Down here in the Southern Hemisphere the shortest day of the year less than a week away, and we’re counting down to planting season. Just this past weekend in the rain, my lovely husband was chopping a great chunk out of the lawn so that I can start planting fruit and vegetables in our new garden (I’m starting planting now because winter crops rock and I have Swiss chard and spinach germinated and almost ready to be planted out). I have sowed peas that will be ready for harvesting in around 3 months time, and will be sowing carrots and onions over the next week.

But enough about my garden for now, I want to tell you about this this countdown.

It turns out that Jason Hartman (you know, the one who won South African Idol) is a bit of a gardening fundi (who knew?), and he and a couple of other guys called Scott Colin Cundill and Brendan Greene (they’re the admins of the Facebook group for Countdown to Planting Season so I’m assuming here) have got this project going where they are asking South Africans (both in their capacities as businesses and individuals) to plant at least one organic vegetable on the 22nd of September 2009 (Spring Equinox).

At the time of blogging this, they already have over 7000 individual and 131 businesses who have signed up to plant something on the day. Some of the businesses have committed to pretty big planting projects (some of those with land will be planting big food gardens), and others are providing seeds or seedlings to their employees for them to plant at home.

Here’s a bit of blurb about it from their Facebook page:

If ever the people of this country needed something to unite us all, this is it.

We are in a period of darkness. Economic darkness, emotional darkness, social darkness. Water systems are failing, we are running out of power, the food we eat is shocking and there is never enough money. As Phil Collins wrote: “There’s too many people, making too many problems. And not much love to go round.” And all the decision makers do is fight about what the next step should be.

Well, there is one solution that they ALL agree on. In fact, this is probably the only solution that:

• All doctors agree is good for your health
• All psychologists agree brings relief to anxiety
• All politicians agree is a boost for the economy
• All teachers is agree is enlightening for our children
• All religions agree will help you feel closer to God
• All environmentalists agree is the first step to saving the planet

The 22nd of September is the Spring Equinox. On this day, we request that a million South Africans plant an organic vegetable. Just one, that’s all. If you’re a veteran, then it should be easy for you. If you know nothing about how to do this, then we’ll teach you when you register on the website.

Okay, I’m not so sure about the doom and gloom “time of darkness” stuff, but I do think it’s a project worth jumping into with both gumboots. So sign up here and here and get something planted on the 22nd September, you may even find (if you haven’t done this before) that food gardening is your new favourite hobby.

Thanks to Pia for the heads up!

We started the tour at the BP service station on Rosmead Avenue where we were met by Rob Small, a friendly and enthusiastic man who works tirelessly to bring in funds for Abalimi, as well as running regular Tuesday morning tours of the gardens in a bid to win over more supporters to the project. Rob overflows with passion for the Abalimi project and what it is doing for people in Cape Town’s townships. His enthusiasm is infectious and seeps into everything he says.

Fezeka community garden stands at the foot of a huge pylon

Rob lead the way into Gugulethu and Fezeka, where he explained how 40% of the residents of Cape Town’s informal settlements are unemployed, and where there’s poverty, there is also hunger. The core business of Abalimi is to combat poverty by growing food sustainably (and organically) both at home and in community gardens, and to further green the township areas by planting water wise indigenous trees in the schools and streets of the area. Rob explained that when the Abalimi project started 15 years ago, their aim was to help people achieve subsistence from their growing activities. These days they have surpassed that and are aiming at providing a livelihood for those who before had a hard time even feeding themselves.

We were shown around Fezeka Garden and met some of the mama’s who run the place. There are very few men involved in growing community gardens on the Cape Flats, the majority of the farmers are women.

Mama Maggie transporting manure to her crops with a wheelbarrow

We were able to take photographs of the gardens and ask Rob questions about how Abalimi facilitates the creation of these food gardens. He explained that Abalimi “subsidises” the farmers to the tune of R150 per farmer per month (that’s around US $15 a month) by providing training, manure and set-up and maintenance of an irrigation system for each garden. This figure is much, much lower than the subsidies provided by government to commercial farmers. Abalimi also helps the farmers gain access to council land and negotiates on their behalf to obtain access to water, for example.

