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

Cold Season Planting in South Africa. Koue Seisoen Tuinwerk in die Tuinroete

Okay, so I was a bit late with my cold season planting... I blame Murphy's Law. You see; not only was April my annual leave month, but I also visited Prince Albert and a few good friends in the Mother City. Time flew, and I got distracted, delayed... and dismayed! It was already middle-April and I didn't have any cold season crops in the soil. Neither seed nor plants. Oops! As my dreams of leek, kale, broad bean, radish and pea harvests started to go up in smoke, I decided to somehow make time and jump into the garden. Here is how that went:

The one good thing the delay in autumn planting caused is that the chicken manure I worked into my whole backyard veg patch and fruit bed had rested for more than a month. Ample time for it to reduce in strength so it wouldn't burn my little plants or seedlings. So with the composting and garden planning done (what felt like) ages ago I could get down to the fun part. I don't mean fun as in no sweat or hard work, but I always enjoy planting the most. It just feels the most productive for some reason.

The veg patch ready for sowing/Agterplaas gereed vir beplanting

On 17 April I planted young leeks I bought from the kind people at George Nursery and sowed Witkiem broad beans and Sugar Ann Snap peas sourced at the wonderful Organic Seeds, and also some radish seeds. The Black Palm/Nero di Toscana kale I sowed a day later, as I ran out of hours on the Thursday. I sourced the kale from the equally great site Livingseeds. I watered the seeds well and left the rest to wishful thinking and lots of prayers. You see, I was leaving for Cape Town a day later and the kind folks at the South African Weather Bureau were predicting torrential downpours. I had visions of rotten seeds and drowned seedlings instantly!

After the dismal summer harvests, I decided to plant a small selection of vegetables. Only the varieties that would work best. Or so I hoped. Therefore I decided to go with the Witkiem variety of broad bean; with the added bonus of rejuvenating my soil after the horrible blight-infested tomatoes. Sugar Ann peas looked like the best bet to me too and they have such a cute name, I just had to try them!

Kale was a different ball game altogether. I didn't know anything about kale until I read an article (or two) about it online. I don't even know the Afrikaans name, but I'm going for "Boerkool". Apparently it is the healthiest green vegetable you can possibly eat. It packs a punch in especially vitamin A and C (200% of the Recommended Daily Value) and also a ridiculous amount of vitamin K (over 700%), calcium and manganese. Not only will I therefore be able to enjoy a vegetable from my own garden, but I will be eating something with "potent anti-cancer properties", the ability to boost DNA repair and lower cholesterol. Bring it on, I say!

When I returned from Cape Town it was with trepidation. I already knew it rained more than 100mm in the space of three days. That's four inches of rain - more than some places get in a year! Oh no! I wasn't only pleasantly surprised with my little veg patch; I was delighted! Let me show you why:

Witkiem broad beans popping out/Witkiem boerbone wys hul gesig

Carentan leeks/Carentan prei plante

Black Palm kale making an appearance/Boerkool?

Cherry Belle radish/radyse

Sugar Ann Snap peas/Die erte maak hul verskyning

 Can anyone say; HUNDRED PERCENT GERMINATION RATE? I'm so chuffed with my little garden, and blessed of course! Now I'll just have to wait and see what bounty I get from it...

Which cold season crops did you plant this autumn?

Spring Harvests. Lente Oeste

With it already being the second day of summer here in South Africa, I thought it appropriate to report back on what I harvested in my backyard garden (and also in other patches scattered throughout) during spring. While some vegetables performed quite well, others were simply not suited to our Garden Route climate, or suffered because of my inexperience and a lack of sunshine. This is what I harvested:
 

End Sep 2013 - nasturtiums, strawberries and "cauliflower"/kappertjies, aarbeie en "blomkool"

The first plants to produce anything vaguely fit for "harvest" were nasturtiums I sowed late July in a container and strawberries the granny and I planted late May and late June. Nasturtiums are always rampant growers, so I didn't expect anything less of them. On the other hand; I am currently planning to replant my strawberries in the soil, because they're not producing as they should in their pots, but then again; maybe their pots are too small. Questions, questions... I won't even mention the cauliflower, as they were a total failure. Of the twelve plants I purchased and planted late May, I didn't get one decent-sized cauliflower head. The biggest one was about 2cm x 2xm! I think I planted it too late in the year, because they got some sort of fungal disease. Perhaps I should plant them earlier in autumn next time?

Start of Oct 2013 - Some of the radishes/Sommige van die radyse

Radish was the one vegetable that performed brilliantly in the garden. Such a quick perfomer as well! I sowed them mid-August and harvested these beautiful babies in the beginning of October. How chuffed was I! The one thing I learned for myself is that they perform miserably in shady areas. Radishes I planted between my broad beans, in a mostly shady area, could only be harvested two weeks later than the ones in full sun, and were stunted and small. Yes, all sources told me most vegetables don't work well in shade, but I had to see it for myself, okay. Haha

Mid-Oct 2013 - An abundance of parsley/Pietersielie vir Afrika

Parsley, parsley and more parsley! Yes, parsley was definitely the biggest star in my spring garden (and I have the dried bottles of parsley to prove it). Both the curly-leaf and Italian varieties performed well, although the latter out-shined the former to an extent. Now that it is summer I'm having problems with them going to seed, but that is to be expected I suppose.

