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2018-05-08

Hey!

This is what the garden looked like when we got back from the USA:

The grass was a lot neater than before :) The irrigation pipes is also visible running along the beams with the drip tape running along the ground.

This is what the corn patch looked like:

No more corn but the irrigation has been put in and a few winter plants added. Marietjie took good care of the garden while we were away, thanks!

These photos were taken on the 6th of April. Not much has changed but here are some photos from today. The garden is not getting that much attention right now.

Today:

and the corn patch (needs a new name):

The next efforts will be to clean up a bit and find a place for all the pots and plastic lying around at the moment and to put in the wooden paths.

I still have a few more cauliflower and broccoli seedlings that have to go in, but nothing serious. I also ordered a timer today that I will be able to use to automatically turn the irrigation on and off and also to water the remaining ssedlings twice day.

We are getting lots of greenbeans right now and also have a lot of peppadews. Peas, spinache, granadilla's are also now starting to get ready for harvest.

Will have to see how much sweet potato is under the ground:

The chickens have been producing very little ever since we left for the USA. Just 1 or 2 eggs every day but we got 3 today so things are looking up.

In exchange for regular backrubs, Roxy is collecting the eggs and feeding them on days when I go to Jhb.

Cheers!

2018-03-18

I've been investing a lot of time in my garden this past year.

Before we left for holiday to the USA I wanted to install the required infrastructure to make maintenace easy.

The main aim was to reduce the effort needed for watering and weeding.

For the watering I wanted to intall drip irrigation. For the weeding, I wanted to get rid of all the grass surrounding the beds.

I also wanted to use this opportunity to reduce the amount of CCA treated poles I was using in the garden. The toxins in these poles are embedded in the wood and should not typically be a problem, but I want to have as close as possible to 100% peace of mind when eating from my garden. Over time, arsenic, copper and chromium can theoretically leach from the poles. If you read up on how to safely dispose of these poles, you will find that they have to go to a landfill.

After some research and asking around (thanks Leigh), I decided to replace the CCA poles with pine planks treated with Waxsol.

I started with the trellis because I wanted to run the irrigation main lines overhead so that they don't interfere with edging and cannot be accidentally damaged as easily as if they were laid on the ground.

The pine wouldn't last long in the ground so I used rebar to anchor them in the ground.

Unfinished trellis frame

You can see in the above photo the state the garden was in. Where the butternut had ascaped the bed, we had a hard time mowing the lawn and it was starting to take over. You can see the pine planks attached to the rebar with cable-ties. You can also see the platic sheet and cardboard between the beds used to kill the grass. You can also see that the CCA poles are still in place and that many of the plants are attached to them. Especially the beans were a concern to me as they have a relatively large contact surface.

Finished trellis frame

You can see the finished trellis frame in the above photo. The frame defines where the beds will be in future. I decided to go with 1.2m beds, for me this is the best balance beween using as much spacce as possible and still being able to reach anywhere in the bed without stepping in it. Unfortunately this decision was only made a year after digging the beds and thus the current layout and the planned layout is considerable effort apart :)

The trellis is now finished with the last poles running the lengths of the beds added.

You can also see the CCA poles are gone for the most part and a lot more plastic have been added to kill the grass.

The plastic in the paths within the veggie square will be replaced with wooden paths but I haven't decided what to do in the areas outside of the veggie square. I want to keep this area free of grass.

The irrigation has been installed but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. I managed to get the veggie square, the corn patch as well as the berry row covered. The only thing that was left unwatered were the seedling trays which were shipped off to someone else to take care of until I get back.

Best regards for now!