Oh, what a gem!

It's an unsolved mystery. These beauties popped up and I am not sure if it was from the prior failed seed planting episodes (which I thought was baby marrows), or if it was just pot luck out of the compost heap.

My love / hate relationship with the grub

First I couldn't stand these things. They killed my potplants while in the larvae stage and wiped out my blooming roses in the adult (beetle) stage. I had to determine a way for us to live together harmoniously. After my hens arrived, I realised the value of the grub. The girls love to eat them! The grubs also speed up the process in my compost heap. So there. Two benefits. I also don't mind the hawdie-daws visiting anymore because they also eat these buggers. The larvae (at its biggest stage) go to my chickens and I only leave the babies behind to continue their job of sorting out the compost heap until they too get big and juicy for the picking.

Flowering Cactus

I just had to share the sheer beauty of this! When we first moved in, the garden was overgrown and a wreck. I found this small dying cactus plant suffocating under a lavender bush. I replanted it in an open space (first pic taken 2010), that was about four years ago. Today it stands tall and a few weeks ago started to flower.

Strawberry popcorn

Yes, you heard me right, strawberry popcorn (popcorn the colour of strawberries). I ordered these seeds at my favourite supplier, Living Seeds Heirloom Seeds. Even though I didn't necessarily have the space to grow corn, I just had to try this out. One should not plant fewer than I think 40 or so plants in a block to ensure good pollination (which is required to produce full cobs). The space I had available could only accommodate 10 or 11 plants, but thanks to the good old cape doctor (the wind!), I had a fairly successful harvest! What a magic experience! To harvest these beautiful bright red babies and then to make organic heirloom popcorn as white as snow and soooo delicious out of them! A great healthy and fun idea for little kiddies (or big kiddies, if you are like me, a child at heart!)

Kumquats - Bottled sunshine

Two winters ago was the first time I laid my eyes on little kumquats. I found these miniature orange-like citrus fruits on a tree in McGregor. I picked a whole bag full and immediately when we got home started googling a kumquat marmalade recipe. Sadly, the recipe called for only 34 (or so) of these little babies and I had a bag containing hundreds! I gave the rest away hoping they will be put to good use. Here is one of the bottles of sunshine they produced after hours of labour in removing the tiny little seeds....oooh so worth the kumquat bonding session! Yum!

The story of my adopted battery farm hens

On 22 November 2013 I adopted two ex-batt hens (rescued from a local battery farm). I named the brown hen Hope and the white hen Love. Pic 1 is of the girls on the day they arrived (they could hardly stand, were as pale as a sheet and rather overwhelmed). Pic 2 is one month later. Pic 3 (excuse the dirty beaks!), almost in their prime (about 6 months later). They adjusted so quickly and soon were fit, flourishing and loving life. In return for rescuing them, we received eggs and wonderful compost enriching manure for the garden. To think that for the full duration of their stay at the battery farm, their feet had never touched the ground, they were never able to stretch their wings to bask in the glory of sunlight and they never experienced the delight of taking a dust bath or running around chasing each other after having found a delectable bite of something to eat in the garden. Hope unfortunately passed away on 30 Sept 2014. Love has now retired from laying and is living out her last days with us. Unfortunately with the torturous ordeal which was the first year of their lives, their bodies just aren't as strong as they should be, but at least they got to spend the last months of their lives truly living. .

Magnificant Monsters

The sunflowers I last grew, I grew in a large container outside. They grew more than twice the height of me. Their stalks were like the trunks of trees (well, not that big, but wider than fully grown bamboo stalks). Some of the flower heads were bigger than my face and oooh so heavy with seed! What an amazing experience to grow, shell, roast and eat my very own organically grown sunflower seeds!

My pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Purple podded pole bean

Another magic find from Livingseeds Heirloom Seeds. Success and so striking!

