Growing Clivias in the Garden Route. Clivias vir Afrika in die Tuinroete

By this stage you must all think my garden only consists of broad beans, exotic fruit and an assortment of other vegetables. Oh no, that is not the case at all!

My parents have always been fervent gardeners, with our garden once being the pride of the neighbourhood. After a few years of neglect, this was not the case anymore. The garden still had its joys and beauty, but it was all a bit wild, tangled and overgrown. Luckily my new-found passion for gardening wasn't limited to produce though, but also included the bigger "normal" garden. As I now owned the house, I wanted to restore the garden back to its former glory.

Part of this strategy was to jazz it up with a dash of colour here and there. The problem in my urban garden was the lack of sunlight. My parents planted various trees, especially cordylines, (what we sommer call:) wild banana trees, conifers, palms of all sorts and a massive swamp cypress way back. 

So which plants or flowers could I plant in shade, with minimal water needs and maximum colour impact?

My answer was Clivias. Indigenous, water-wise, and fully shade-tolerant? Yes, Clivias were certainly the answer!

Two Clivias already established in the garden - proving some plants flower beautifully in shade

'n Clivia, met sy rooi sade

I already had two huge Clivia bushes in my front garden, and two smallish ones in the backyard garden. Now I just needed a dozen more... maybe two dozen? How happy was I that not only was my best friend's mother part of our local clivia club and therefore had tons to share, but that she was willing to share. And share she did!

Just part of my Clivia haul... Ek sal ewig dankbaar bly Tannie :-)

I had grand plans for creating visual features in the garden, and giving a bit of colour to a pathway's borders. And That is when the hard work started! Who ever thought gardening is such WORK?! Need to loose a few kilos and considering joining a gym? Don't! Start gardening, or better yet; help someone else in theirs. You'll see the difference within a month. I promise!

Firstly, I gave a sad spot in the garden a breath of life by adding two Clivias. I think the mixture of green shrubs and ferns, white rocks, a greyish-brown tree trunk, pink impatiens, blue iris, orange Clivias and ground cover works quite well. What do you think?

A new Clivia next to the road and one planted underneath the big tree trunk

Secondly, I planted one of the bigger newly acquired Clivias in a corner that was just too dull for my liking. It consisted of green, green and more green. Albeit different shades of green, but green nonetheless. Two different conifers, a wild banana, delicious monster and a few ferns had two Clivias added to them. And the result???

Lovely red Clivia as focal point in my green corner. Pragtige rooi Clivia as fokuspunt in die groen hoekie

Lastly, I wanted to beautify a pathway we already had in the garden. The pink Bottlebrush provided stunning colour to that corner, but the path just needed something along the edges to zhoosh it up. In went more Clivias:

The completed, yet still not established, effect

Clivia border along a pathway strewn with Bottlebrush flowers

 Have you planted any indigenous flowers or plants recently?

Foreign Friday. Volksvreemde Vrydag

Pepino/Boomspanspek (Solanum muricatum) 

After James Wong's Homegrown Revolution bug bit, I couldn't wait to try out foreign-sounding and strange-looking fruit and veg in my own urban garden. My backyard veg patch might be in an South African town, but luckily we have an Oceanic, almost sub-tropical climate with a decent annual rainfall. Perfect conditions for growing most fruit and veg; even the most exotic of exotic edibles.

One of the first exotic fruits I planted was a Pepino. As I referred to in my post about creating beds, I received it from a work friend. She gave me two big plants and a very small one I could split from the mother plant. I was told the plants would adapt quickly, grow fast and sprawl over a big area if not controlled. Immediately after planting them, one plant looked better than the other and the smallest one had only a small chance, I thought. That's before we had a horrible berg wind. After that unfortunate occurrence, the healthy-looking plant died despite my best efforts to save it. In the long run though, the other plant flourished and the small one survived as well.

Pepino/Boomspanspek

Luckily the same lady who so kindly gave me the plants brought a ripe fruit along as well. When it is still unripe the fruit is greenish with light purple stripes. The stripes get darker and the green turns yellow when ripe. Don't expect a delicious rockmelon taste though! It tastes somewhat bland; like a cucumberish wintermelon. Very refreshing though, and much like a cucumber, it tastes like pure summer to me   :-)

Pepino flower and fruit/Boomspanspek blom en vruggie

A Pepino is part of the nightshade family, to which a tomato and potato belongs too. A fact quickly made apparent by the striking similarities between the aforementioned plants' flowers. I am still amazed how quickly my Pepino produced its first small fruit. This after bringing it back from the verge of death just a few short months earlier! I am suitably impressed, and very chuffed! Now I can't wait to get a harvest big enough to try making some Pepino Chutney or sauces yum...

Solanum muricatum fruit/vruggie

Botanical Name: SOLANUM MURICATUM
Common Name: Pepino, Pepino Dulce, Fruit Salad Plant
Volksnaam: Pepino, Boomspanspek
Native to: Peru, Colombia and other neighbouring Andean countries
Date planted/sowed: Planted 12 June 2013 (winter)
Ease to grow: Very easy to grow but needs sufficient water and rich, composted soil
Costs: no input costs
Notes: Produces first fruit within 4 months of planting

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...

