DIY garden project: mark your pots

I've often lost track of what I planted where, and then I'm left guessing when the little seeds sprout. But I found this awesome solution hiding in our kitchen cabinets. See below how easy it is to make your own pot markers.

What you need:

1. write the plant's name on the cork
2. Stick a sosati stick into the cork
3. Stick it into the right pot.

Voila!

xxx

Where it all began

My mother probably thinks I got it from her mother, who was a florist and avid gardener. My grandmother (on my father's side) will probably think it came from my uncle (dad's brother), who is a (famous!) horticulturalist. But I think my sudden passion for this tiny balcony garden of ours is simple: the happiest my parents have ever been, is when they're gardening.

In the town I was born, plants grow so easily that gardening is mostly pulling out weeds and cutting back trees and creepers that threaten to take over your house. This is the house where I learned to walk, where we played hide and seek, learned to swim (and then skinny dipped when the parents weren't there!), where we sat for hours talking about everything we could think of, listening to birds, watching the cats stalk them (and fail miserably, for they are housecats that prefer drinking milk from saucers than bothering with smelly birds). This is where Dad learnt about keeping koi fish, where the frogs lay their eggs and thousands of tadpoles squiggle to the surface in summer, only to turn into tiny frogs - so small you'd mistake them for grasshoppers as they plunge around the three fish ponds.

Dad recently got sick, giving me a rare chance to take a break from city living and visit home. As I sat around hoping that he'd listen to the nurse and keep his sugar levels in tact, I also had a chance to wander around the garden with some nostalgic thoughts.

I leave you with some pics of the house and garden...

Above: the bird corner and the khoi pond. Below: the swimming pool + random selection of pets adorning it (meet Jane the cat and Absalon the weimarraner).

More flowers

Aren't they lovely? :) :) :) They're popping up everywhere - and that's just from buying two packets of mixed flower seeds from the nursery.

Flowers

Remember the blackberry bush?

I thought it needed some company....

What do you think? ;)

I have no idea what these flowers are, even though I know they're very common - I just planted a packet of 'low growing perennials'). I love them! 

new year's resolution no 2

DONE!

Remember Katinka and Pieter, the garden friends who gave the berries? Well, Katinka also helped me fulfill resolution number 2: find nice containers for the plants.

I dragged her with me to the Milnerton Market in Cape Town, since I've heard that it's filled with random bric a brac and I desperately needed to find something nice but cheap. What I had in mind was a basket, a big one. We searched forever. I got sunburnt. We ate ice cream. We saw random stuff. And then, suddenly: a basket! Big, chunky, cheap.

"I'll take it!" I said to the man.
But that's when the trouble started. He pulls out the basket, and there it is - legs. He'd put legs on the basket. Wooden legs. Not on the bottom, but on the side.
Me: what's that?
Man: legs.
Me: I know, but why?
Man: I don't know, I do all kinds of things. Look at this basket (pointing to ugly big white one) - for R80 I'll give you both.
Me (shaking head): no thanks.
Man: no thanks? then what about this? (holding up random little plant holder)
Me: no thanks.
Katinka: no thanks (still staring at legs of basket).

Finally we got away, basket held between us, ice creams in the other hand. Man following us: What about this? And this? (still holding up random stuff).

Lucky for me, I have wonderfull husband who took the legs off. And now the tomatoes, basil, parsley and lemon balm are all safely nestled in their pots inside the basket.

(I still have to sort out other random containers in front of it... but it still looks nice). yay.

Tomato sales 101

In Desember, my husband packed up all forty of our tomato plants into our little car and drove me and the plants to a lovely market at Gabrielskloof outside Hermanus. It was a great market - good food, nice people, animal- and child friendly (see . But it also tought me some tough lessons about tomatoes.

Things I learnt about tomato plants at the market:

- old people like them, but they don't buy them. They grow them themselves.
- people on holiday like them, but they also don't buy them. Who wants a tomato plant to worry about when you're seeing the country?
- little kids like them about as much as old people, and they do buy them (well, their parents do).
- little kids only buy them if they have baby tomatoes on them (which only two of my plants had).
- I should not try to make a living from selling tomato plants - I would be dirt poor.

But just because I sold only five tomato plants, it doesn't mean I didn't have an absolutely great time. So here are some details and happy pics:  

I shared a stall with Ros, who sold natural perfume (divine), and Rox (by gosh, their names rhyme), who makes lasercut jewellery, vinyl stickers and other lovelies. I got the awesomest brooch and necklace from Rox - lasercut watering cans! It totally goes with my gardener image. Other awesome things at the market were: locally brewed beer (Darling), the bargain bin at the fabric stall, the macaroon-stall next to ours and a sushi stall. Who'd have thought? But no other garden inspiration, sorry.

Some happy pics:

Beautiful tomato plants

Rox and her lasercut jewellery and other goodies. See her blog here.


 

FIRST TOMATO!!!

Guess what we had next to our salad on Monday night?
THE FIRST TOMATO!!!!

Husband and I are delighted. We agree that it is the best tasting tomato we have EVER had. Just look at those pretty, round, red cheeks:

And those sprouts next to it? we grew that too.

It's actually crazy how easy it is do grow sprouts at home, I've done it often before and it's really nutritious. A sprout is literally a lentil that's gone from starch to vegetable, and it's great in salads.

Here's how:
1. put a handfull of dry lentils in a flat bowl
2. cover with water
3. put in sunny windowsil
4. keep it moist for about three days
5. collect sprouts!