Moving to www.marloescottwilson.co.za ...

I am combining my blogs and moving to my website www.marloescottwilson.co.za

You are welcome to visit me there...

Heirloom Seeds....

Recently I received my package of heirloom seeds from Living Seeds. What excitement! I now have seeds of a huge variety of weird tomatoes and some strange beans, carrots, corn (strawberry popcorn!) and peppers. As July draws to a close I plan my planting for the spring season. Waiting in the wings are also some curious strips of paper with seeds inside, ready to be planted as is, paper and all. It's from a company called Reel Gardening. Really clever stuff. The strip of colour at the top needs to stick out of the ground. Instructions are written in seven of our official languages.

The moon is still waning, so it is a good time for below ground vegetables ~ the beetroot that I love, carrots and onions as well. Tomorrow will be a good day to go and buy a few seed trays, some good compost and to get some sand from the river bed nearby. Vermiculite is in a bag waiting to join the fun, to hold in the much needed moisture.

Until July 25, 2011 04:34 PST (Pacific Standard Time) the moon will be in Taurus. That is a good time for sowing and planting trees, bushes, hedges and root vegetables. Also good for setting up a compost heap while the moon is waning. We can combat pests in the soil as well and if you have flowers with poorly formed roots, you can fertilise them.

On the 25th, the moon enters Gemini at 04:34PM PST and then things change again. Good for planting creeping and climbing plants, planting and sowing flowers and sorting out pests again.

So there we are, work to be done! Roll on morning...

Baby spinach in my salad...

What a delight to have such fresh baby spinach in my garden and now the nasturtiums are blooming so the flowers will join the leaves and herbs from the garden and the pots and end up in my salads. The coriander is looking so good and it tasted wonderful in the salad tonight.

The tomato plants are strong and the leeks are reaching for the sky. Lovely stuff.

Today was spent weeding and putting down compost. The pavement garden is putting on its beautiful mantle and will soon be filled with purple and white flowers. This part of the garden is in the North corner and these are the feng shui colours for this area. Also gold, silver and blue. The wild sage with its purple flowers is a beautiful addition. Their new growth has started and so we will prune the old stems to allow for the lush rebirth.

The new seedlings arrive next week. Red lettuce, friseé, Italian parsley, pansies, violas, violets - all for our beautiful salads. The basil is ready for the pesto and we shall be planting new chili seeds next week for the chili coriander pesto.

Growing your own herbs and vegetables must be one of the most rewarding things to do.

Grow babies grow!

Planted our first for autumn...

The baby spinach is already in the salad - beautiful baby leaves. The tomato plants are strong and there are probably too many and the leeks are growing well. The coriander is just longing to join up with the chillies to make our delicious chili coriander pesto and the basil is looking wonderful. Unfortunately the peppers and brinjals did not come up so I have ordered some seedlings of the same as well as loose leaf lettuce, red and butter. There are also edible flower seedlings on the way - creeping violet, pansies and violas. Nasturtiums are coming up in my circular herb garden and the roses are beginning to look really good after some feeding with our home made compost. Next month is pruning month and I am looking forward to giving the girls their "haircuts"!

There are new lettuce seeds to be planted but as it is now waning moon I will plant only a few and wait for waxing moon to plant more. It will be interesting to see how much of a difference there might be. Now is the time for underground vegetables to be planted so we will be planting sweet potato, onions, carrots and red skin potatoes if I can find any.

I love watching the little babies grow! It is so exciting to know that it is all healthy stuff.

Grow babies grow!!!

Vegetables among the roses...

Today was a good day in the garden. Ice-cream bushes were planted for a hedge along the diamond mesh fence between us and the park. Well, it's cheaper than building a wall and those bushes grow fast and thick. They just need watching, and they need regular clipping. They make millions of babies, so one can really make a thick hedge. I believe it is also called fire and ice, and snowbush. The Latin name is Breynia disticha 'roseo-picta'.