From Fezeka we moved on to the Harvest of Hope packing shed in Phillipi. Harvest of Hope is the marketing and selling arm of Abalimi. They collect the vegetables from the farmers once a week and take them back to the packing shed to wash and prepare for delivery. The vegetables make up weekly organic vegetable boxes that are distributed via some of Cape Town’s southern suburbs schools. (It is possible to buy a Harvest of Hope veg box even if you don’t have children at one of the selected schools, see below for more details).

I was blown away by the amazing fresh smell as we walked into the packing shed. It was a beautiful experience.

These vegetables are picked in the morning and delivered in the afternoon. You won't find fresher.

Exquisite care is taken to present the vegetables beautifully.

How to get your hands on a Harvest of Hope organic veg box

You’ll either need to have a child in one of the following southern suburb Cape Town schools (Herschel, Micklefield, Springfield, WPPS, Greenfield, Oakhurst, Rondebosch), be a student at UCT, or you can collect from The Green House at the Montebello Design Centre in Newlands.

Either way, contact Harvest of Hope at harvestofhope@abalimi.org.za or call them on 021-371 1653 to place your order.

A medium veg box (for a family of 4) is R95 a week and a small veg box (for 2) is R65 a week at time of publishing this post. I think you’ll agree that this is wonderful value compared to some other veg box schemes available locally, and you’ll be getting your vegetables the very same day that they are picked, with all their vitamins and goodness intact.

Other ways to get involved with this awesome project

Donate: Any amount, big or small, will be welcomed by Abalimi Bezekhaya for the continuation of this project. Information on how to make a donation is found here, on the Abalimi website.

Volunteer: Volunteers are welcomed with open arms at Abalimi. You can help in a community garden, or at the packing shed, or by doing deliveries to schools. You choose how you would like to be involved. If you are interested, I would recommend going on one of Rob’s tours to get an idea of how it all works and to meet some of the farmers before deciding how you would like to volunteer your time.

Take a tour: Rob Small runs tours of the project every Tuesday morning, by appointment. Please contact him for more info at info@abalimi.org.za

Home Remedies:How To Polish Shoes With A Banana

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” – William Morris.

You don’t have to be a farmer to grow your own food, just a little patch in your back garden should enable you to grow a fair bit of your own produce. But some people just aren’t keen on the idea of giving over their lawns and ornamental gardens to the planting of food plants for fear that they’ll lose the attractiveness of the gardens that they delight in. It doesn’t have to be like that. There are lots of beautiful plants and flowers that are edible, or extremely useful in the growing of an organic food garden.

Removing food miles from your dinner plate is such a great way to go green and really cut back your carbon footprint considerably. So how about having a go this coming summer at growing something that you can proudly put on a plate and feed to family and friends, knowing that you’ve grown it yourself.

There are four ways that you could incorporate some beautiful food into your garden.

1. Permanent beds of perennial or self-seeding plants
Having permanent beds in your garden provides stability for wildlife over the winter, but also means less work for you once they’ve been planted. There are a few herbs that suit this job perfectly: rosemary, echinacea, bergamot, lemon balm, evening primrose, mint and oregano. Nasturtiums are also great, but you will need to keep them in check. This sort of bed looks great in between vegetable beds that lie empty in Spring.

2. Annual beds
Include an edible flower bed in your rotation with vegetables to have extras for salads, plants that attract pests away from your vegetables and some pretty flowers for the table. Calendula (marigolds) and nasturtiums are my favourite flowers for this purpose. You could also try pansies.

3. Feral flowers
If you’re brave enough to, set your flowers free to self-seed and grow randomly. Self-seeders like evening primrose, common mallow, nasturtiums and calendula can decide for themselves where to enjoy their next life-cycle. But you’ll have to take them in hand if they spread too far for your liking.

