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.