It is two years since my husband bought a packet of radish seeds, which produced multi-coloured radishes in yellow, pale pink, dark pink, red, mauve and white.  We went back to Builders Hardware where he bought the seeds, but they had no more.  We asked them to investigate for us, and went back a few times, but they did not find out where to get more.  We look at seed packets everywhere we go, but have never found them again.  Do you have these radish seeds, or do you know where I could get some?  Unfortunately we did not keep the packet.

Many thanks,
Yours sincerely,
Meg van Maasdyk.

I’ve read your blog regarding coriander seeds very interesting, however have a problem obtaining them.

Could you please advise me where I can buy them from Niall.

Thank you SO much!

Poppie from Napier (South Africa)

We visited the south of France last year.  I was amazed at the quality and variety of vegetables, especially tomatoes, on display.  The French have a very independent approach to eating and were never influenced by the desire for the ‘perfect’ tomato.  Unfortunately, us South Africans were and we’ve chosen good looks over taste for way too long.  Luckily, the tide appears to be turning with many small-scale and market farmers experimenting with heirloom varieties of vegetables, thanks in part to the success of online seed shops, such as Livingseeds.   They provide an astonishing array of heirloom seeds, from tomatoes to beans and carrots (and anything in between), all locally grown and open pollinated.  I was lucky enough to get some tomato seeds for Christmas (thanks Chips) and will be planting them this week and documenting their growth on Sprig.

Apart from the flavor-burst these veggies offer, they are also meant to be more hardy and pest-resistant.  Has anyone had experience with growing heirloom veges in South Africa?  What were the results?  Are they as much fun to grow as they are to eat?

French Tomatoes - ooh lala!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fair-Food-Fresh-Produce-Growers-Market/214335568635822?sk=info

Looks like we could have loads of fun with Veggie Trader. I think i am the first to join in eastern cape.

Enjoy the holidays!

Yours in good growing,

Jeannine 

Thanks,

Travis Lyle Observatory, Cape Town

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Ladies and gents, meet my second garden in the Cape. Cape Garden 2.0, in the tradition of my last Sprig garden post. The Wife and I bought a lovely little semi-detached Victorian in Observatory, which came with a much larger garden than the place we’d previously rented. Here’s the before photo:

As you can see, we inherited a patch of…well…nothing, really. OK, to be fair, we did in fact inherit one times badly made gumpole pergola, one raggedy Bauhinia (camelfoot) tree, a couple of yucca, some ratty decorative vines, a whole lot of kikuyu, sedge, onion weed and one very determined Strelitzia nicolai (‘wild banana’) which was dead set on both destroying that icon of kak urban design, the vibracrete wall. You can’t see it, because it lost the war. How? I chopped it down with a pruning saw, and dug a hole down into its roots, which we used to host two luau-style braais. So basically, we cooked the roots to death, and hacked the rest out with a pickaxe. Why? The Strelitzia’s fibrous roots are incredibly hardcore, they don’t belong in the Western Cape, and nectar-loving birds drop their ever-viable seed whilst hanging out on fences and walls. Result? Predictable wall and fence carnage. So, goodbye everything and hello, sheet mulching.

Sheet mulching? Sure. Hey, what else to do with a hundred or so cardboard boxes from moving house and a healthy crop of kikuyu and sedge, right? Once the beds had been dug up, the cardboard boxes were stripped of all their plastic packaging tape, wetted down and mulched over with a thick layer of organic matter,, in this case grass trimmings. Then it was time to reinstate all the plants which were transplanted from Cape Garden 1.0. That gave us a good head start, which was good, considering we moved in three months ago, just as spring was warming up. The result? Here we go:

The nasty pergola? That’ll be the bed borders you see. The Strelitzia, bauhinia and everything else? Rotting down nicely in that pile in the far left corner, doing time as compost. Spare bricks found lying around were used for the paths. With the addition of layers of free grass clippings (which you can get anywhere, just watch for your municipality mowing the grass and do a drive-by to pick up the bagged trimmings) and the generosity of neighbours and friends, compost and chicken manure are adding to the layers. Weeds, what weeds? Everything has settled in nicely, and we have few pest issues. Organic snail and slug bait nailed those guys, night patrols are keeping down the number of free-range nocturnal vegetarians, and a fiscal shrike and family of sparrows we’ve encouraged to hang out are doing duty as daytime bug patrol. Result.

It’s early days yet, and on the advice of local eminent permaculturists there’ll be more modifications over time such as terracing the slight slope and making best use of space by training (pleaching) fruit trees such as pear, apple and fig along the fences. Water being scarce during Cape summers, we’re also looking at how best to harvest rainwater using a series of stacked, recycled 220-litre plastic drums. That’s it for now; an update will come once things have settled in properly. Until then enjoy your gardens and remember – if it’s not dirty, you’re doing it wrong!

Together with Earthworm Productions, we would like to introduce you to the South African Planting and Companion Planting Guide and give four lucky gardeners a signed copy! Just in time for Christmas…  mol-d

Companion Planting is the art and science of growing groups of vegetables, herbs and flowers, to create a diverse, flourishing vegetable garden that sustains without pesticides and chemicals to control pests. Do it all naturally with Companion Planting.  Companion planting gives you an understanding of each plant in the organic garden, including information on which plants can be grown together successfully and which do not thrive with each other. The guide is full of information about plant companions and antagonists, tips and uses for each plant, as well as nutritional and herbal uses as well as information on when to plant. It includes 142 plant species and over a 100 illustrations of plants which include a variety of common food, herb, fruit, flowers and indigenous plants. Companion Planting is designed to guide you on your learning journey about organic gardening and companion planting. It is simply laid-out and easy-to-read and is always there as a quick reference.

Jeannine Davidoff, of Earthworm Productions, and the author of the book, has very kindly offered us four signed copies of the South African Planting and Companion Planting Guide as part of the holiday celebrations. To enter the competition, please comment below. Winners will be selected randomly and we will give away a book a week until 14th December so tell your friends! Books will be posted within South Africa only but enter for a friend. This would make a great Christmas present! 

ChaiFM  is interviewing the author of the South African Planting and Companion Planting Guide, Jeannine Davidoff, on 28 November 2011 at 10am. Be sure to tune in!

Contact  for any inquiries.
Jeannine Davidoff
earthworm productions
073 319 3713

Growing a diversity of plants in your garden not only makes your food taste good, but they all form an eco-system together, making the use of poison redundant. Take a look at the vegetables we have been growing with the organic gardening method. You can see more about our gardening at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Positive-Cycle/142512932509647

Jeremy in Johannesburg.

I have a small cottage in a fairly big yard and am blessed with a wonderful gardener, himself a horticulturist.  Unfortunately, he has his own vision about what he wants to accomplish in my yard and I don’t mind, because the yard is big enough for both of us, but I do feel frustrated at my lack of knowledge to give him the necessary direction in order to accomplish my goals.

What I want to do more than anything is to establish a kitchen garden (preferably a “green” one) close to my kitchen, but I do not even know what site to choose or how to go about it.  The reason for the email is to ask if you know of somebody close to Assagay/Hillcrest who can help me.  Of course I have much bigger dreams for my garden, but the kitchen garden is my first priority as I have been trying to get this off the ground for the past five years and currently I do not even have a garden patch!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Susanna