The Colour Purple

This summer we've been blessed with purple abundance. Our grinadella plant, now in its second year of bearing fruit has gone wild! At one point between 1 and 6 grinadellas were falling off the bush per day! They made stunning sweet and fragrant gifts for friends and family and towards the end of summer I finally stopped giving them away to enjoy the fruits of my labour!

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Then came the brinjal (eggplant - the one pictured below is our very first one harvested). Mom donated two plants to me (along with loads of other plants) after the body corporate at her home told her that she could no longer have a veggie patch :( Amazingly, the plants survived and THRIVED! We harvested so many that I lost count and it has been an incredible journey learning about this veg and experimenting in the kitchen with new dishes. It is more versatile than you would think and even my hubby took to it! (Thank you Mom!)

Out of the two olive trees we planted approx two years ago, only one decided it was happy and remained (the other was relocated to my brother's house) . As you can see below, it also bore fruit in numbers this summer. Last summer (its first), it only produced one or two small olives. This summer it produced 54 big juicy olives! (yes, I counted, and just look at how big these babies are!)

Spinach seeds

I've always wanted to know how to harvest spinach seeds but didnt know what to look out for in a 'seeding' plant.  Finally, this past spring, one of my spinach plants made it abundantly clear to me.  It slowed down with producing leaves but grew into this tall unattractive weed-looking tower. It was seeding! I left it to do its thing and when I noticed it was pretty dried out/dead, I pulled the entire stalk out of the ground and hung it upside down in a dry place. After a few hot dry weeks, I started harvesting the seeds.  The way to tell the seeds apart from the other similar looking 'duds', is by touch and sight.  The seeds are usually slightly bigger and more tan-brown than greyish-brown, and they are much harder/firmer (i.e. they don't crumble when you roll them between your fingers).  You will get enough seeds off one bush to supply the whole neighbourhood! :) [pictured below, on the strand I am holding, the seed is the one positioned in the middle of my middle finger... and so are the loose ones you see resting in between my fingers.]

First olive harvest - Patience pays off

I couldn't wait any longer... I was so excited to bottle my first batch of 54 olives. Making the brine solution was a learning experience in itself.  I watched a video on youtube which said I should add salt to water until an egg floats in it and that is when the brine solution is salty enough.  My first egg had a crack in it so there I was adding salt until the entire house's salt was used up... and still no floating egg! LOL! In future, will rather go by recipe instead of the 'egg' method! ;)  Now, ....to wait 6? months before I can taste them!!

Grinnie in her prime

A Thrifty yet Surprisingly Fruitful Season

Even though this year I was disappointed in that I did not accomplish what I planned to due to lack of time and money, I was amazed at just how much I DID accomplish without having to spend a cent! I managed to relocate the patch to this open area running downhill, along side the olive tree/grinadella bush.  The past winter's compost heap provided excellent compost for good growing conditions and I was blessed enough to receive mom's donation of plants.  Aside from the brinjals, another new experience was growing sage.  It is an awesome plant, but sadly did not make it to the end of summer for some reason.  The time which I had to enjoy it was another great learning experience. For the first time, I started using it in my cooking and could not believe how useful it actually is.  It went great with brinjal and other veggie dishes, adding a delicious 'meaty' rich flavour. I can't wait to start growing it again!  As for the home-made compost, it served another purpose in that pumpkin /squash seeds came up and these plants, (although they did not really fruit),  provided a great 'mulch' like / canopy protection against the heat and sun and also filled up empty spaces between other plants which kept the weeds in check and also helped keep Fidget (our cat) out. I also grew green pepper, although not very successfully (they would not get big and also seemed to get eaten by something as soon as they did start getting big).  In early summer, we had loads of lettuce for making summer salads and loads of mint for late afternoon mohitos by the pool and reviving morning smoothies. Two 'late' cherry tomato plants (which came from "surprise" seedlings growing in my worm farm!) were the stars of the show when all else had retired, blessing us with loads of plump flavourful fruit up to this very day. Oh, and of course, I mustn't forget good old faithful spinach, predictably supplying us throughout the whole year with dark green nutritious leaves. (The one thing I did buy was coriander and basil seedlings, the coriander was active early summer and the basil supplied us with enough leaves to make 3 large batches of pesto for freezing in ice cubes in anticipation of upcoming winter thai green curries).

