Garden 2.0: Kickstarting My Food Garden With Containers

Hello everyone

It's been many years since I consistently blogged here. I apologise for ending things abruptly, but my excuse is that it could not be helped. I don't know if I mentioned it, but after Mma passed away, I fell sick with a lung condition that was serious enough for my family to fear for my life. By the time I got better, my freelance writing and gardening efforts were in shambles.

So I moved to Johannesburg to kickstart my working life again. But it turns out I was not fully recovered and fell ill again. That episode took more than a year for me to recover somewhat. However, I am better now - at least, well enough to make another attempt at an independent life here in Phokeng. The timing is, of course, horrific, what with COVID-19 sweeping through the world. And lucky me, I fall in with the vulnerable category!

But I am more fortunate than most, and am painfully aware of that fact. I have plenty of space to be able to effect social distancing.  Living here in Phokeng and taking care of Mma taught me how to raise a garden-full of fresh produce. I also have plenty of space to walk around and grow some of my produce. For now, I'm settling back in the house, cleaning what needs to be cleaned and unpacking what I had taken with me to Johannesburg.  It's a slow job.

The good news is that it's almost winter in the Southern Hemisphere, so it's the perfect time for me  to start planting spinach, Chinese cabbage, brassicas and many other foods that I lover. The bad news is that my garden was neglected in my absence and most of it is now overrun by weeds. So I'm starting small, with containers.

Yesterday I started sprouting a batch of chickpeas for my salads and sandwiches. I also started fermenting yoghurt, and am drying some seeds from the fresh produce I brought with me ( tomatoes, butternut and  green peppers). This morning I started potato slips to sprout roots so I can start a small potato crop.

I know that every little thing helps, and once I start reclaiming my garden, there will be plenty of volunteer crops. Hopefully, that will happen around Spring.

Anyhoo, I am grateful for this chance to  reconnect with you.

Cheers,
Damaria

I'm So Sick Of Weeds!

One of my biggest challenges as a gardener is that I'm having a tough time keeping up with the weeds. As soon as we've finished removing some from a bed, they grow show up in another bed. It's an endless battle which I seem to be losing.

So I decided to read up on the issue to find out what I can do to deal with the problem without actually spending most of my life weeding.