely correct: The seeds are probably going through some pretty obnoxious X-rays (or even irradiation) whilst at the tender mercies of the SA post office.
I've had particularly bad luck with Jalapeños this year. Two sowings have been nailed by some creature. Grasshoppers are the most likely suspect. So I only have about 6 plants at this stage ;-) Probably too late for another sowing this year, but I may just give it a go anyway. And here I was planning to try some crosses between them and various other Chiles. Guess I'll have to try crossing them by hand, then.
Also planted out more of the Tomatoes: about a dozen Lime Green Salad, since I know they're particularly sellable. I've been asked ("begged" might be more accurate) for lettuce and other produce by a couple of local restaurants, and, since no other work has been forthcoming this year, am of a mind to give it a go. I've never been mad about the idea of selling produce at markets -- done my time at markets (selling candles!) But I do sorta fancy the idea of growing produce in a dialogue with a chef who appreciates what they're getting, and who can make it part of their "story".
A few days ago I grafted Potato shoots onto some Tomato rootstocks in the hope that this will force them to produce true seed. None of the Potatoes I can grow here have ever produced fruits, and I'm really, really keen to do some breeding work with Potatoes. We get such pathetic crap for Potatoes here... So far the grafts are doing quite well in their plastic bag. At least, none of them have died yet! It's my first attempt at grafting anything, so I'm not really expecting too much. I'm wondering when/how I'll know whether the graft has taken and I can/should remove the plastic tape holding the graft together. Fun experiment, though!
I've had particularly bad luck with Jalapeños this year. Two sowings have been nailed by some creature. Grasshoppers are the most likely suspect. So I only have about 6 plants at this stage ;-) Probably too late for another sowing this year, but I may just give it a go anyway. And here I was planning to try some crosses between them and various other Chiles. Guess I'll have to try crossing them by hand, then.
Also planted out more of the Tomatoes: about a dozen Lime Green Salad, since I know they're particularly sellable. I've been asked ("begged" might be more accurate) for lettuce and other produce by a couple of local restaurants, and, since no other work has been forthcoming this year, am of a mind to give it a go. I've never been mad about the idea of selling produce at markets -- done my time at markets (selling candles!) But I do sorta fancy the idea of growing produce in a dialogue with a chef who appreciates what they're getting, and who can make it part of their "story".
A few days ago I grafted Potato shoots onto some Tomato rootstocks in the hope that this will force them to produce true seed. None of the Potatoes I can grow here have ever produced fruits, and I'm really, really keen to do some breeding work with Potatoes. We get such pathetic crap for Potatoes here... So far the grafts are doing quite well in their plastic bag. At least, none of them have died yet! It's my first attempt at grafting anything, so I'm not really expecting too much. I'm wondering when/how I'll know whether the graft has taken and I can/should remove the plastic tape holding the graft together. Fun experiment, though!
23 May 2009
Notes to self...
Dry again, this month. 11mm to date. May is really too late to be planting things, but then earlier would just have been a waste of time and effort, this year.
Gave-up on the Brassicas that were sitting in trays -- they'd been there too long. Instead I direct-sowed some CopenhagenMarketCabbage inGardenBed1 and it is just starting to come-up. Carrots still have made no showing. RedMustard sowed last week in GardenBed8 for seed, along withEarlyPurpleKohlrabi. Must still sow more Brassicas.
Have been struggling to buy (any) grain in small quantities for covering a bed or two (and to gain experience with grains.) Might just have to go with the Buckwheat I've got.
Transplanted the (few) Winter-experiment Chillies that have come-up into tubes; I must move them somewhere warmer for Winter. From memory:JalapeñoPurple, AjiDulce, AjiAmarillo, Tabasco, Tschanad and a single (green) Jalapeño.
WinterSeason09
Gave-up on the Brassicas that were sitting in trays -- they'd been there too long. Instead I direct-sowed some CopenhagenMarketCabbage inGardenBed1 and it is just starting to come-up. Carrots still have made no showing. RedMustard sowed last week in GardenBed8 for seed, along withEarlyPurpleKohlrabi. Must still sow more Brassicas.
Have been struggling to buy (any) grain in small quantities for covering a bed or two (and to gain experience with grains.) Might just have to go with the Buckwheat I've got.
