Preparing for Spring!

We are like bees buzzing around our rose- and vegetable garden, preparing for Spring! My vegetable garden was a huge disappointment during the winter months. This was my first winter season of having a vegetable garden and I didn’t know the sun’s position would change so much during the winter!  Only three and a half of my 7 raised bed’s had sun during the winter.  

We planted beans in a bed which had NO sun during the winter, but I didn’t know when I planted in early autumn and they started beautiful during autumn, but when winter came they all withered and died! 

We planted two varieties of carrots (bought from two different suppliers) - the one variety sprouted very well, but then one morning there were nothing left!  Some bugs must have had a feast during the night.  The other variety didn’t even sprout.  This bed did have sun! I was so disappointed. By the time the bugs had their feast, it was too late to sow anything else and the bed stayed empty the whole winter season.

In the other sun bed, we had rainbow corn, and this was a huge surprise and treat.  We only got a few cobs of corn, but at least we had a harvest and could give away and save some seed for the next season!  By the time the corn was harvested, I was so disappointed in my vegetable garden, I just left the bed to rest for the remaining season.  

In the other bed, in full sun, we had a plentiful harvest of lettuce!

In the half bed with full sun, our broccoli grows beautiful, but it feels like ages!  We hope to pick broccoli in the next two to three weeks!

And that was it for the winter!  I need to make serious changes in my vegetable garden for the next winter.

But now for this season!  Am I so excited and have high (maybe to high) expectations!  This year I’m more prepared for spring.  I have 7 beds f to start with, in comparison with two this time last year! I have heirloom seeds and I have a little more experience now.

So what are we doing?

CJ, Josua, Andrew, David and Daniel prepared our beds.  

We added horse manure, bone meal, peanut shells (for drainage), river-bed sand, left over coffee beans and the every day’s ash from our fireplace to the beds.  

This we’ve done at the beginning of August, so when we plant by the middle of September, the horse manure would have decomposed a little.

My compost heap is not doing well. I must still be doing something wrong.  I just don’t get the temperature right.  CJ got me a few bags of horse manure and after Christo and CJ pruned two big trees in the front yard, CJ put all the little twigs 

through our shredder.  The first two days the temperature was high and steam came out of the heap.  But a week later it was cold!  I don’t think it gets enough son.  As a result I can still not use what is in my compost heap for the beds.

Christo and CJ made me 3 light boxes, with growing lamps, for my seedlings to germinate. Having the seedlings in a controlled area helps increase the germination rate of the seeds. This way I can win a few extra weeks into the planting season.  By the time the weather takes a turn for the better, my seedlings wiild be strong little plants, and I can replant them in my prepared beds. Luckily we don't have frost in the Cape.

Heidi-Mari and I prepared seedling soil for our seed trays.

The soil for my previous seasons was not what it should be.  The seedlings were a pale green, a sign of nitrogen shortage, due to ‘too fresh horse manure’.  This time we could do it right! 

  

My Worm farm had done well over the past few months.  I’m tapping off a good amount of worm tea every second week and I got some vermicompost to put in the seedling soil, mixed with sifted potting soil and peat moss.  This ‘recipe’ we got from Jane’s Delicious Garden book.

After preparing the seedling soil we could fill our seedling trays, 27 of them. We emulate the conditions a seed would find in nature.  To do this we created two levels soil. The lower one firmly pushed down, for anchoring the plant's roots and a top one loosely sprinkled on top in which the seed can germinate.

We planted lettuce, tomatoes, onions, butternuts, squash, peas, beans, watermelons, basil and coriander and put them in the light boxes.  After 3 days the first seeds were germinating!  

It is so exciting to go check which seeds germinated every morning.  Heidi-Mari, Danika, Josua and I take turns to spray our seedlings every day.

In our rose garden we also spent some time.  Last year I attended Ludwig’s finger pruning demonstration and found it so helpful.  This year I attend the winter pruning demonstration and did my own rose pruning.  It was so much fun!

After pruning we worked in a thick layer peanut shells, for irrigation and plenty of horse manure.  I also gave every rose bush a good shot of Bokashi.

The first roses budded beautiful after pruning.

The Cape had a dry winter season, although we are a winter rainfall season.  August was a sunny month and after only twee weeks the roses looked like this.

Christo and the boys also pruned some trees in the front yard and afterwards showed the little ones how to use a saw, cutting the “logs” into smaller pieces. 