End Oct 2013 - Meager broad bean haul/Skamele boerboon oes

Yes, I made the same mistake with the broad beans as with some of the radishes... too much shade! What started out as a beautiful bed of beans under a leafless Acer negundu tree in autumn, turned out to be the aphid-infested bane of my existence under a fully-leaved Acer in spring! Regrets, regrets! Especially because the little broad beans I could harvest tasted so heavenly in one of the mother's Cape Malay curries. Ai! Note to self - plant broad beans beginning of autumn in a sunshiny spot next year!

Start of Nov 2013 - Lots of leeks and lettuce/Pragtige preie en baie blaarslaai

In addition to the parsley, leeks and lettuce were the other two members of the trio of top performers. Lovely green and purple lettuce bought at Norgarivier Nursery and planted in the beginning of October went into beautiful green salads. The leeks went into a gorgeous Leek, Bacon and Cheese Pie. The family couldn't get enough! Basically you pre-fry the leeks in butter, add it and grated cheddar, a carton of cream, a packet of half-cooked bacon and two eggs to a pie tin, in pastry, and voila! If you don't have enough leeks (like I did), sommer add a few normal diced onions to taste. Works like a charm.

Mid-Nov 2013 - Pole and bush bean harvest/Rank-en bosboon oes

Beans always perform well in our backyard garden, so I expected nothing less this year. This year I planted white pole beans, Contender bush beans and Lazy Housewife pole beans. In the photo, the larger, flattish beans on the left are the Lazy's and the thinner ones are the others. I got the organic Lazy's at Livingseeds - a highly recommended organic seed store. The white beans and Contenders I got from another kindly neighbour. 

We have already enjoyed all of them as green beans and some of them have been blanched and frozen. Now I can't wait for the bushes to perform even better, so the granny can make a decent batch of curried beans yummy!

I planted twelve red onion seedlings during the last week of May, and about the same number of Australian Browns the first week of June. The red onions performed quite well, but the white onions produced the smallest onions imaginable. We harvested them all the very end of November.
The lesson I learned from this comparison? Do not plant onions in hard-as-nails and compacted soil!

Hope I haven't bored you all with this lengthy post, but I guess someone out there might pick up a tip or two from my successes and failures. What do they say; practice makes perfect.

Growing Broad Beans in the Garden Route. Boerbone in die Tuinroete

Since I rediscovered my passion for gardening at the end of autumn here in the South Africa, I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. I couldn't plant autumn crops, since I missed the season. I couldn't plant most winter crops as they should've been planted in autumn, and it was way too early for spring/summer crops. What to do? 

According to some blogs I read, broad beans could be planted in winter. Bingo! I settled on broad beans as the first vegetable for my veg patch. Many other bloggers have explained the benefits of planting broad beans in a backyard garden, but mine were -

3 Reasons to plant Broad Beans in a South African garden:

1. Broad beans, as part of the legume family (that's garden geek speak for plants grown for their edible seeds or grain, incl. beans and peas), put valuable nitrogen into the soil.
2. Broad beans are the only beans which can be grown through winter.
3. Broad beans produce heavily and at a time when not much else can be harvested.

The family wasn't too keen on this broad bean idea, however. They thought it too "volksvreemd" (alien to our eating habits). Everything that doesn't fit into the neat 'rice, meat, potatoes and veg' staple of Afrikaners are sometimes deemed "volksvreemd" in my home. This was before I punched in 'broad bean' on Google Translate, and learned that it is actually plain old 'boerbone'. Oh, how smug was I when I shared this morsel of information...

Broad bean germination rate: 

Thanks to the good folks at Living Seeds I had my beans in lightning speed, planted them in the beginning of July, and this is what popped out two weeks later:

Proud moment: my first broad bean/Trotse oomblik met my eerste boerboon

I must still confess, I did feel a bit despondent after a week with no germination. Luckily, Adelaide Gardener gave me hope again (as referred to in my previous post); and a week after that - voilà! I had a germination rate of around 90%. Not too shabby hey?

Small broad bean plants:

A week and a half later (last day of July) and my little broad beans were soldiering on:

The first few broad beans (vicia faba) to have germinated

I guess only a fellow gardener or farmer can understand the joy of seeing something you've put into the soil, nurtured and spent hours thinking or worrying about doing well. I'm such a garden geek! I planted the beans quite close, as they will later support each other.

The leaves are quite beautiful when they unfurl, I think. Dark green, hardy and glossy. The stems are not as hardy, so they will have to be supported at quite an early stage. I'm one proud backyard gardener, though!  

'n Klein boerboon plantjie - een van my eerstes

Broad bean flowers:

Another five weeks on, and the broad beans are flowering in full force. Now the stress of how big my harvest will be and how well the flowers will be pollinated is weighing on me. Soveel dae, soveel sorge...