4. Vegetable flowers
The benefits of allowing some of your vegetable plants to go to flower is their bug attracting power, the fact that you’ll be able to save seed from the plant for your next vegetable crop, and that you can enjoy the blooms in your salads too. Leave some of your chives, rocket and radishes to flower for just those reasons. Other plants give you both the flowers and the vegetable, like baby marrows.

For more edible flower ideas, have a look here.

Photo credit: startcooking kathy & amandine

Gardening is the only unquestionably useful job. - George Bernard Shaw

If you’re into sustainable living, or getting into it, the best way to green your food is to start growing your own vegetables, herbs and fruit. You may think that’s not possible if you live in a flat in the city. Well, not only is it possible, but it’s a great stress-buster and a good way to cut food miles.

Preparing your patch

Turning lawn/grass/weeds into a vegetable garden without digging – The sheet-mulch method of getting a growing area ready is one of the true wonders of permaculture. There’s no need to spend hours weeding or lifting turf. Just do this!
1. Cover the area that you want to use with thick cardboard, newspaper, and old natural-fibre clothes and carpets. Be sure to have a good overlap to prevent the weeds from finding their way though. If you’re covering long weeds, just knock them down flat before covering them.
2. Weigh the sheets down with about 10-15cm of rotted manure, compost, kitchen scraps, old leaves or seaweed.
3. The best crop to put in at this stage is potatoes, which do very well in new sheet mulch. Using a sharp knife or screwdriver, make a hole through the mulch and sheet into the ground. Scrape away some of the mulch around the hole and replace with a few handfuls of soil, then place your chitted potato into this. Keep doing this until you’ve filled your patch with potatoes.
4. Cover it all with about 20cm of straw, grass clippings, wood chips or shredded newspaper.
Not only will you have a crop of potatoes for your trouble, but by next year it will all have broken down into lovely fertile soil that you can grow all sorts of lovely vegetables in. Once your growing area is established, make a border for it by burying empty glass bottles upside down in the soil, or re-using old roof tiles or railway sleepers.

Container gardening – Gardens can be made anywhere. If you’re limited to a small courtyard, terrace, balcony or roof-garden then container gardening is the way forward for you. In the interest of keeping your garden eco-friendly, seek out items that can be recycled into container gardens. Here are some ideas to get you started:
1. Building materials – old chimney pots, butler sinks and baths.
2. Buckets and barrels – ask for these from catering companies, make sure they were for food use.
3. Car tyres – these are excellent for growing potatoes.
Make sure your containers have a hole or holes for drainage. Then add broken tiles or old rubble or pebbles to aid drainage. Fill with compost, preferably home made.

Indoor gardening – You can grow your own vegetables and herbs in your kitchen. This clever city vegetable garden is designed for city dwellers without gardens. It’s fully mobile (it has wheels and is light) and is made from 100% recyclable aluminium. Available from ECOutlet for £89.99. To get the city garden ready to plant, you will need 1 x 10 litre bag of substrate or compost and 2 x 10 litre bags of soil.

If you’re so pressed for space that you can’t even fit in a city garden, you could grow your own herbs on the kitchen window with one of these cute bean pods. They come with basil, chives or parsley seeds. Attach the pod by its sucker to the kitchen window and have fresh herbs always available when you’re cooking. The bean pod is made in the UK, so it has a minimal carbon footprint, and it is reusable. Available from Nigel’s Eco Store for £6.99.

Make your own compost

In the garden – There are a number of different composting methods for the garden.
1. The French method: no equipment necessary.
2. The Berkley Thermophilic Compost method: 18 days to beautiful compost.
3. Build a compost box, fill it with kitchen and garden waste and wait 12-18 months: for the DIY enthusiast.
4. Buy a composter, fill it with kitchen and garden waste and wait 12-18 months: for everyone else.

