Thursday, March 20, 2014

The A-Z Challenge & The Theme My Posts Will Follow


In April I'm taking part in the A to Z Challenge. Some of you know what the challenge is about, being here as part of the theme reveal.

However, I am hoping that my readers who are not part of the challenge community /who are new will be hooked enough to want a full explanation, maybe even choose to join us now or for future challenges.

Around 1400 bloggers were registered when I wrote this post (and the number will grow closer to the event), so it promises to be very exciting (where else can you meet that many bloggers, all ready to make friends?).

Anyhoo, here is a description of the challenge from the organisers:
The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behavior.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. You can use a theme for the month or go random – just as long as it matches the letter of the alphabet for the day.

What Growing Our Food is about

My life goal is to develop a  backyard garden/food forest at home in the village of Phokeng in South Africa. The garden should provide 80-90% of our vegetables, herbs and fruit 12 months a year without making gardening a fulltime job /time-consuming/stressful activity. I hope to reach that target by 2018.

The aim of this blog is to share my food growing adventures, writing about what I'm planting each month, how to care for the plants, the mistakes I make and lessons learnt. I will eventually develop some of the content into a series of food gardening books.

My theme for the A to Z Challenge

My garden follows a very detailed planting calendar which tells me what to plant or transplant each month.

My theme for the A to Z Challenge is A Quick Review Of Vegetables, Herbs  & Fruit You Can Plant In April In The Summer Rainfall Region, Where Winters Are Very Mild And  Summers Are Extremely Hot.

Each post will outline the planting and care of each plant, with the vegetable, fruit  or herbs following the alphabetical order. For example, A is for Asparagus and Artichokes and B is for Beans.

We look at how I have/would prepare the soil to grow this plant, how to plant the seed, how to care for the plant and harvesting it.

Most of the posts are based on my own experinces, though there a few vegetables, herbs an fruit I'm still investigating and the articles are based on my research and what I plan to do. And yes, I promise to keep the articles short.

Thank you for visiting, and I look forward to getting to know you through your blogs during the challenge.

Follow along at A to Z or see the blog hop starting on the 1st of April.

19 comments:

  1. Hi Damaria .. that sounds fun and I'll enjoy reading .. and the posts will bring back memories of Africa .. cheers Hilary

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  2. Hi Damaria .. you've still got Word Verification on - please could you take it off .. it's found under settings .. cheers Hilary

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  3. This should be very informative. Can't wait to learn something new! Good luck with the A to Z Challenge. This will be my first year.

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  4. @Hilary - Sorry. Hadn't realised it was on. Also turned off Google Plus link up so people can comment here without having to be linked up with something else. Lost most of my comments in the process, but it was worth simplifying.
    @Cheryl - Hey Cheryl. Thanks. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

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  5. Hi Damaria .. I see you've done so .. and lost your comments - still I'll be able to comment more easily in the future .. thanks .. cheers Hilary

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  6. Planting calendars are so helpful. Our climates are sort of similar, so I'm sure I'll gain lots of useful information when reading your posts.

    MJ, A to Z Challenge Co-Host
    Writing Tips
    Effectively Human
    Lots of Crochet Stitches


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  7. Love your foodforest challenge! What a great initiative. I'll follow your adventures with lots of interest!

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  8. I love your theme, even though I live in an area of hot and cold extremes in the high desert. This will definitely be on my list of A to Z reading! :)

    http://kristenhead.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-to-z-challenge-theme-reveal-be.html

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  9. Great theme, I look forward to it and sharing!, I also love your beautiful outlook on life and how you share that integrity. Love and Gratitude, Jan@MermaidsandCashmere

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  10. @MJ - I hope I'll offer something new/different that you can apply.
    @Saskia - Thanks. Sounds like you have a big place in NZ (from your post). Do you garden?
    @Kristen - Look forward to keeping company in April. Loved your gifs theme.
    @Janice - Thank you. Looking forward to getting to know you through April.

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  11. I should have done something like that for my area of Kentucky. We are planning a big garden this year. Looking forward to your posts. I wish April would get here already! :O)

    LuAnn Braley
    AJ's Hooligans @AtoZChallenge
    Back Porchervations

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  12. Your theme sounds really interesting! Maybe I'll learn a thing or two about gardening from you.

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  13. @LuAnn - The planner is very useful. Lucky me, I didn't do it myself. Organicseeds.co.za did it. Good luck with your garden.
    @Sherry - Happy to share. You still have a thing or two to teach me about gardening with dogs though. Don't have one and I'm not sure how I'd garden with one:-)

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  15. I am following by email, but just realized I have to find the feedburner email in my email to verifiy it!

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    1. Hi Janice. Finally saw this comment. I think you did manage to find it and follow up. Loved your post today about growing herbs. Looking forward to more.

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  16. Sounds great! I recently moved to a flat with a small garden and am planning to start growing some veggies this year. Although the climate here is very different, I'm looking forward to reading about your tips and experiences. :-)

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  17. Hi Damaria! The first post I clicked on through the #AtoZChallenge link up happened to be yours! And wow...I'm an American that spent the last 2.5 years living in SA. I've been to Phokeng and spent two years living in a very rural village north of Vryburg, teaching people how to grow small-scale food gardens. I can't wait to follow you through the challenge!

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    1. Oh wow! What a small world! I hope my posts bring you lots of good memories. Are the gardens still operational? So many people need to grow food in South Africa. There are patches of land to use, especially in rural areas; we just need to put in the work.

      So you have an idea of the kind of weather I'm gardening in, especially in November and December when it's boiling hot! LOL!

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