Transplanted the (few) Winter-experiment Chillies that have come-up into tubes; I must move them somewhere warmer for Winter. From memory:JalapeñoPurple, AjiDulce, AjiAmarillo, Tabasco, Tschanad and a single (green) Jalapeño.
WinterSeason09
18 May 2009
Winter Legumes
Just dug over Garden Bed 10 in preparation for Winter Legumes. Soil seems in pretty good condition -- still quite a bit of old compost, which is something of a surprise. I don't expect it to contribute much in the way of nutrition, but at least the soil condition is reasonable.
Plan to plant a few short rows each of MungBean, SoyBean and BrownLentil -- all very old seed, so not holding my breath much. Then I want some more Snow, Snap and Shelling peas, and maybe some BroadBeans if there seems to be enough room.
I know its late to be planting them, and there's still no rain forecast for the coming week or so, but it's a risk we'll have to take!
Plan to plant a few short rows each of MungBean, SoyBean and BrownLentil -- all very old seed, so not holding my breath much. Then I want some more Snow, Snap and Shelling peas, and maybe some BroadBeans if there seems to be enough room.
I know its late to be planting them, and there's still no rain forecast for the coming week or so, but it's a risk we'll have to take!
11 August 2007
Can't Wait for Summer
For once I feel like I have the Spring Panic under control; I just have to prepare another ten or so beds. And No, I won't be bastard trenching them all...
My annual order of seeds from Baker Creek arrived yesterday, to much excitement! Sadly they were out of stock on the Golden Wax Beans I was so looking forward to :-( but they threw in a freebie of a nice-sounding Turnip (Bianca Piatta -- an Italian heirloom) so I have no complaints. This after I had decided that the three Turnip varieties I already have are Enough! They refunded the $1.75 cost of the out-of-stock Beans. In cash. And the cash made it through the Notoriously Evaporative South African Postal System intact.
Now what the hell do I do with a dollar bill and three quarters?
I am really, really looking forward to the Tomatoes, just hoping to hell that we don't have too bad a blight year! Steven, in his Dirt Sun Rain blog writes about Tomato Mutants and volunteers. Among this year's planting will be a big beefsteak Tomato I've nicknamed "Sweet Pink" for now. It popped up last year in among the Black Krim, looking quite similar to a Brandywine, but with a very different flavour -- almost too sweet for my taste -- and certainly nothing like Black Krim.
Hey, ho; hey, ho; it's off to dig I go...
My annual order of seeds from Baker Creek arrived yesterday, to much excitement! Sadly they were out of stock on the Golden Wax Beans I was so looking forward to :-( but they threw in a freebie of a nice-sounding Turnip (Bianca Piatta -- an Italian heirloom) so I have no complaints. This after I had decided that the three Turnip varieties I already have are Enough! They refunded the $1.75 cost of the out-of-stock Beans. In cash. And the cash made it through the Notoriously Evaporative South African Postal System intact.
Now what the hell do I do with a dollar bill and three quarters?
I am really, really looking forward to the Tomatoes, just hoping to hell that we don't have too bad a blight year! Steven, in his Dirt Sun Rain blog writes about Tomato Mutants and volunteers. Among this year's planting will be a big beefsteak Tomato I've nicknamed "Sweet Pink" for now. It popped up last year in among the Black Krim, looking quite similar to a Brandywine, but with a very different flavour -- almost too sweet for my taste -- and certainly nothing like Black Krim.
Hey, ho; hey, ho; it's off to dig I go...
17 July 2007
Next Summer's Crops
So here's what I'm planning for the Summer. As usual I don't have enough bed-space for them all, so I'd best get digging! I'm also getting the rotovator fixed so that I can clear some "field" space for the more broadscale stuff. My focus is threefold:
Throw in an assortment of herbs, and that's about it!
- First, and most important, is our food supply -- the self-sufficiency thing. Dried beans, sunflower-seed, grains, winter squashes for storage.
- Second, I am strongly leaning towards selling some produce, hence an eye towards visually appealing varieties, unusual and unique stuff, and things that will appeal to gourmet chefs. My thinking is to sell and exclusive range to just a few upmarket restaurants.
- Third, seed-saving; keeping all the varieties going, plus enough to sell seed.
