Where we began – August 2017 photos

As I mentioned in a previous post, I started my little veggie garden/farming project in August, 2017, making it a little over three months now. (As an aside, August in South Africa is the end of Winter and the optimal time to start planting bed preparation and soil enrichment.)

And, in three short months, it’s gone from a grass-filled, dry, dilapidated space to a thriving garden from which we can harvest food on a weekly basis.

There is an existing shade cloth structure which was in desperate need of repair when we began the project.  It was overgrown, dry, dusty, and had grass growing to knee height.

We first started clearing the grass away from inside to allow us to move around more freely, then we began clearing the tree branches and leaves from the roof. These had accumulated over the years and had many little insect (especially spiders) residents. Needless to say, our improvised methods of cleaning the roof, which included hitting at it with brooms, left us full of dust and unwelcome visitors. But, eventually, we managed to clear the top.

Most of the surrounding trees were cut back to avoid the leaves and debris gathering on the roof again.

This is what it looked like when we started (first week of August):

Later, we then started to patch the holes in the shade cloth, and we sewed the panels which had either been cut to allow for the clearing of debris, leaves, and branches, or which had split from age back together. It was very good exercise for the arms, as one has to work above one’s head to reach. Luckily, the structure is not that high! Otherwise, I bet we would have still been there repairing shade cloth now. 😛

Once the actual structure had been repaired and the area cleared, we could start bed planning and preparation.  We decided to go with the keyhole approach, so that the beds would be a bit more accessible. We left a wide, main path and a secondary path, connected by a shorter path. As you can see in the photo below, we used dry grass as a mulch, which was mostly due to convenience with the plot having an abundance of dry grass and leaves.

Second week of August:

 

Towards the end of August, we started our first planting. Yay! All the hard prep  had finally paid off! 😀 Most of the seedlings came from my favourite seed and seedling supplier – Living Seeds from Henley-on-Klip. When planting the seedlings, we added a layer of seedling mix from Just Nature Organics to give them a good boost and because we didn’t know what kind of soil we were really dealing with yet. You can also see in the second photo that we put up an extra layer of bird mesh fencing around the base of the shade cloth structure because the shade cloth had so many holes towards the bottom.

Ps. The lemons in the photos came in with the mulch. 😛

So that was August in a nutshell – lots of manual labour, sweat, and hard work. But also a great reward with the first planting. 🙂

It’s a process – Growing from nothing to something

Three months ago, at the beginning of August 2017, I decided to turn a piece of my family’s plot into a vegetable garden based on permaculture growing principles.

It’s a work in progress, and it’s not easy, but it is definitely rewarding – in more ways than one! Of course, we get to grow our own food, and that is a huge plus. I am also learning a multitude of new skills and building essential knowledge. But, for me, personally, I get to spend time OUTDOORS in the sun, working with soil, plants, and living things. And this, perhaps, has been my biggest reward so far. I get to exercise, get fit, get a tan (although, I must say, I’ve always loved my porcelain-perfect skin), AND soak up the sun (which is a must for my chornic-yet-hopefully-soon-to-be-a-thing-of-the-past vitamin D deficiency).

I am in my late twenties, and I finished my last degree just over a year and a half ago. The process of trying to find direction after studying was and still is a challenge, and not always a good one. The endless feeling of being lost seldom leaves me. But, creating this vegetable garden has given me some sort of path to follow.

It all happened very organically, so to speak. My good friend from Urban Food Forest South Africa started to get me interested about permaculture and growing my own food ever since we became friends in late 2016. Even though I stay in a duplex with a very small (and paved) garden, she encouraged me to try my hand at growing a few things. She then promptly and very generously gave me my very first seedlings (a mix of lettuces, kale, spinach, and other plants) to try. Now, I wasn’t exactly a first-time gardener, as I had always loved planting things and nurturing them, but I had mostly grown flowers, some basic herbs, and house plants. As far back as I can remember, plants have always been a part of my life, especially with my mom encouraging us to plant flowers and herbs as kids.

I had a small number of plants already – very low-maintenance and water-wise plants, as there was (and still largely is) an extreme drought in South Africa. So, I thought a few more couldn’t hurt, and so I accepted the gift, and she sent me on a magical journey of discovery. I slowly began to want to grow more and more plants, and I would tell anyone who would listen about my new-found hobby and, especially, about permaculture. Most people just dismiss permaculture as “hippy nonsense”, or I get told that I am “one of those environmentalists”. But, it isn’t about being an environmentalist or a hippy; it’s about being interested in food security, in future generations having access to healthy, pesticide-free, nutritious food.

So, come August of this year, I decided to ask my parents if I could plant a few things on the family plot. They agreed and then the (slow but steady) journey of turning a dry, dusty, and grassy corner of the plot into an abundant vegetable garden began. Sometimes, it’s all too overwhelming, and sometimes, I lose hope, but seeing the progress we’ve made helps me to want to carry on trying. And that is all we can do – TRY. (Before and after photos to follow soon!)

We started small and having been growing 😉 from strength to strength ever since. With the help and expertise of Urban Food Forest,  and the support (both financial and otherwise) of my family, the little piece of grass-filled, dry land, basically the nothing, has turned into something to be proud of and something that is the first step on the road to being more self-sustainable, more eco-aware, and more earth-friendly. It is still small, but who knows what it could turn into, and that is the fun part!