5 May - Red sunflowers and heirloom seeds

 

الرحمن الرحیم بسم الله

 

5 May 2014.

This morning the sun seeps through and I am happy that we can shift the compost heaps, do some serious weeding and plant all kinds of exciting new plants. So as soon as the children have left for school, I whizz together some juice, yogisip, a carrot, half an apple, a handful of oats and a teaspoon of honey and sit down with my smoothie and contemplate the work in the garden.

Alhamdulilaa, how I love the rain in Cape Town, daai mot reentjie. It is constant like a drip system ensuring that the plants are watered deeply. But the wind that deposited the rain yesterday, was a bit hectic early morning ne, my plante was omgeklap. Especially the ones that were just loosely staked and the bottles with cuttings lay there all verlep.



Mikaeel

All the strawberry plants have recovered from the shock of transplanting and new leaves emerge from the core of the plant.  Now, to trim off all the floppy long leaves and allow it to stabilise. In the winter the plants and roots grow steadily and inshaAllah, if these plants do as well as last year we will have a bumper crop for the summer. I can just imagine my grandson Mikaeel running from patch to patch, eating until he can’t anymore. There are still quite a bit of plants and those we are putting in bags to pack in trays because there is no more space left to plant them, we’ll line them up against a sunny wall. Maybe we’ll plant some in deep gutters and to hang them on the walls.  To feed a family of four with this vita-packed fruit for next summer, now is the time to plant about 25 plants.







With strawberries one may plant onions and garlic, spinach or lettuce in between the furrows and
interspersed as good companions. But the best companion is borage. I have yet to use borage in salads though. It is also recommended to replant strawberries in new beds every third year to reduce the risk of disease. Strawberries can also be planted close to other berry plants like blue berries, raspberries and black berries, which also benefit from the onion family (alliums) close by. But enough already about strawberries.  We visited a project in Constantia, where we bought some clean seed – calabash, giant pumpkin and red sunflower. The way they plant the calabash is so exciting. Wattle wood poles are planted in two rows with a few knocked across on the top to form a canopy. The calabash plants are then trained to grow over and the calabash hang on the underside.  Most of the plot is covered with shredded branches, every path or open space.  So the wood chips are underfoot and trampled into mulch, clever ne!


I placed red sweet potatoes in water jars to encourage root formation and growth. The slips of 


planting turnip seeds

these plants are then taken off and planted deeply in rich soil, the heads should stick out. Any piece of stem in the soil encourages root formation too. Last year I literally threw peels into the garden and had quite a few sweet potatoes creeping around the beds. The pine apple top has good roots and is ready to be planted – did you know that pineapples are berries too? 

When I smell the perfume of the herbs in the garden it reminds me of Shakespeare’s garden in Johannesburg.  In the morning when Abu and I walked the children to school, we would continue walking briskly to the JHB Botanical garden. We’d walk right up a lekker steep hill and there, surrounded by a bay leaf hedge was the herb garden. An arena of herbs of all kinds, a solitary crab apple tree on a slope and a mini amphitheater in the centre.

Then we would walk through the most beautiful oaks and maples and gardens and back down towards the Emmerentia Lake where canoeists would be gliding their oars through the water and the ducks would mill around in the hope of a muffin crumb or two. By that time the gardens would be abuzz with joggers, walkers with their dogs and cyclists. Surrounding our house were many mulberry trees – passersby would help themselves to handfuls on their way to work, children would break off branches for their silk caterpillars and birds would feast on the topmost berries. Sometimes the kids and I would climb up to the tallest branches armed with plastic bags and pick ‘n eat. And I would freeze some to throw into early morning smoothies.

The compost is almost ready; I am so impatient to plant in the huge square crate. I have packed the base with stones for drainage and will line it with builder’s plastic so the wood won’t rot inshaAllah.The compost is really a huge saving for us, a cube can cost between R350 to R450. Without calculating the bags we bought, and we used at least five cubes already as well as about 4 cubes of manure and topsoil.  We have started to clean up and compost a border section at the gate against the wall. The soil just needs a bit of a dig over and then we will plant some wild garlic borders and some beautiful purple shrubs, maybe I should get some St Joseph’s lilies to complete that patch inshaAllah.

 

Saturday, we drove around in Schaapkraal, through little dirt roads and over hills. You will not believe the tracts of land filled with rows and rows of vegetables; it is such a beautiful sight – the bread basket of Cape Town. This prime farming land Subhanallah – I really hope that this land will continue to be used for farming and not to build houses inshaAllah.

 

Imagine this entire sector going entirely green and organic. Imagine training for aspiring farmers being available and support and resources made accessible. Imagine us sharing our seeds and boycotting all of the patented ones. Imagine the inheritance that you leave for your children and grand children are seeds. Imagine that!

Anyway,  grow and plant your own from seed. 

Hasta la vista compadres!

Yasmine