Balcony and courtyard composting – Vermicomposting (composting with worms) is a great way to produce lovely compost for your container garden. To get started you can either make your own wormery, or buy one. Feed your worms on raw or cooked vegetable waste from the kitchen.

Indoor composting – You can compost right in your kitchen, it doesn’t smell and it doesn’t take up much room. You will need to kit yourself out with an all-waste kitchen composter kit. All food waste, including meat and cooked foods, can be composted in this system. The composter takes two weeks worth of waste, and the waste takes two weeks to break down to compost, so it’s recommended to buy a kit of two composters and use them simultaneously.

Harvest rainwater

If you have an outdoor area with a gutter downpipe coming into it, you can collect rainwater. You’ll need to fit a water butt to the downpipe and before long you’ll have lots of rainwater for watering your garden with.

All that’s left to do now is to get planting. The sky’s the limit, but remember that you’ll be eating what you grow, so plant things that you like eating. To get you started, here are some suggestions:

Indoor planting – parsley, mint, chives, thyme, basil, American cress, rocket, mustards, lettuces, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and chillies.

Containter planting – fruit trees on dwarfing rootstock, soft fruits, most vegetables, potatoes and herbs.

Outdoor planting – anything you like, subject to climate and growing conditions.

The term “permaculture” was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, and one of his students, David Holmgren. It is a contraction of “permanent agriculture” or “permanent culture” and involves the harmonious integration of landscape and people to provide food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. The conscious design and maintenance of these productive permaculture ecosystems provides the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.

You can apply the principles of permaculture to your life no matter where you choose to hang your hat. Urban permaculture is as relevant as rural permaculture, and by changing the way we look at the mechanics of our lives we can enjoy richer, more bountiful lives while lessening our impact on the planet.

Permaculture – the basics
Permaculture, a beginner’s guide – read Graham Burnett’s online permaculture primer
Essence of Permaculture – free eBook by David Holmgren (pdf)

Examples of permaculture in action
A mobile home permaculture garden by Aranya.
Landmatters co-operative permaculture project in Devon.
An edible roof garden in Reading town centre.
Bungala Ridge Permaculture Gardens is home to Beverly Paine, author, home-educator and permaculture enthusiast.

Permaculture blogs
Permaculture in Brittany – Stuart and Gabrielle live on a three-acre site in Brittany, France. Read their story as it happens.
Permaculture at Chickenshack – the blog of permaculture teacher, facilitator and project manager Steve Wilson Jones.

Read a book

Take a course

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Scott Meister presents a video explaining how to make compost with the Berkley Thermophilic Compost method. This method of composting takes advantage of thermophilic bacteria that quickly breakdown waste and turn it into nutritious black gold for your garden in around 18 days. Scott runs the The Potato House Permaculture Pension near Lake Yamanaka, the largest of five lakes at the base of world famous Mt. Fuji, Japan.

While you look forward to improving your soil with some lovely compost, here are a few ideas for what to do in the garden during October:

Plant garlic
October is the very best time to get your garlic in the ground for next summer’s harvest. The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight sells a great Garlic Lovers Selection Pack of 10 bulbs for planting, including full instructions on how to grow, how to avoid rust, and how to plait your garlic after harvest.

Sow for winter & early spring crops
Now’s the time to sow your spring cabbage, spring peas and winter greens. Here are some winter green ideas:

Saisai aka Leaf Radish: Grow in a greenhouse or cold frame over the winter. Good for salads and stir-fry.

Minutina: All year round salad leaf, and you can eat the flower buds too.

Mustards: You get lots of different ones, and most are winter hardy. Nice in salads and stir-fries.

There are lots of other vegetables that can go in at this time of year too: turnips, radishes, broad beans, carrots and spring onions.

Hoe weeds.

Pick and store herbs.

Save seeds.