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...

The Beds. Die Beddings

Visions of abundant harvests and a lush garden filled me with all kinds of ideas. Getting those ideas implemented was another story entirely. Hours of back-breaking, sweaty work. Taking out old trees and shrubs, cutting back others, composting, removing pesky flower bulbs, working existing beds over... no one ever said gardening was easy work, I guess! And so the real work began...


Task 1: Compost, weed and dig over Vegetable Patch

Backyard Vegetable Patch/Agterplaas Groentetuin

The vegetable patch wasn't as much work as anticipated, as Ouma used it the year before for her tomato and bean crops. It only needed slight weeding, a deep digging and composting. A few Marigolds, or Afrikaners, provided colour and would hopefully deter some pests when the vegetables are established. The only other plants in the veg patch were Curly-leaf Parsley, Italian Parsley and peppers/capsicums that we over-wintered.

Next in the range of exotic edibles to be introduced in my garden were Pepino or Melon Pear (Solanum muricatum) and Tree Tomato (Solanum betaceum). The Pepino has nothing to do with a pear, but tastes like a strange cross between melon and cucumber and resembles a tiny, fleshy melon with greenish to yellow skin and purple stripes. I got three plants as a gift from a kind lady working for the competition hehe. The plants didn't have any soil on the roots, so I was very worried about it's chances, but more on that later.

The Tree Tomato or Tamarillo, isn't a type of tomato but rather an egg-shaped yellow to orange fruit, borne on  a large shrub with big, pungent-smelling leaves. It tastes like pure passion fruit to me. The taste of summer. I can't wait for this baby to start bearing fruit! Both the Tree Tomato and Pepino are natives to Peru, so well suited to my exotic edibles garden.

Task 2:  Prepare spot for Cherry Guava

Out with the old...

It's always sad to see a plant go, especially one that is doing well, but if you're as pressed for space as I am it is a necessary evil. I don't even know what kind of plant it was, but we always just called it a "Vlas" or "Flax". Anyone perhaps know the correct botanical or common name? Luckily the old "Flax" kept the soil friable and moist, so it wasn't such hard or time-consuming work before my Cherry Guava could go in:

... in with the new; my very own Cherry Guava/Die Aarbeikoejawel in sy gatjie

Task 3: Preparing the broad bean bed

Seeing that winter was upon us, I was already behind on getting some winter crops into the ground. Luckily I read on the Adelaide Gardeners blog that if you delay your broad bean sowing until mid-winter they will only start flowering in spring, and therefore set more beans. This is because the warmer weather would encourage flowers all over the plant, and not just on its tip. I was banking on that to be true, since I would have to sow my broad beans well into winter (sometime in July). I decided on a narrow bed previously filled with Inca Lilies and ferns for my broad beans:

Broad bean bed/Boerboon bedding

Boy, oh boy, did that little bed give me problems! Not only did I have to dig out some sizable roots of the Acer Negundo tree in the one corner of it, I also had to battle with countless Inca Lily roots and bulbs. The bloody pests! It seems like the smallest things always give you the most hassles. Die klein jakkalsies nè! The soil was quite friable, but needed extensive digging to remove as many of the lily roots as possible. I also composted heavily, as I wasn't sure to which extent the Acer tree would've depleted the soil. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Task 4: Removing a Yucca and revitalising an old bed

The whole Yucca-debacle started when our next-door neighbours complained about the thorny Yucca near the boundary, before they took matters into own hands. They cut off all the branches facing their way, thereby creating a sad, lop-sided tree. My mother did the rest, and cut the remaining branches off, but now we were faced with the massive task of removing said stump:

Mother helps digging the Yucca out/Ma help om die Yucca recurvifolia uit te grawe

I am not kidding when I say the thing must have weighed half a ton! My brother and I could barely move the stump together, after hours of digging and wriggling it loose from it's hole. In the end the stump had to be removed with a car and steel cable. It just had to go! I had huge plans for this small bed. Something involving a Num-Num perhaps? After two devilishly difficult days this was the end result:

Future Num-Num bed? Toekomstige Noem-Noem bedding?

 Task 5: Creating a Tomatillo and Squash bed

The last sunny position of any note available in my garden was the section between a big Ice Cream bush and our braai area (divided by a rough wooden fence). Here I had to do really deep digging, as the bed also contained a flowering plant propagated by tubers. Tubers I'm fighting to this day! The big Pelargonium bush was moved out front in the bed where the Yucca used to be, and the bed was also heavily composted. I was thinking of doing some companion planting; maybe 3 or 4 tomatillos up against the wall, a few borage plants in front of them to help along pollination, and 2 or 3 butternut squashed crawling over the front section? Is this bed even big enough? We shall see...

Tomatillo and butternut bed/Tomatillo en botterskorsie bedding