uithou en aanhou

It is actually amazing that this blog still exists. I just received a notification from blogger about it and I honestly completely forgot that I created this as  a way to remember my gardening trial and errors. I never stopped gardening.

I stay in Cape Town and we have been in the grips of a severe drought since 2015. This year is actually the first time that our dams are getting full. Last year this time the combined dam levels were at 37.5% and now the levels are close to 80%.  Praise God for answered prayers.

The garden  has been watered from borehole water and if any fall, rainwater.  The whole saving water has been a lesson on its own. I learnt that our borehole has too much iron and it killed all my root vegetables. It also kills all the snails. So we had to install a filter and a pump and now we can use the water for irrigation and laundry.

Currently growing in my garden is broccoli, butter lettuce, tomatoes, onions, broad beans and spinach . Rocket has gone to seed and I managed to harvest 2 squash from a plant that self seeded.

I sowed eggplant seeds on Saturday  and am holding thumbs that it will take since I have never had success with it.


One of the greatest lessons I learnt in my gardening journey is that soil preparation and watering is key. Without those 2 all the minerals you add to the garden counts for nothing.

Stay blessed.
Tuinmeisie

Broad beans...really worth it?

This year I planted broad beans for the first time. I never tasted fresh ones and was curious. It is a fairly easy plant to grow and once it starts to bear beans it does not stop. Taking into consideration my lazy way of gardening this is a perfect plant. It grew despite only getting water from rain and I never fertilized it. I just planted it in composted soil around June 2014 and left it to its own devices. As it is reaching the end of its season; (summer is starting here in the Southern Hemisphere) I am pondering whether I will plant it again next season. I have limited space and only need to plant vegetables that we will actually eat and that produce lots. We harvested the broad beans about 3 or 4 times, enough for 2 adults. It tastes amazing, but the effort that goes into shelling the beans versus the amount of beans one gets, make me wonder if it is worth it. My family likes the beans and it does taste great, so if I have space I will plant it, but I will definitely not go out of my way to ensure they are in my garden.

The pictures above shows the amount of beans you get vs the number of pods. Those pods are huge but only holds about 4 beans.

Corn and butternut harvest

On Saturday, 05/03/2011, I harvested corn and a butternut. It was only one butternut because the other one was attacked by pests and I have one plant. There is still one flower on the plant, but I am not sure if it will still produce another butternut.

The corn was just delicious and 2 of them I almost left too late on the plant and some of the kernels started going brown.

I transplanted my first batch of cauliflower seedlings and planted brussels sprouts, jalapeno peppers and some more cauliflower.