Backyard Harvest. Agterplaas Oes

Yes, I'm still here. The computer might've given in and the winter garden might be coming along very slowly, but I'm still here. Still interested in getting my hands in the dirt, growing some useful fruit and veggies and some random ones, and subsequently blogging about it. The massive delay in this post wasn't intentional, but sometimes technology really gets in the way rather than assisting, don't you think?

Since I'm a bit out of practice I will let the photos do most of the talking. Let me get on with it...

Cape gooseberries/appelliefies, strawberry/aarbei, pepino/boomspanspek, Sugar Ann peas/ertjies

How does that cute chocolate advert go? "I've got joy in my life..." Yes, joy, joy and more joy... my Cape gooseberry bush is producing enough for a daily snack and then some. I've even made a summery fruit salad by adding it to chopped pineapple, paw paw (papaya) and pepino. Yes, the tropical pepino bush is unbelievably producing smack-bang in the middle of winter. What did I say? Joy!

Strawberries are only starting to flower now, so I've eaten the odd one straight from the plants. I've harvested quite a few cute Sugar Ann Snap peas though. We prefer them fresh in a mixed green salad. If you have any ideas what else to do with them, let me know.

Sugar Ann Snap peas/ertjies and Little Gem lettuce/blaarslaai

After last year's disastrous attempt at growing lettuce, this year couldn't make me prouder. Just look at the scrumptious lettuce leaves in the photo above. I grew them in the proper season and in a well-composted container this time though. That might be the reason for my success this year. Maybe not "might" - more a definite. The peas are so deliciously crunchy and sweet, I will definitely plant them again next autumn. I think I will dedicate much more of the backyard veg patch to them though. The harvest wasn't nearly enough for the family. Practice makes perfect, hey?

Cape gooseberries/Appelliefies

Oh boy, I harvested 300g of Cape gooseberries (also known as Inca berries) in one go. From one bush! It was a proud moment. Silly, but proud. Did I mention this was a volunteer bush that just shot up in my backyard veg patch? The same one I gushed about in my June post on the autumn garden.

Broad beans/Boerbone

Although my broad beans aren't really ready yet, there were about ten of them waiting to be harvested. No, the wee offering in my hands isn't the sum of it, but I just had to take a photo. I've never really done anything with broad beans, so I went out on a limb and sautéed them in butter with leeks. It went quite nicely with our "boerekos" chicken, potatoes, carrots and peas. What do you guys do with broad beans? I need some ideas here, but I'm not too keen on tossing them with mint leaves as I've read online. In my house mint is something that belongs in a refreshing cooldrink like lemonade.

I promise to pop in again soon. Why don't you tell me what you've been up to in your winter garden in the meantime?

Looking back on my Autumn Garden. Terugblik op my Herfstuin

It's now the fourth day of winter here in the southern hemisphere. The weather only changed dramatically today, unleashing cold and wet conditions over the Garden Route. Therefore, I thought it an opportune time to look back on the goings on of my backyard veg patch in the last month of autumn.

The Witkiem broad beans sowed middle April are going strong; reaching for the sky they are. The Carentan leeks look beautiful. I'm very chuffed with them. The Sugar Ann Snap Peas are also doing well, but a little bit less so than the broad beans. I'm worried that they're still so small and straggly, but the granny assures me this is normal. It's "bush" peas after all. Let me show you what I mean:

Carentan leeks left and Witkiem broadbeans to the right/Preie links en boerbone regs

Sugar Ann snap peas in the bottom left hand corner/Erte links onder

Something that's not doing as well is the kale. I sowed the Black Palm kale just a day later than the peas and broad beans, and yet they are barely 5cm tall. I don't know if it's due to the general scarcity of sun in their neck of the woods in the cooler season or something else. Maybe snails? I'm hoping against hope that the kale is just a slower grower than the broad beans or peas. Some of the latter are situated in parts of the veg patch just as plagued by shadows as the kale. Oh well, at this moment I can just hold thumbs I guess. Does anyone have any idea what I could do to aid the kale's growth? Or is this quite normal for cold-season kale growth?