It really does grow like a weed and it will take over if it is not tamed. I love it though because it has some colour other than green, and I do love pink:)

The rose bed has been denuded of daisy lawn ground cover (another ground cover that grows like a weed and must be watched like a hawk...) and fed some good home-grown compost. It will be watered well for the next week and any weeds that come up will be dug in. We will be planting vegetables and herbs among the roses after the new moon on the 3rd of April. That will be a good time to plant above ground vegetables and I am so looking forward to fresh lettuces. Mulching is a good practice, it keeps weeds down and retains the moisture in the soil. We use dry grass and even cardboard if necessary.

Here is a list of what to plant now in South Africa, probably Australia as well. I got this from one of my favourite organic gardening sites www.lifeisagarden.co.za

Climbing and bush beans, beetroot, eggplant (brinjal), cabbage, carrot, chillies, cucumber, peppers, lettuce, marrow, leek, pumpkin, radish, squash, Swiss chard, spinach, sweet corn, tomato and turnip.

If you have a fence, you can grow vine plants up it, such as cucumber and marrow...and tomatoes. I have even seen pumpkins growing up a diamond mesh fence. I am going to give cucumbers a go, although it will have to be on an inner fence. The warthogs visit the little park next to our property and they have been known to dig their way under the fence to get to my butternut squash. They then proceeded to eat all the flowers!

Monday is a good day to buy fresh seed, organic where possible. This GM Foods thing is scary.

Feeding a rose and veggie garden is of tantamount importance. I realised not long ago that I was not giving the plants enough nutrition and I am now going to start a worm farm and make up some fermented plant extract (FPE) with some EM (effective micro-organisms), herb clippings, grass clippings and even weeds. Fill a drum with water, EM and the plant clippings and steep for 2 weeks, stirring every few days, and then feed the garden this FPE tea. The plants will love it. I will also be using Nitrosol and Seagro as they are organic fertilisers. Roses are gross feeders and will love the tea...and the lettuces won't complain either.

I foresee a beautiful, edible rose garden.

Off to the farm...

Just off to go and see how the farm is doing, if the roof is on between the two cabins and if the one long-drop loo has been bolstered with some planks since the erosion from the summer rains.

I shall be taking a few cuttings to the farm so see how they fare with little water and perhaps a lot of mist. There is much to be done there but this weekend it is a true rest time for us. Just one night to visit the mountains and breathe in the fresh cool air.

Full moon was gorgeous in the beginning of the evening but clouds came and covered the Lady and only her golden glow gave her presence away.

Have a good weekend in the light of the moon. I send good energies to all. Especially in Japan.

Growing a Fence and Digging a Trench...

Now that it looks like we are likely to get neighbours again, I have been wondering what to do with the diamond mesh fence between the two properties at the back of the kitchen. Further down, the fence is being covered with Star Jasmine creeper and very pretty it is too. It will be awesome when the creeper completely covers the fence. It is an evergreen plant and the only things it drops are the sweet smelling flowers when they are spent. It almost looks like confetti on the ground, blissfully bride-like.

Where the perimeter is still bare and open, we have started planting the ice-cream bush (also known as fire and ice) both sides of the fence. It will not need much water and the ground looks very healthy, rich and dark and sufficiently crumbly. Before too long the green fence will start growing. The bush grows thick and does well with regular clipping.

On the side of the house a trench has been dug along the fence line and filled with rocks. This is to disperse the torrential rain water that comes rushing through the yard in summer. The trench will lead the water to the gardens at the back. It is a great way to use the stones that came out of a demolished garden wall.

The paw paw tree is bearing fruit. What a delight. The lemons on the three trees are plump and filling up with juice, ready for a new batch of home-made lemonade. The sweet potatoes are waiting to be planted after full moon and I shall plant one packet of lettuce seed tomorrow at full moon, as well as coriander. These will grow in big pots outside my kitchen door. They are ready and waiting.

There is room in the back garden for about two more fruit trees. Choices, choices! I fancy a litchi tree and a creamy Hass avocado tree. Kiwi fruit grows well in the mountains as do blueberries.

Lettuces and Roses...

