Organic vegetable growing tips from Sam Adams of Living Green
Welcome to GrowEco, a new addition to the liveeco network. Each month, the GrowEco column will include tips and advice for growing your own organic vegetables, straight from your balcony or garden. The content is entirely organic – you won’t find any artificial solutions here. Know where your food comes from – let’s start a planting revolution in our own back gardens!
In the June Garden
This time of year is an unusual season to start writing about organic vegetable growing. It is cold, wet in the cape, and frosty inland. However, it is actually the best time to be working on your organic garden.
In winter, the land is naturally resting and recovering from the hot and productive summer months. Winter is our opportunity to support the ground and feed it lots of nutrients.
Enrich the soil with compost and manure. Chicken manure is best. Then cover the surface of the ground with a thick mulch – use grass clippings, leafs, wood chip, bark, straw etc. Use anything that will decompose and enrich the soil as well as forming a protective layer from frost, rainfall, and wind erosion.
If you don’t have a garden, then simply fill your pots with a mix of compost and potting soil and plant as below. You could also try a vertical wall garden, click here for info http://myfarmonline.ning.com/profiles/blogs/smart-vertical-gardening
If you are beginning your first garden, then a plan is essential. Spend a few hours designing a beautiful and practical garden. It should be relatively protected from wind, and have at least 5-6 hours of sunlight per day. It should be easy access so that you can keep an eye on what needs planting, weeding, harvesting and so forth.
I have included a table for the monthly planting guides. We live in a country of incredibly diverse climates, so South Africa is roughly divided into three sub-climates. These are the Western and Southern Cape, Inland (Free State, Highveld, Northern Cape, the interior of KZN), and Coastal KZN.
June planting |
|
| Western and Southern Cape | Broad beans, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, peas, radish. |
| Inland | Cabbage and peas. |
| Coastal KZN | Bush and pole beans, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, pease, peppers, potatoes, radish, squash, spinach, tomato and turnip. |
| You can also plant out the following seedlings: spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and onions. | |
Happy planting!
Comment below with any questions, tips, and additions that you would like to share with the liveeco community. Future topics will include composting, companion planting, and pest control.
Sam Adams runs Living Green, an organic food garden company in Cape Town. Contact Sam on 021-7892392 or info@startlivinggreen.co.za or www.startlivinggreen.co.za
The liveeco team
