Gardening

This week in the garden – Blossoms, new beds & a beauty
November 11, 2016

We’ve had a good week weather-wise. Pleasant days of cool mornings, hot around midday and the typical Highveld afternoon thunderstorms. The Vaal dam is still desperately under capacity and our water restrictions are still ongoing. Luckily our rainwater tank is […]

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Blueberries  / Chillies  / Flowers  / Gardening  / Herbs  / Home Orchard  / Permaculture  / Superfoods  / Vegetable garden

Feast your eyes on the unusual “Eyes for You” rose
November 2, 2016

This is quite a special and unusual rose I spotted at Ludwig’s rose farm. She is not quite my style in terms of what I like in a cut flower (I grow my roses mainly for bouquets) so I did […]

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Gardening  / Rose growing

Rose of the month: Francois Krige
October 24, 2016

I did not plan to get another red rose, as I already have Papa Meilland, Ingrid Bergman & Red Intuition amongst others. I prefer more variety and tend to lean towards the striped roses. However, after choosing all the roses […]

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Gardening  / Rose growing

My alma mater’s University of Pretoria Centenary rose
October 19, 2016

During a recent visit with my family to the 45th Spring Rose festival at Ludwig’s Rose farm north of Pretoria, I finally obtained my alma mater’s centenary rose. The University of Pretoria Centenary Rose was introduced by South Africa’s foremost […]

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Gardening  / Rose growing

How to: Grow Lemon verbena & brew it for tea
October 17, 2016

Lemon-scented herbs are amongst my favourites. I’m currently growing lemon thyme, lemongrass and the subject of today’s post: Lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora). I love to walk past the herb and inhale the intense citrusy aroma. Lemon verbena makes an excellent […]

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Flowers  / Gardening  / Herbs

Growing heirloom tomatoes & volunteers
October 14, 2016

This is the start of our tomato crop for this year. I’ve planted 16 tomato seedlings in the square foot garden out in the front. I’ve got some Roma and Floridade tomatoes, as well as a green and yellow striped, […]

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Gardening  / Vegetable garden

Berry beautiful – spring 2016 update on blueberries & more
October 13, 2016

I’ve been quite busy tending to all sorts of berries this season. Pictured is a bee pollinating a blackberry bush at my in-laws. They gave me lots of cuttings – for the second time –  to start at home. Some […]

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Blueberries  / Gardening  / Home Orchard

Today’s harvest: Purple carrots, cape gooseberries & granadillas
October 12, 2016

Today I picked some long awaited produce for lunch. I’m happy with how the rainbow carrots are doing. I got a nice purple one. They look very interesting in cross section. This was my second attempt at growing these. The […]

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Gardening  / Permaculture  / Vegetable garden

Spring garden blooms & throwback to my wedding bouquet
August 25, 2016

This is one of my favourite times of year. The weather is warming up, which means more days of gardening and an explosion of colour as spring blooming bulbs open up and fruit tree blossoms prepare to give us a […]

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Flowers  / Gardening  / Rose growing

Video: Watch my Phakisa TV interview
August 18, 2016

In my previous post I shared my experience of a fun day filming at home with the Phakisa TV crew. The episode aired at the end of July and is now on YouTube. Skip to 14 minutes and 15 seconds for […]

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