The List
Salad mix -- more-or-less a year-round thing; the only time it slows down is in Dec/Jan, when high temperatures inhibit germination of the Lettuces. Easily solved with a bit of shadecloth, or by putting the seed-trays in a cool, damp place.
| Squashes & Pumpkin:
Chillis:
Tamarillo Snap Peas - Golden Sweet, Sugar Snap Sweet Potato Potato Sorghum* (for chook feed) Wheat* (maybe, depending on space, energy) Artichokes -- Purple of Romagna Cabbage (a bit neglected in Summer, but coleslaw is always nice on hot evenings) Kohlrabi - Early Purple Vienna (or maybe not) Watermelon - Moon & Stars* Leeks (just a few) Sweet Pepper - Cosmic Purple*, California Wonder* (maybe) Carrots Swiss Chard - Luculus Parsley (plain, flat-leaf kind -- much more flavoursome!) Coriander/dhanya (we eat a lot of curries and Indian dishes) |
02 July 2007
The Clock of the World
Keeping Track
Tactics is extension in space. Strategy is extension in time.
Gardening teaches both Tactics and Strategy to the attentive student, though the emphasis tend to be on Strategy.
Tactics: Laying out garden beds. Which hoe to use for a given weed-challenge. The pointy shovel or the straight-edged shovel for lifting that particular pile of manure? Spade or fork for digging that bed?
Strategy: Right now, in the middle of Winter, I have no more than another month before all considerations of next Summer's crops will be before me. Already I weigh up whether I have enough seed of the varieties I would like to grow, and seed orders take form. Time to buy the crop netting I will need to keep Pumpkin Fly from the Cucurbits, come mid-January. Compost heaps are a-cooking in anticipation of the Spring Rush. It's already late to be digging new beds to increase the area under cultivation.
I usually end-up getting it wrong somewhere along the line. Don't we all?
I guess that everyone has their own strange and unique ways to keep track of what-to-do-when. Of course you have to remember to actually look at the damn wall-chart/spreadsheet/book/diary.
Hedgewizard describes, in a hilarious post, the soggy and disastrous end to one such system.
Detour
I have quite a few friends who subscribe to Rudolf Steiner's ideas on cultivation, summed up, codified and dogmatised as Biodynamic Growing. Most are not Deeply Committed Members Of The Movement, merely dabblers who apply an eclectic handful of biodynamic potions and techniques -- a pinch of some or other weird concoction kept in a cow's horn added to the compost heap while dancing clockwise at full moon; Yarrow stored in a deer-bladder pouch. A bit challenging, that last one, since the Red Deer fail utterly to be found in South Africa.
No! I sound like I'm dissing the biodynamic ideas, and really, I'm not! I just have trouble believing that these homoeopathic treatments of seed, soil, water and compost can have any significant effect on the growth of plants when its simply a case of not getting enough water, nitrogen or calcium, or when the soil pH is way out of whack. In other words, the effects of macro-nutrient deficiency or imbalance vastly overshadows whether the moon was in Scorpio or Leo when you planted the seed. Personally I don't believe I am that good a gardener that I have those large-effect inputs well enough under control for the subtle effects of biodynamic preparations to manifest.
One of the key ideas of biodynamic gardening is Sowing By The Moon. In broad outline, we should sow leaf crops in the First Quarter of the moon -- that period from New Moon to Half Moon during the waxing phase -- fruit crops (Tomatoes, Chillis, Squashes and so on) from the Waxing Half to just before Full Moon, and root crops from Full Moon until the Waning Half. The last quarter of the moon is no good for planting anything, and should be kept for digging beds, weeding and mulching. Of course this is only the very crude outline; there is much, much more subtle detail; attention to astrological effects and their interaction with the nature of various plant varieties.
Whether you buy into this stuff or not (and I make no comment or commitment either way, myself) there is one very useful idea.
The Moon
The Moon gives us the perfect clock we need. Every Moonth, sometime in the First Quarter, I know I need to plant Lettuce. Every Half Moon its time to sow Radishes.
No need for fancy systems. Just going outside of an evening to take a look at the sky.
The Sky
Number One Son bought an imposing reflector telescope, so we've been having lots of fun learning to use it. Our triumph was getting good views of Jupiter, Saturn (it's awsome!) and Venus (blindingly bright) all on one evening's perfect viewing a couple of weeks ago. Consequently we're learning a whole lot about the constellations -- the patterns of the heavens. The Clock Of The Year.