A teeny tiny kale plant/Eina-klein boerkool plantjie

The tamarillo is doing splendidly, as per usual. The bergwind once again tried it's best to destroy the tree tomato, but it's still standing. Askew, but still alive. The angle with which the tree is growing is actually aiding fruit development, or so I read. This is because the tamarillo makes side branches when at an angle, and these side branches also produce fruit. My tree is full of big, beautiful tree tomatoes. I'm thinking a Foreign Friday entry would be appropriate once I actually harvest some of them. Just look how gorgeous they are:

Tamarillo fruit/Tree tomatoes/Boomtamaties

Another vegetable which didn't do particularly well this time around were radishes. This was a bit surprising as I've found radishes to be so easy before. Well, not anymore! This time almost all of them had long, leggy red roots instead of orbs of peppery goodness. I didn't sow them that long after I worked chicken manure into the garden, so I think the soil might have been too fertile, or the manure still too strong. That, or it was simply not sunny enough. I did manage to harvest one meagre hand full though. It went straight into my Sweet Potato Winter Soup. I will share the recipe at a later stage.

A handful of radishes/Handjievol radyse

Some inroads were made into solving the shade problem. Well, maybe solve is a bit of an exaggeration. I chopped down another cordyline in order for the morning sun to touch my garden a few minutes more. I tried to saw through the tree trunk, but it was not to be. In the end I had to chop it down. I felt like a veritable Huntsman as the wood chips went flying and the axe went deeper into the tree. It took ages, but I conquered! 

Halfway there with the cordyline

Doing it the green way... sweat and aching muscles followed

A while ago I also sowed coriander and Little Gem lettuce in my biggest container. The lettuces don't look as promising as I would want, but the coriander is going strength to strength. We don't really eat coriander leaves, or what the Americans call cilantro, in my home. The taste is way too "volksvreemd" for us, but I sowed it for the seeds. It gives such a great taste to meat and our national favourites; droëwors and biltong (pickled dried meat similar to beef jerky).

Coriander popping its head out/Koljander plantjies pop orals uit

My Cape gooseberry bushes fill me with joy at the moment. I haven't had any success in the year I've had it. Admittedly the wind destroyed my first bush. Just as it recovered, the sun scorched it almost to nothingness. I subsequently moved the container, and it looks happier now. Happier and producing a husked berry here and there. The real success is the volunteer Cape gooseberry which turned into a giant, almost untameable, bush in the backyard veg patch. I've tried to minimise its encroachment into my vegetable area without removing the bush. So glad I didn't take it out; it is Covered in berries! I have dreams of making Appelliefie Konfyt (Cape gooseberry jam), or just munching on the little golden beauties. Can't wait! 

Little Cape gooseberries galore/Appelliefies in oorvloed

South African Container Gardening. Kleinskaalse tuinmaak in die Tuinroete

The one problem all backyard farmers and urban gardeners share is surely the lack of space. While I would love to plant an orchard of apple trees, another of various peaches, a few exotics like loquats and avocados, space; or the lack thereof, simply makes this impossible. Oh, and the mother, who is filled with dread at any mention of planting a new tree! Not only do I face space problems as far as fruit trees go, but also for smaller shrubs and even vegetables. My backyard is tiny, so there's only so much lawn I can take out, and most of the front yard is outside the boundary wall. I can't plant vegetables there, because I want to actually harvest some for myself...

What to do?

The answer most obviously lies in container gardening. Filling every container I already own, and getting new ones made by the father. Sulke pragtige hout bakke; hoe trots is ek!

The first thing I planted in a container was a Cape gooseberry I received as a gift from a colleague. I added two smaller ones in the same plastic container. So far so good. It's just that the area I had it in earlier was too windy in winter and too sunny in summer. Note to self; choose a sheltered spot for Cape gooseberries.

Cape Gooseberries in plastic container/Appelliefies in plastiese houer

The next thing to go into a container were herbs. My family isn't big into "volksvreemde kruie" (strange herbs) so I went for curly and flat-leaf parsley. The same container got a pest-repellant marigold in and a strawberry plant or two. I was quite chuffed with the arrangement, although the parsley grew so rampantly, it kind of overshadowed the strawberries:

Parsley and Strawberry container plus Nasturtiums

Kappertjie bak en Pietersielie plus Aarbei bak in agtergrond

Next I had to beg and plead and go down on my knees for quite a few weeks with the father. You see, he promised me a few wooden containers, but none was forthcoming. After a little bit more irritating pleading I got my way... and three amazing containers! In the first one I sowed cucamelons, as recommended by James Wong. I also sowed chives, but have had no success with them so far. The cucamelons only took  3 weeks to germinate, and the germination rate was quite good as well. Maybe I don't have the right technique for chives yet? I decided on yarrow as the companion plant to repel pests. Two out of the three has come on beautifully:

Yarrow and cucamelons at back/Duisendblad plante en Mexikaanse Suurkomkommertjies

The smallest container would get a few more herbs I thought, but in the end I settled on a comfrey plant, garden mint and a small sowing of Pak Choi. The reasoning behind this combination was that garden mint would be quite useful in summer drinks, and pak choi is apparently a hardy lettuce-like Asian vegetable. It can grow in much warmer conditions than plain lettuce, without bolting or dying. Comfrey is a gardener's best friend, according to some blogs I've read, especially African Aussie. This is because it puts valuable nitrogen back into the soil. So I had to plant at least one:

Pak Choi sowed in front, garden mint left and comfrey right/Tuinment links en Smeerwortel regs

The medium-sized container was a toss-up. At first I wanted to plant some sweet potato slips there, but then I planted those in our front garden. The plan changed to lettuce and green peppers, but our backyard would be too hot and sunny in summer for the former, so I settled on potatoes. Originally I wanted to plant my potatoes in tyre staggers, but after reading horrifying stories about heavy metals leeching into the soil, and therefore into my beautiful homegrown tatties, this plan was abandoned. Now I had to fit 6 potatoes in one smallish container. Lets hope it works:

The Potato Container/Die Aartappelbak

Last but not least was a flat, wooden container the granny and I revitalised. Although it gets mostly shade our thyme seems to do well in it, but since I also bought normal lettuce the green peppers that filled the rest of the container had to go. We also turned the container around, so the thyme would get most sun, and the lettuce very little. Out with the old, and in with the new. Hope this experiment pays of...

Thyme in the background and Lettuce to the front/Tiemie en Blaarslaai

I'm very keen on seeing whether this type of gardening produces good results. I guess it's a waiting game now...

The Inspiration. Die Inspirasie

Once upon a time long, long ago, when I was still in primary school I already had a garden of my own. I guess my parents inspired me, since they are the most passionate gardeners ever! Since those days in the mid-90s gardening has always been a passion, albeit a neglected one after high school.

Then, about five months ago I watched a programme called 'Grow Your Own Drugs' by James Wong on satellite TV. He was so enthusiastic about his subject matter that I started to read up about him and his campaign.

Which, in turn, got me to clap my hands in glee at the idea behind his "Homegrown Revolution". My head was filled with all the wonderful and exotic edibles I could grow right here in my yard on the Garden Route in South Africa. And so the bug bit...

I wanted to plant a Japanese Quince, so I got one, all the way from a nursery in Bloemfontein:

Japanese Quince or Flowering Quince/Japanese Kweper of Blomkweper (Chaenomeles japonica)

Since James (Wong, that is) made such a beautiful-looking Rumtopf with the mini-quinces and Chilean Guavas, my next plan of action was to get myself one of those. Unfortunately, I didn't have any success in finding even one Chilean Guava (Ugni molinae) in South Africa. In the end I settled for a species more familiar to me:

Cherry or Strawberry Guava/Aarbeikoejawel (Psidium cattleianum)

 The Cherry Guava, as it is known in this neck of the woods, is classified as an invasive species in the RSA, especially in the humid sub-tropical provinces, so be careful before planting it though! They tend to fruit profusely and easily. The small tree had three guavas when I got it already. Oh boy; beware of fruit-flies though, as they adore these delicious dark-red to purple fruits just as much as we do. Pick them when they are just slightly red, and let them ripen completely indoors.

The other exotic recommended by James Wong I just had to have was a Physalis peruviana, or two, or three. He refers to them as 'Inca Berries', but over here in South Africa we call them Cape Gooseberries or Appelliefies. I simply love the Afrikaans name 'Appelliefie', which means something like "little love-apple". It is just as adorable as the fruit itself. Although they are not indigenous they are widely known and grown, sometimes popping up left, right and centre on own accord. It was quite easy to source four small plants, of which the biggest one was a gift from a colleague:

Cape Gooseberry or Inca Berry/Appelliefie (Physalis peruviana)

Well, a boy's gotta start somewhere I guess! With these exotic fruit planted and the gardening bug firmly entrenched, I just couldn't wait to get started with the vegetable patch :-)