Agapanthus

Doing nicely.

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 16

Not much happening - it's been hot and dry over the Xmas period, which meant some supplemental watering. Quite a few tyres are cleared ready for next planting after Mondays cow damage. Bush beans? Beetroot? Lettuce?

Started filling tyres near grape trellis in preparation for strawberries and irrigation. Five down, five to go - there should be just enough compost.

Tomatoes incrementally ripening, the first few to turn pink having been stung. If they don't completely collapse there'll be a reasonable crop.

Patty pan and Zucchini have hit their stride. Green peppers starting.

Cow apocalypse 2

Raided again last night - they definitely climbed over the low wall (one metre high about) as evidenced by a trail of cow pats. More damage this time - mielies gone, beetroots uprooted, kale munched, other grape vine nibbled down, lemon and lime tree munched quite vigorously. The narrow passageways between tyres were no deterrent this time.

Strung up some security braided wire to increase height of fence, but this might just lead to ripped down gate post if cows blunder through it. It'll have to do until new year, when it can be done properly.

I wonder what attracts them from a distance of maybe 30 or 40 metres? The low wall is on the diagonal opposite of the garden area, with an intervening house. Some sort of cownip?

Update 17h00:

An observed break in attempt, foiled by the newly strung wire. The perpetrator is quite a large (tall) brown and white tollie, who eventually gave up and headed down the street with his three chums. Lets see if this deterrent lasts...

I suppose this is a big issue in rural areas.

Pruning

Branches lopped off mulberry tree in order to create some light and space. Need to trim down, load into bakkie and take to tip.

Update 2015/12/23:

Small angle grinder plus rip saw blade made short work of this, with the help of two sons.

White guava

Buds and flowers in profusion.

Update 2016/1/28:

Lots of fruit.

Update 2016/02/04:

Bigger fruit... to the extent that the somewhat lopsided tree might collapse.

Update 2016/03/13:

Flame Lily

Gloriosa Superba

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 15

Past its best, most of the "greens" are bolting, and the rest suffering from heat. Moneymaker tomatoes on left starting to block the view from the usual photographic viewpoint.

Roma tomatoes ready to ripen. Collapsing under weight of fruit.

Pepperdews bushing out - recovered, mostly from cow damage.

Green peppers starting to be pickable - California Wonder.

Globe artichokes - small, but tasty.

Carrots

Planted some seedlings a while back.

This is the result.

Root vegetables aren't my forte.

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 14

An intermittently drizzly and overcast day. Not much rain overall. Cow damage visible but fortunately superficial.

Starting to be hemmed in by tomatoes, which are growing continuously. The two tyres of Roma are starting to collapse under their own weight, and the first batch can't be far off ripening - they're beginning to go light green, nearly yellow.

The four tyres of Moneymaker have reached the top of their supports, and still growing. Their side shoots are starting to fall down. Tomatoes on trellises also doing nicely - many of them are "Little Wonder", but a few larger varieties.

Uniform and mysterious lack of aphids anywhere. All the tomato plants looking green and healthy, despite size. One Roma starting to yellow slightly on lower leaves.

Patty pans and Zucchini doing well - a couple every few days are big enough to harvest. Green peppers are starting to produce, brinjal plants doing well. Chili and sweet pepper seedlings grown from seed struggling for most part, but one or two plants from most recent sowing. Globe artichokes producing heads about size of golf ball - can cook, but only get the heart, the "leaves" too small.

Lettuces running to seed and need renewal. Chinese cabbage large and out of control. Peas nearly done, and bush beans nearing end.

Cow apocalypse

 This being Grahamstown, where quite large herds of cows roam the streets, it was, I suppose, just a matter of time.

Last night or early this morning, my garden got raided by a cow, or cows. I have no idea how they got in as the middle gate was closed. The wall near the garage is low, but it'd take a determined cow to lumber deliberately over it. Perhaps they were deliberately let in, and out? Their main target was chinese cabbage.

Anyway, I still haven't had any aphids.

Autumn Royal grape suffered an early pruning.

Pepperdews lucky to be only half munched. Same with the larger plants.

Baby red cabbages took a hit.

Cow prints in the pea patch.

Cow prints in the asparagus patch.

Swiss chard, not quite munched to the roots.

Most of the damage was on the edges, so a solution might be to plant untasty things there, like hot chiles. The rows down between the tyres may be too narrow for comfortable grazing.

Interesting is what wasn't munched - squash, Jerusalem, artichokes, tomatoes, beans,

Tigridia

The showiest flowers ever... but they only last a day. Quite a few - 3 to 4 - on each plant.

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 13

It has been overcast, with some rain, but is now getting a bit dry.

The two gardening assistants, exhausted after "helping".

Time for renewal - cleared out original celery, running to seed. Okra, which never worked, replaced with transplanted chocolate habanero.

