Garden meal number 2

Right, so you can't technically see anything from the garden in this dish, but I will have you know that it contains thyme and origanum. It was yum!

Chicken, butternut and feta couscous. Mmmm...

Herb worries

These two herbs are sick, I'm sure. First, the sweet rocket has turned a funny colour and his leaves have holes in them. Worrying to say the least :(

(this photo isn't great either)

And then the opal basil has turned an offish colour. I think it's unhappy with the soil.

See those funny whitish spots on him? Not good. I think I'll be researching my herb worries this weekend.

Seedling progress

Almost all the seeds have sprouted now. All we're waiting for is the spinach...

And look how big the parsley's got! Interesting to see that the Namaqua flower seedlings have now turned purple... Not sure if this is normal?

I can't wait for them to bloom/be big plants!

awesome market

I'm going to find a market like this... and then I'm going to paint this sign on our garden wall:

(from thesometimeszoo)

gardens i admire

I don't know how many of you are on Pinterest, but here are some pics from a board I made that I thought you might like.

Nice one from Life on the Balcony.

Atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere. Oh how I'd love to share that couch with the cat...
See the entire board here.

Budding Parsley

The parsley babies are here! Hand reared in ice-cream containers for five days only - can you believe it?

Success!

The first seeds have sprung! (is that even a word?). I think I forgot to mention these - perhaps because I was worried that they wouldn't grow - but on the first weekend when we planted the herbs in the herb box, I also sowed some Namaqua flowers from a free sample seed packet I got in a magazine. I wasn't so sure they'd grow, as it was cloudy and cold the first few days after I sowed them. When the first green things showed their heads, I didn't want to get too excited - it could, after all, just be the weed seeds that sometimes end up in potting soil. BUT this morning I checked on them again and this is how I know they are flowers and not weeds:

1. they are all growing in the area where my hand slipped when I was trying to sprinkle them evenly
2. they all look the same - no other random leaves poking out.

This is pretty exciting. We went to the Cederberg a few weeks ago just to see the flowers and for those who don't know, this is what Namaqua flowers look like in the wild veld:

Whoops, sorry, that's just me freaking out over the flowers.

Umm.. that's not the flowers either. That's hubby's reaction to my jumping.

Now this is what you call flowers. Beautiful, eh? (Hubby took this pic).

And finally, here are our baby Namaqua flower plants. I'd jump over them too, only then I'd fall off the balcony.