I observed a tendency with Home School Parents to always get someone from outside to teach their children a skill.   Isn’t it much more fun when Mom and Dad teach their children a skill themselves?  And if Mom or Dad don’t have a certain skill, why not study it together.  

Our boys are learning all their life skills from their Dad. Over this weekend the boys will help their dad adding an extra consulting room to his health shop. They will learn carpentry, painting and practical thinking. 

I teach my daughters the skill of cooking, baking, sewing, all by myself.  I couldn’t sew, but taught myself and now I pass it on to my daughters. Heidi-Mari and I are teaching ourselves the art of cardmaking and it is enriching our relationship. Together we also enjoy experimenting with different ingredients in baking. Isn’t this what home schooling is all about?

When we started our raised beds, we used all our available finances to build the beds.  We hoped to have finances as soon as possible to put concrete blogs and pebbles between the beds.  The irrigation system spills water between the beds and one has to ‘swim’ inbetween the beds to pick vegetables or tend to the plants and beds.  

But it was only now that we could start buying concrete blogs and pebbles and we’re not finished yet, but at least we’ve started.  

It looks beautiful. 

We still need to clean up loads of garden rubbish, piled up over the years.  

But Rome wasn’t build in one day!  Everything in due time.

For now, we will nurture our seedlings, sow some more seeds in trays, work in extra coffee beans and ash into the vegetable beds, replant our young strawberry plants and look forward to planting day!

With love 

Linnie

God did it again...

Yes, God watered my garden again! This time literally within 2 hours after I planted my first vegetables in my brand new raised bed vegetable garden!

But first I have to share with you my emotional connection with and the dreams I had for this vegetable garden.

My story starts decades ago when I was about 6 years old. My parents lived in Bloemfontein in the city, but both grew up on farms just outside Bloemfontein (Free Sate), in Bainsvlei. During this time my grandpa on my mother’s side divided his farm into six, one for each of his children. My dad, longing to go back to the farm, moved us to the farm. My mom didn’t want to live on a farm though, but my dad convinced her to move back, by building her the house of her dreams on the farm. A huge kitchen, with lots of cupboards, spacey bedrooms, an on suite bathroom, it wasn’t the norm in those days. Large windows for letting in lots of sunshine. I can still remember (remember I was only 6 years old) how my dad instructed the architect to let the house face in exactly the right direction, to allow lots of sun in the winter, to give the house a warm atmosphere during the freezing cold winter and only a little sun in the summer, so it could be cool and pleasant in the terrible heat of the Free State!

My dad worked five days a week, building steam trains, but every spare moment he had, he was living his dream on the farm… planting vegetables! He planted rows and rows of vegetables; carrots, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, spinach, cucumbers, strawberries, rhubarb and sold it weekly on the town market. Those days the vegetable market was especially for supermarkets and restaurants and happened on a Wednesday morning. So, every Tuesday night at six o’clock the truck, heavily loaded with the healthiest and most beautiful vegetables would head for the market. We had to unload the vegetables ourselves, at our allocated bay. The vegetables had to be displayed in the most attractive way to attract the buyers. Since my dad didn’t have a son and I was the older of his two daughters, dad and I had to unload and pack the vegetables. These were very special times, which I cherish even more now that he went on to heaven, this October it will be seven years.

Over the years I longed to have my own vegetable garden! After Christo and I got married, it took us a few years to settle, moving from Bloemfontein in the Free State to Durbanville in the Western Cape and then we rented for several years, every time having an excuse NOT to start a vegetable garden. I did try to grow a few herbs in pots though.

Then 5years ago, the house we rented at that stage, was sold and we had to move for the fourth time in six years. I was three months pregnant by the time we had to be out of the house. The previous rented house was also sold at the end of our lease and I was also pregnant. This time I cried out to the Lord: “Please Lord, I need your approval for this. I don’t mind to move every 18 months to 2 years, but then I wanted to know it is the best you intended for me and it is part of Your plan for my life”. Over the past few years we lost everything due to Christo’s business going south. At that stage we didn’t have any debt, but we also didn’t have much and was pregnant with our fifth child. I wanted to make sure the enemy was not stealing God’s first prize from me. During this time it happened that we received a financial gift that would enable us to pay the deposit on a house. But still a loan had to be approved by the bank and this is where I cried out to the Lord. I’ve asked God to clearly direct our path and I will be at peace with His directions! If it wasn’t His desire for us to own our own house I will accept it, but I also knew I am the daughter of the King of the Universe and I knew I could lay before my Dad my heart’s desire – to own my own house, not move again, where I can raise my children… and have my own vegetable garden!