Supplemented Mary Washington asparagus patches (third time) with new seedlings - most of the original and 2nd renewal doing fine. The oldest asparagus is flourishing, and some of the fronds are big enough to start flowering - so far look like male plants, and I suppose if any are female they'll need to be ripped out.

The assorted squashes are doing well, and are perhaps too big for more than one plant in a tyre.

Tomatoes are maybe a week or two away from ripening, and there's lots of fruit coming along.

The Moneymaker are now taller than me, and have reached the top of their stakes. Still no aphids anywhere, but some bugs showing up. Chinese cabbages are taking over and threatening to do a radish style overwhelming of neighbours, and the red lettuce is starting to bolt. Most young leaves seem to have been nibbled. Slugs and/or caterpillars?

The globe artichokes are producing, but also really too big to have more than one in a tyre. I need to thin them or transplant. Beans and peas are in full production. Brinjals still growing. Green peppers showing small fruit, small buds on larger pepperdews. Cabbage going well, heads perhaps 15cm in diameter and probably useable.

Kale quite large, baby red cabbage and brussels sprouts slowly progressing. Florence fennel aren't getting bigger - probably because they were planted in spring and not autumn - and need to decide what to do with them.

Assorted strawberries producing a handful a day, some are producing runners. Need to concentrate on propagating productive varieties.

Sunflowers doing OK. Biggest one as tall as I am.

Evening harvest.

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 12

Three months since I started this. Looking at earlier photos, there's been a lot of development in the form of slow progress. I suppose it's nearly at the steady state stage in that the "infrastructure" of the garden is mostly in place, and from now on it'll be a matter of crop renewal and maintenance in the form of weeding and harvesting.

Lots of rain this week - no drought here.

The Moneymaker tomatoes are nearly as tall as I am, and are flowering but oly a few have set. Some of the Roma are about 15mm to 25mm in diameter, and plenty more on the way. Youngberries are in season and producing a daily bowl or two. Everything else doing pretty well, but, apart from salady stuff, not harvestable yet apart from:

... broad beans, bush beans, pattypans and zucchini. And peas, but not yet in any quantity... Two of the globe artichokes are showing a bud, so that's also imminent.

Mielies are now getting a move on, but showing lingering bad effects of radish intercropping, so won't be successful. The survivors show that they can grow well in tyres, though - five in a tyre x 5 tyres could give a reasonable crop.

Florence fennel slower than expected - they're doing OK, but haven't put on much weight over the past few weeks. Cabbage heads forming - probably 10 - 15cm diameter. Kale doing nicely, but still lanky. Parsnips about to bolt, and night let them to get seed. Celery has bolted. Spring onions OK.

Not much else going on, other than completion of grape trellis (visible in background), and installation of another ten tyres, which will need to be filled with compost. These are mostly destined for strawberries if I want to do them properly. And I do...

Walnut

Battling along on its own - I haven't paid it much attention, and it's now going into year 2. Hasn't grown that much, but also hasn't died yet.

This is my third attempt - the first was in Bonaero Park in the early 80's, and it did this sort of thing before we sold the house when we moved to Grahamstown. The second attempt was in the 90's in Grahamstown, and didn't even get this far - it died within a year.

Sandersonia

A strange sort of Chinese lantern looking flower.

What happened to Witsa runner beans?

As I've posted before, I've hunted high and low for this runner bean for more than three months - in Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, George, and Cape Town - to no effect. It's completely unavailable, with no why or wherefore. Which is a pity, because it's the only runner worth growing. Over my dead body will Lazy Housewife pollute my trellises again - it's a nasty horrible bean.

Well, I got an explanation of sorts today from the guy at Sunnyside Nursery - apparently Witsa has been recalled because of some or other mislabelling issue. He had to send back all his stock to the seed company.

The unanswered question, really, is how the heck? Is that the real reason? And when will it become available again? Have we missed a whole season?

Anybody with more details, please enlighten me?

Update 2016/09/06:

Still not available in Grahamstown.

I've been making do with Contender bush beans.

Update 2019/10/09:

Still not available in local nurseries or other places that sell seed.

BUT, I've been able to buy some from Livingseeds, who have come up with another, real [?] explanation, namely that the sole commercial supplier had died, with no-one to take over the business from him, leading to a hiatus in the supply chain.

Can anyone confirm or deny these stories? Or come up with another explanation?

Anyway, after about 5 years, I'm back in business!

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 11

Rained gently most of yesterday. Cold night and morning, snow on neighbouring mountains.

Everything doing well, and still no aphids. Plenty of slugs, though.

Planted out remainder of strawberries. Harvested remaining radishes, clearing all the intercropped tyres.

Patty pans are nearly there... although they're close, still no completely open male flowers anywhere, so it's not obvious there'll be any set from these early ones.