It’s harvest time.
There’s plenty ready in the garden now: pears, raspberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, beetroot, beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, peppers, potatoes, radish, shallots, spinach, Swiss chard & more.

Maintenance
Cut down cane fruits when they’ve finished fruiting. Prune fruit trees once the fruit has been harvested.

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In June 2007 representatives from the United Kingdom organic sector urged the Environment minister David Miliband not to allow organic food to be contaminated by genetically modified organisms. It is evident according to the Food and Drink Federations organic group that one of the main reasons consumers buy organic is to avoid eating food contaminated with G.M. The government is proposing to increase the threshold for G.M. contamination of organic food from 0.1% to 0.9%. This move is fiercely opposed by the Soil Association who argue that it is not economically sensible for the government to tamper with current regulations given that the organic market is one of the fastest growing areas of the U.K. economy. It has been confirmed by the Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers however that they would maintain the current non G.M. Standard of 0.1% whatever is decided by government. The government’s stance is in line with the E.U. regulation recently adopted. Although G.M. companies were consulted by government it was reported that no direct contact was made with an organic business. Which might lead us to conclude that ‘money’ talks.

Whilst the organic food industry is growing fast the same can be said for the global market for organic cotton which is reported to be booming. Consumers are no longer simply eating organically they are wearing organic clothes, using personal care products and equipping bathrooms and bedrooms with textiles made from organic cotton. The fashion industry has an enormous impact on the environment in terms of textiles used; and it could be argued that it is very positive for ethical consumers that designers such as Katherine Hamnett and Stella McCartney are including organic cotton garments in their collections. There is now a greater choice of organic cotton clothes than ever before. At Sonesuk we have an exciting range of baby and children’s clothes designed in the U.K. Organic cotton production is estimated to increase over the next three years as more farmers join existing projects and further planned projects reach fruition. Farming organic cotton is based on a system that maintains and enriches soil fertility without the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. All of this is generally good news for consumers that are aware of both what they put into their bodies and what they clothe themselves and their children in. But we should be aware of strong market forces determined by profit and market domination seeking to pursue their own interests to the detriment of others.

David Holmgren is the co-originator with Bill Mollison of the permaculture concept. Download his free Essence of Permaculture eBook.

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Composting

Composting is a fantastic way of reducing household waste, and it’s a free resource of nutrition for your garden, preventing the need for peat-based compost and chemical fertilisers. There are so many ways to compost, some even suitable for flat-dwellers. Here is a look at some of those options:

• Simple Composting – You’ll need a garden for this, and somewhere to “cook” the compost. Either dig a hole and be an undercover composter, make yourself a composter or buy a composter and fill it with your fruit and veg peelings and garden waste. A few months later, you’ll have free, ready-to-use compost for your garden or pots.
• Vermi-composting – This is composting with worms. It’s faster than simple composting, and a good way to compost cooked food waste (not meat). When you compost with worms, you not only have a nutritious, fine compost, but also a great free supply of liquid fertiliser for your plants, sometimes known as worm tea. You can keep your wormery in a shed or on a balcony, so this type of composting would work well if you lived in a flat with a balcony. Wormeries come in various shapes and sizes.
• Indoor composting – There is a system for composting right in your kitchen called Bokashi. It is completely smell free and you can even compost meat, fish and dairy products. After a few days, the waste is ready to be put into your outdoor composter, or dug into the garden.
• Food waste digester – A food waste digester can also cope with meat, fish and cooked food. It needs to have part of the equipment buried in the ground, so you’ll need a reasonable portion of garden.

And once you have a supply of free compost, it’s time to start using it.

Earth friendly disease and pest control

Going organic means that it will no longer be as easy to get rid of pests and diseases as when you were using chemicals, but there are more and more good earth-friendly products coming onto the market which mean that it’s also not as hard as it used to be. The benefits to the planet and our own health makes it worth the effort to seek these products out. Let’s look through some of the more common gardening pests and what is available to get rid of them.