While I was seeking God’s directions and searching His Word, He one day clearly gave me a promise through 2 Samuel 7:9-11. This was one of those rear occasions where, although the passage was specifically for Israel, I could sense God meant it for me personally:
“And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house.”

This was powerful! With these verses engraved in our hearts we went out and applied for a loan to buy a house with a beautiful rose garden in the front yard. Needless to say the loan was approved and six weeks later we moved into our own house.

Now I could start my vegetable garden, right? Wrong! I was four months pregnant, exhausted after the move and not having a good pregnancy. There was no way for me to lay out a vegetable garden. Then seven months after Andrew’s birth, I was pregnant again! This time I had an even worse pregnancy. Between David and Daniel we once tried a vegetable garden, only to discover vegetables don’t like clay soil, the carrots didn’t even sprout! I laid aside this one desire of my heart, although I couldn’t understand why God fulfilled all the parts of the promise in 2 Samuel 7:9-11, except the one ‘He will plant us’.

Wow, are you still with me? Such a long intro!

Then a few weeks ago I saw a link on another blog to a vegetable gardening blog. I knew the author of the blog through the home schooling community, and I started reading her postings. I was intrigued by her raised bed vegetable garden, but didn’t want to go through all the excitement to be disappointed again and put it out of my mind. The next Saturday, with no expectation I told Christo about the vegetable garden blog and the interesting raised bed idea. Immediately he grabbed the idea and started to investigate the possibilities.

Within a few days it was clear my dream was coming true!! I’m going to have a vegetable garden!

This is how my vegetable garden had developed over the last two weeks. Thanks to my wonderful husband, who put in a lot of planning, physical effort and finances and my very strong eldest son!


The piece of backyard that has full sun the whole day. Ideal for our vegetable garden, but untidy and crowded by neglected trees and bushes.

Christo, CJ and Josua are taking out the trees and bushes.

Christo and CJ are building the first two raised beds and two of the three compost containers.











CJ is preparing the ground for the first raised bed, with our clay soil, peanut shells (for drainage) and horse manure.

We are planting the first organic vegetables – lettuce, tomatoes, parsley and basil.












Me putting toilet rolls around the stems of the little plants to prevent cutworm getting to the plants.







My vegetable garden on Sunday morning, after God watered it with the best water I could ask for – rain!

I can only add to the Amen of Eph. 30:20-21
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen”

Thank you Lord, you blessed me more than I could ask or think off!

Planting Strawberries and Flowers on Spring Equinox Day!

Tuesday the 22nd of September was Spring Equinox Day and we planted two strawberry plants and some flowers around my rose bed.












On Saturday I attended a finger pruning course by Ludwig Taschner at Ludwig Roses Winelands. I was amazed at how much bigger the rosebushes that arrived from Gauteng on Thursday were than the roses from the Cape. They were all pruned on the same day, the 15th of July, but the roses of Gauteng were about double the size of those from the Cape, due to our cold, rainy weather in comparison to Gauteng’s warm weather since the 1st of September.

But since Spring Equinox Day the weather started to change a little to the warmer side for the Cape. We have sunnier, blue sky weather now, with only a few, thin, wispy, high clouds and no wind. And the temperature is climbing accordingly.

Since Monday I’m literally measuring my rose bushes to see how much it grew since the previous day! I can’t wait to see my roses in full bloom, especially after everything I learned at the finger pruning course. I never even knew there was something like finger pruning and thought the most important and only pruning was winter pruning! On the contrary you cannot really go wrong with winter pruning, the rose bush will grow again, but finger/summer pruning is the way to manipulate your rose bush to have roses from October right through until late in autumn. I also bought Ludwig Taschner’s DVD on summer pruning.

Back to our planting on Spring Equinox day - we had so much fun planting the flowers and strawberries. Thanks to this website and blog, we could easily find everything we needed to know about planting strawberries. Thank you Wendy!

Planting the strawberries:

The children can’t wait to pick strawberries from their own strawberry plants!

Planting the flowers:

Everyone helped to plant the flowers!

I’m also starting a vegetable garden this spring. But you have to wait to hear my full story and see everything we did until after the weekend. Yesterday, we drove to Somerset West to buy organic vegetable seeds and on Saturday we will buy some organic vegetable plants at the Stellenbosch Organic Market. I’m excited like a little girl about this new project we’ve started!

Hope you’re enjoying spring as much as we do!