grow, garden, grow!

After our failed attempt at a veggie patch, and the garden not surviving as beautifully as we'd hoped after our wedding, we decided to get someone in to help. We have a beautifully spaced garden, but a tricky one with complicated soil thanks to the biggest tree in the neighbourhood standing in the corner leaking alkaline onto everyone around him. But he's gorgeous, so you work around him.

Anamaria arrived, took one look around and told us our garden didn't suit us, and it was too old fashioned for a young couple. All in broken Spanish. She's great :)

It's been a lot of fun watching it all go out, then all go in, and seeing things through someone else's eyes - someone who can explain to you what's really going on. 

My favourite piece so far, and the section I was weeding this weekend, is the cactus garden (though if Anamaria heard me calling her succulents cacti...). There are loads of pics to come from this project, but here's the start...

signs of spring

Last spring, on the spur of the moment, we planted a veggie garden. Not as simple as it sounds. And as with many projects with good intentions, I just didn't keep it up. The lettuce turned in to trees, the tomatoes took over, killed their neighbours, then died. And the green peppers were a non-starter.
But look! Come spring, and the herbs went NUTS! There are even some spring onions in there...

save water - in style

Bas van der Veer's "Drop of Water" allows the earth-conscious among us to continue watering our lovely gardens while saving precious tap water. The large, grey "Drop of Water" collects rainwater in a stylish water jug that you can simply take out and pour where you need. The big bulbous end of the drop stores the overflow of rain water that has been collected, which you can refill your jug with via the little green tap at the bottom. Simple, stylish, green.

grow cactus grow!

This guy started out as one of those teeny little cacti you buy in the little metal buckets (you know the ones I'm talking about?). After adding him to the cactus garden he went nuts, grew friends and sprouted this beautiful (and quite big) flower. Who knew? Go cactus go!

See the whole cactus garden.

grow garden grow!

As another section of the "green" project, we've been potting little cacti out and about the house. These are growing surprisingly well! I say surprisingly, as we stay in a very wet, green area - you'd think the little guys would be drowning. But they're flourishing, often sprouting the strangest of flowers when you least expect it. This is the row of cactus around the pond - some of them are from the biggest cactus garden in the world, which is actually in SA's Northern Cape.

lighter-shade-of-green thumbs

This is technically resolution #2. Learn more about gardening. Or more specifically, enlarging the veggie patch that’s already there. Creating the veggie garden wasn’t my idea, I hardly did any of the planting, and I definitely didn’t choose what to put in there, but I have been doing the picking of the “fruits” of the garden, and I found I quite enjoyed it.

I do not have a green thumb by any stretch of the imagination, but this I’d like to try. It’s just so rewarding pulling an *enormous* tomato off a tree/bush/shrub that just a few weeks ago was pretty, little, sprouty thing. And yes, that is my technical term for them.
I’ve found in taking over the maintenance of the veggie patch, that getting things to grow can be quite fulfilling. And I think there has to be something in that if you’re on the path to brighter, shinier you. Surely the earth has something to impart?

So I’ve decided to not only get this patch big and beautiful, but to grow it until it’s something extraordinary. Or at least until I can make a complete salad out of it. To this end, though, I face a few challenges:

a) slugs and snails I refuse to use pesticides on (anyone know anything about the chili/garlic spray?)
b) replacing all the lettuce and rocket that turned in to baby trees while we were on holiday
c) finding the leeks I know we planted
d) choosing what to add
e) getting whatever I choose to add to grow and flourish when it’s me that’ll be doing the planting this time

It’s quite a fun project, and I’m lucky to have been given a head start. But in a climate of renewal, self-sustenance and “green is the new black” I feel like its also a very relevant project.