Then, too, I would dearly love to learn more about how to read Nature's clocks. Bits of folklore like, "Plant your Potatoes when the Apple trees blossom." Anybody have some pointer to that sort of knowledge? I imagine that huge swathes of that sort of lore has already been lost; how do we relearn it? Reinvent it?
Yet more ways to reconnect ourselves with the Universe. Actually, we've never really been disconnected; only in the tiny space inside our own heads have we thought so.
Tactics is extension in space. Strategy is extension in time.
Gardening teaches both Tactics and Strategy to the attentive student, though the emphasis tend to be on Strategy.
Tactics: Laying out garden beds. Which hoe to use for a given weed-challenge. The pointy shovel or the straight-edged shovel for lifting that particular pile of manure? Spade or fork for digging that bed?
Strategy: Right now, in the middle of Winter, I have no more than another month before all considerations of next Summer's crops will be before me. Already I weigh up whether I have enough seed of the varieties I would like to grow, and seed orders take form. Time to buy the crop netting I will need to keep Pumpkin Fly from the Cucurbits, come mid-January. Compost heaps are a-cooking in anticipation of the Spring Rush. It's already late to be digging new beds to increase the area under cultivation.
I usually end-up getting it wrong somewhere along the line. Don't we all?
I guess that everyone has their own strange and unique ways to keep track of what-to-do-when. Of course you have to remember to actually look at the damn wall-chart/spreadsheet/book/diary.
Hedgewizard describes, in a hilarious post, the soggy and disastrous end to one such system.
Detour
I have quite a few friends who subscribe to Rudolf Steiner's ideas on cultivation, summed up, codified and dogmatised as Biodynamic Growing. Most are not Deeply Committed Members Of The Movement, merely dabblers who apply an eclectic handful of biodynamic potions and techniques -- a pinch of some or other weird concoction kept in a cow's horn added to the compost heap while dancing clockwise at full moon; Yarrow stored in a deer-bladder pouch. A bit challenging, that last one, since the Red Deer fail utterly to be found in South Africa.
No! I sound like I'm dissing the biodynamic ideas, and really, I'm not! I just have trouble believing that these homoeopathic treatments of seed, soil, water and compost can have any significant effect on the growth of plants when its simply a case of not getting enough water, nitrogen or calcium, or when the soil pH is way out of whack. In other words, the effects of macro-nutrient deficiency or imbalance vastly overshadows whether the moon was in Scorpio or Leo when you planted the seed. Personally I don't believe I am that good a gardener that I have those large-effect inputs well enough under control for the subtle effects of biodynamic preparations to manifest.
One of the key ideas of biodynamic gardening is Sowing By The Moon. In broad outline, we should sow leaf crops in the First Quarter of the moon -- that period from New Moon to Half Moon during the waxing phase -- fruit crops (Tomatoes, Chillis, Squashes and so on) from the Waxing Half to just before Full Moon, and root crops from Full Moon until the Waning Half. The last quarter of the moon is no good for planting anything, and should be kept for digging beds, weeding and mulching. Of course this is only the very crude outline; there is much, much more subtle detail; attention to astrological effects and their interaction with the nature of various plant varieties.
Whether you buy into this stuff or not (and I make no comment or commitment either way, myself) there is one very useful idea.
The Moon
The Moon gives us the perfect clock we need. Every Moonth, sometime in the First Quarter, I know I need to plant Lettuce. Every Half Moon its time to sow Radishes.
No need for fancy systems. Just going outside of an evening to take a look at the sky.
The Sky
Number One Son bought an imposing reflector telescope, so we've been having lots of fun learning to use it. Our triumph was getting good views of Jupiter, Saturn (it's awsome!) and Venus (blindingly bright) all on one evening's perfect viewing a couple of weeks ago. Consequently we're learning a whole lot about the constellations -- the patterns of the heavens. The Clock Of The Year.
Then, too, I would dearly love to learn more about how to read Nature's clocks. Bits of folklore like, "Plant your Potatoes when the Apple trees blossom." Anybody have some pointer to that sort of knowledge? I imagine that huge swathes of that sort of lore has already been lost; how do we relearn it? Reinvent it?
Yet more ways to reconnect ourselves with the Universe. Actually, we've never really been disconnected; only in the tiny space inside our own heads have we thought so.
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