Mystery Birds

These beauties have been gracing us with their presence every year since we moved in 3 years ago.  They seem to travel in groups of about 3 to 7 and they come to our yard to secretly visit in our two potato bushes.  They have these gorgeous long tails and peaked heads and we usually see them late afternoons in certain times of spring summer and fall.  Can anybody help me by telling me what kind of birds they are? I'm so fascinated by them and would love to know!

The First Ripe Fruit from Grinny

Have you ever seen such a beauty!

Grinnie all Grown

This must be the proudest moment of the gardening life to date! Remember when we planted that baby grinadella plant (pic below)? Well, look at her now (pic below)... And how amazing it was to see her first blooms... I've never seen such an extraordinary flower in my life! What a miraculous marvel! And here you can see our very first fruit from the vine. One thing I must say to those of you out there that are struggling to grow food in your garden is, never give up. Even if you have impossible soil or weather conditions, keep trying... you might just find a plant that is perfectly happy in your yard! This will make up for everything else that's not! :)

My Mulch

It was not until the dead heat of summer truly arrived when I put aside my stubbornness and really started listening to everyone's advice about mulching. I however was determined not to go on a spending spree. Instead, I just did some trimming in my garden and turned the result of that trimming into mulch. A combination of dead leaves, half alive succulents and other plant offcuts, pine needles, little twigs, etc... and voila!...mulch! And it paid off because where nothing was growing before, life started sprouting up everywhere. Believe it... listen to the professionals and mulch... just use whatever organic material you can find in your own garden and have fun with it!

So many uses for my palm leaves

From making placards for use in a procession doubling up as 'umbrellas' for shade, to 'mulch' in my tree beds, to camouflage for my latest experiment (a 'boxed' compost heap), I never thought palm leaves would serve me so well! And let's not forget the shade they create while still attached to the tree.

Old faithful

This is one of only two plants we uprooted from our old house to bring with us here. We planted it in a pot and hoped for the best. For months it struggled and looked half dead. Finally there were signs of improvement, however the chillies produced were small in comparison to the 'old days' and also often had no heat. Well, I can say that it looks like our beloved chilli plant has finally accepted the move. Look at these gleaming big red and green chillies pa

cked with flavour and punch! :)

Our first leak

Okay, so it is a bit of a shorty... but who am I to talk?

Mint

As I learned from my attempt to grow mint at our previous house, I can say that if you are not a very confident gardener, start by growing some mint... it will boost your ego! ;) Be warned, it grows out of control so keep it contained. I previously grew a chocolate mint variety, but have decided that I like the ordinary mint better (it has more uses). There is nothing like a fresh glass of water (or homemade ice tea) flavoured by adding some fresh mint leaves from the garden. Oh, and another thing... just make sure you keep it near a water source... it likes regular watering.

p.s. You will see our first "Christmas" stawberry plant in the background and our first Iceberg lettuce (bought as a seedling).

Our first olive

The olive trees are growing and seem to be happy where they are... yipee!

Veggie beds update

So, remember how over winter I prepared those two veggie beds? Well, after about 3 failed attempts things finally started growing. I've learned (as a 'green pinky') to rather start off with planting seedlings rather than seeds. When I become more of a professional I will try the seeds. I have had success with seeds in the past, but the 'organic' ones I bought failed (not sure if it was a bad batch or something I maybe did or didn't do!). Something else I learned is to have patience! I planted way too early this year and that also contributed to the failures. So, although my crops were not as great as anticipated, I have been blessed with a hugely successful baby marrow crop, the cucumbers are taking off and the leaks did not do too badly. I've recently also planted yellow pepper, brocolli, beetroot and a new cherry tomato plant so we will see how those go. :) Check out these pics of the 'before' and 'after'...Not too bad for our first summer of planting hey?

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