While walking round our garden, planning and dreaming, I saw a gorgeous vision of lettuces growing amongst the roses. This is an organic place with loads of herbs in the rose garden. It is so sensible to plant the lettuce there. The garlic chives repel the aphids, the creeping oregano is a natural mulch, while the yarrow edging helps along any ailing plant nearby. The rosemary has been thriving amongst the roses for a number of years and the rose geranium puts out her perfume on our fence for stray snakes that may just wander by.

The African sun beats down on the lawns in the middle of the day, but the afternoon is softened by the shade of the big mango and the two great Hardekool trees. The garden was thirsty today. Soon there will be drip irrigation and a greywater system to help the garden along. Water will one day be our most valuable commodity and we need to collect it and respect it.

Lately it has been hot and humid, just when we were expecting the evenings to cool down. We need to hold on for a little while to plant the lettuces, but soon, soon I will be planting a variety of loose leaf lettuce and Roma tomatoes among the roses.

Roses like food. That much I have discovered. They are gross feeders. Deep watering a couple of days a week and good organic food. They like that. You can make your own compost just about anywhere. Watch this space for an article on how. Link to my website to find articles on herbs and organic gardening. It's under construction right now but will soon be open for viewing...soon! www.marloescottwilson.co.za

The moon is growing, it's nearly full. Two more days. Time for a last ditch sowing of lettuce before she is at her zenith. Time to start collecting seed for below ground vegetables to plant when the moon starts to wane. Lunar planting is something I have been doing for a number of years and I do believe there is something in it. More coming on that as I go along.

Right now it is back to the website. We're nearly there.

Permaculture student...

This beautiful planet ~ Gaia Mother Earth ~ call her what you will. She sustains life and she is truly magnificent, but oh how she can throw a wobbly when her belly gets hot!
It is hard to think of much else other than Japan's nightmare and Cornelius's murder, but one is to live in the moment, right?...and right at this moment in my green world we are making cuttings for the farm. Wormwood, lavender, creeping jasmine, night flowering Jessamyn and a whole bunch more.

Cuttings are simple really. Fill a little black plant bag with some river sand, strip the cutting of the last two or three leaves and place in the wet sand. You can use hormone powder but I have not found it necessary. Keep the sand damp for a couple of weeks and the bags in the shade. When they have taken root you can plant them in bigger bags and move them to a sunnier spot for a while and then to the area where you want to plant them. Let them get used to their new home for a few days and then plant them out in to a hole that has some welcoming food, some good compost.

Here at home we have clumps of garlic chives waiting to be planted around the new roses. This repels aphids. Wormwood is not a favourite in the animal kingdom, so I shall be planting it around my chook domes. (Chicken tractors - a great invention for a garden! Find a chook dome in this wonderful book, Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow. You won't regret getting it if you are into sustainability and growing your own veggies. If you would like some companion charts , go to my website www.marloescottwilson.co.za for herb and vegetable companion charts.)

At the moment I am looking into growing herbs for essential oils. While looking up some info on the net, I came across a company to whom I wrote and they have already helped me with some answers and suggestions. It is exciting to plan and dream and I can certainly do that! Not all the plans come to fruition, but then as we all know, while we are planning ~ life happens.

Mint and organic geranium are high on the list and I am fortunate in that rose geranium grows well on the farm, in the summer. It doesn't like the frost in the winter but she puts on a good face when summer comes around. I believe snakes don't like geranium so that is another good reason to plant it on the borders of the house! Mint grows like a weed and often has to be contained in pots. It must have a field day with a whole lot of space to play in:) I shall plant some and see how she runs!

Rosemary grows very well in the mountains and loves the sloping ground (they don't like soggy feet). On the farm they grow huge and it would be great if it is the right strain for essential oils. We make very successul rosemary cuttings.

Of course organic vegetables, free range chickens, ducks and grass fed cows will be grown and reared on the farm, but that is a way off yet. Right now I have three horses about to come and graze on my small farmling - 4 hectares - because I need them as lawnmowers. "The grass is as high as an elephants eye..." and it is impossible to go for a walk. I will give them a couple of weeks and the horses will make some trails for me. Then I'll need a good pair of wellies.

Time to go and eat a salad from the garden. So delicious!