• Slugs – Despised by gardeners everywhere. Thankfully there are a number of strategies to keep these slimy little characters off your strawberries/cabbages/cucumbers etc. Growing Success makes an advanced slug killer that is certified for organic gardening, and I can heartily recommend this. If you don’t want to kill the slugs, but simply deter them, you could try Slug Copper around your pots and along the borders of your beds. Slugs and snails won’t crawl over this copper tape.
• Aphids – The most effective way to deal with an infestation of aphids is to ship in some of their natural predators. Ladybird larvae are available by mail order, or encourage ladybirds into your garden by providing them with a safe environment to breed and hibernate, and some beneficial insect food.

Companion planting can be helpful in keeping pests away from your food crops.

It is important to keep your soil and plants healthy, so that when diseases do strike, they can be overcome. Maintain hygiene in your organic garden to avoid the spread of disease.

• Keep your tools disease free – Wash tools in boiling water after cutting away diseased wood, or digging out a diseased plant.
• Keep your pots disease free – Scrub out your pots during the winter (only if they’re empty).
• Space to breathe – Prune your trees and allow enough space between plants for air to circulate. This can help prevent fungal infections.
• Be vigilant – Keep an eye on your plants and check for the first signs of disease. This way you can treat the plant early, or remove it to prevent infection to other plants.

For some great homemade remedies to ward off “vermin and plague”, try The Gardening Guild website.

Mulching

Mulching is valuable in the eco-friendly garden for a number of reasons:

1. Maintaining soil temperature
2. Controlling weeds
3. Retaining water
4. Adding nutrients to the soil
5. Suppressing weeds
6. Repelling insects
7. Controlling erosion

What to mulch with? How to mulch? When to mulch?

• Mulch with lawn cuttings, newspaper, leaves, leaf mould, compost, bark chips, straw and hay. There is even a product called Dunweedin made of 100% recycled tyres that makes an excellent mulch.
• Apply mulch around plants (leaving a little space between mulch and plant for air circulation) and over bare earth in beds and pots.
• Mulch vegetable gardens once the soil has warmed sufficiently in spring. Don’t apply mulch to cold, wet soil. To protect against frost, mulch with straw or hay in winter.

Rainwater harvesting

Water is a precious resource that should be conserved. So why use perfectly good drinking water on the garden? Using a water butt to collect run-off water from the roof of your house or shed will provide you with water for your garden.

Be water-wise

We’ve already mentioned mulching and rainwater harvesting to save water. Here are some other ways to be water-wise.

• Conserve water by planting plants that require a minimum of water. Try this handy water-wise plant guide.
• Ditch the hose and stick to watering with a watering can, or install a passive irrigation system from your water butts with recycled tyre “water worms”.
• Water first thing in the morning, or in the evening, to prevent evaporation.

Buy recycled

When you are buying “new” things for your garden, be it tools, planters, pots and other accessories, buy second-hand or buy recycled. Here are some ideas.

• Check out these cool planters made from recycled tyres.
• Reclaimed teak makes an attractive and environmentally friendly garden bench.
• These 100% recycled polyethylene trugs are very handy around the garden.
• Hang a recycled aeroplane tyre horse swing in a tree for your children to love.

Go solar

Both water features and lighting in the garden can harness the power of the sun. These products are readily available from local garden centres, or online.

Grow your own food

Growing fruit and vegetables in your garden will instantly reduce food miles. It can also save you money, and is a great life-skill to teach your children.

If you are interested in living in a more sustainable way, it would be beneficial to research permaculture, a system that combines home, garden and lifestyle into an eco-system that makes use of its own waste products.

“Permaculture offers a radical approach to food production and urban renewal, water, energy and pollution. It integrates ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry in creating a rich and sustainable way of living. It uses appropriate technology giving high yields for low energy inputs, achieving a resource of great diversity and stability. The design principles are equally applicable to both urban and rural dwellers”- Bill Mollison, founder of permaculture.

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