We were treated to a wonderful off-the-beaten-track tour around Kirstenbosch gardens. Besides revelling in the wonderful scenery we were taken on a journey of discovery of the gardens. We are so fortunate to have an insider on the Flourish team. Thank you Cherise!
Flourish Garden Club Minutes of 13 August 2011 January 16, 2012
1. Venue.
The meeting was held at Sarah Hodgson’s home in Claremont. Many thanks to Sarah for hosting the meeting.
2. Apologies
Angila Kent, Ally Reidy, Ilse Meershoek, Nicky Louw,Debbie Turberville
3. Visitors
None
4. What to do in the garden this month
Roses must be pruned by mid August
Prune Hydrangeas now
Tidy up summer flowering shrubs
Don’t touch anything that will be flowering in Spring
Give fuchsias nitrogen rich fertilizer now
5. Whats on
Alphen Spring show is on the 3rd and 4th Sept. (Cherise will be doing a talk on Streptocarpus!!)
6. General
- Members must please send in their apologies by Thursday lunch time at the latest prior to meetings so we can establish numbers for catering purposes.
- As detailed in the constitution, there are 6 seats on the committee. Every year, 3 new members will be elected for the new committee at the September meeting. They will be effective on the committee from 1 January 2012. Please come forward at the next meeting if you would like to serve on the committee. The committee positions are detailed in the constitution.
7. Speaker
Thank you to Avril and Emile from the company ywaste. Avril gave a very interesting talk on worm farming. Here are some of the things Avril spoke about :
The worms to use for worm farms are called Red Wigglers. The average household can recycle about 5 kg of kitchen waste per week in the wormery.
Feed worms anything from banana peels, to egg shells and egg boxes, tea bags and any other organic stuff. Avoid meat, citrus, dairy, onions and potato peels. Limit tomato as its very acidic. If the wormery is too acidic or too wet it will attract fruit flies. If you manage the worm farm properly, there shouldn’t be any fruit flies. Its preferable to cut food into bite sized pieces as you get quicker results. If you put something bad into the wormery which the worms dislike, they may escape and leave the wormery.
Mealie meal is good for worms, but not flour.
Soil must be added to the worm farm as they use soil to digest their food. If you leave the worms in the pure vermicompost, they will die (it happened to me!) as its their poo. You must add soil.
Harvest the vermicompost about 4 times per year, then add a spade full of soil.
The wormery must be moist at all times as worms breathe through their skin.
To start the wormery :
Put plain paper at the bottom of your vessel and wet it. No glossy printed paper. Put soil at the bottom and add some vermicompost in it to give it a kick start. Put worms in. Wet some newspaper and fluff it up to let the air in or use old underfelt and cover the wormery. Keep it dark. The worms live in the top 5cm of soil.
To harvest the vermicompost:
Wait for at least 6 months before the initial harvest of vermicompost to let eggs hatch and for the worms to settle. Worms have no eyes, but they are light sensitive. Put the worm food aside and place the compost and worms on a tray. Make a mound of compost. Leave this for about 1 hour in good light, but not direct sun or your worms may dry out and die. Take the compost from the top and sides and put worms back into wormery. Any clumps of yellow mass are the cocoons of eggs. Be sure to place these back into the wormery. Another way to harvest vermicompost is to feed only half the surface area and worms will migrate to the food area. Remove the compost from the non-food area. This takes more time though.
If the wormery is too wet, put dry leaves or dry newspaper into the vermicompost and mix it in, this will absorb some of the moisture.
Worm Tea can be used to activate your garden compost heap. Dilute the tea 1 -100 with water for this purpose. Dilute 1 – 10 with water for your plants and pour on with a watering can.
Use 25% vermicompost to 75% garden area and dig it in a little. This can be done every 2 months. You can also use vermicompost to put onto pot plants. 1 teaspoon into a small pot every 2 months.
Bokashi was also discussed. This is a process where microbes are used to break down anything from meat to citrus to onions and dairy and even cooked left over food. A similar system is used whereby one bucket is full of holes and then placed into another bucket containing a tap. You then decant the liquid which falls though the holes and use it on your garden in a very diluted state (1 – 100). When the bucket is full, dig a hole in the garden and bury the contents. This stuff will turn into compost at a much quicker rate that a normal garden compost heap.
Avril can be found at the Porters Market every Saturday from 09h00 till 13h00.
Her number is 082 439 6395 and Emile is 082 823 0757
Email : ywaste@telkomsa.net
Web : www.y-waste.net
8. The next meeting.
The next meeting will take place at Jo Austin’s home in Clovelly on 3 September at 09h00.
Giveaway Plants June 30, 2010
| DATE | PERSON GIVING AWAY | NAME OF PLANT | CUTTING, BULBS, POT etc |
| Jun-10 | Ally Reidy | Conifer in pot (pot to go with plant) | Its in a pot and is about 1.5 m tall. |
Flourish Garden Club Minutes of 5 June 2010 June 30, 2010
1. Thanks to our hostess.
Thank you to Nici Palmer for hosting the meeting at her lovely home in Wynberg .
2. What to do in your garden this month
- Plant indigenous now
- Feed with 315 or 234 or organic fertilizers high in potassium
- Feed citrus with bounceback
3. Library
Sally has bought another book for our library entitled “Wild Flowers of Table Mountain” – be sure to have a look at it.
4. Speaker
Thank you to our speaker for the day – Pat Featherstone from Soil for Life. Soil for Life is a non profit organization which teaches people how to grow food. The method they teach is how to make lots of food in small spaces and how to build soil. I f you want a living soil you should keep artificial fertilizers away. The organization promotes no meat and they do not use synthetic pesticides or artificial fertilizers.
There is a good movie on circuit at the moment called “Food Inc” – consider seeing it.
Books you may want to read “ Eating Animals” and “Omnivores Dilemma”.
5. General
- Garden and Home has an amazing special on subscriptions at the moment at R97.00 for a 1 year subscription.
- Kirstenbosch has Fresias at half price at the moment.
- Garden refuse removal – Caroline recommended a very pleasant and trustworthy person called Desmond from a company called DMC Gardening Service.
- There was a general discussion on worm farms. A tip to keep fruit flies away from worm farms is to keep some vinegar in a bottle in the farm, also don’t put too much fruit into it and avoid using rotten fruit. Put soil into the bottom of the farm as soil contains microbes, which helps with the decomposition process.
- Snails – to get rid of them, pick a few (quite a lot) from your garden and put them into a 2 litre bottle and let them die. Use this juice from the dead snails and sprinkle over your garden. The live snails will avoid the smell of their own dead. You can do the same with bugs ( from the book Jane’s Delicious Garden – it’s the bug vs bug method) Its gross, but its organic and it works!! Ferremol is organic and can also be used.
- Use bioneem oil for aphids and wipe citrus leaves.
6. Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on Saturday 7 August at Caroline Doyle’s home in Tokai. The speaker is a designer and will take a critical look at Caroline’s garden which is very much a clean slate at the moment.
April Meeting Minutes May 19, 2010
Flourish Meeting Minutes
Hosted by Nikki Ferris at her home in Devils Peak
By Alison Reidy
Debbie opened the meeting:
- Welcome to the new members – Andrea and Jan.
- Kathy has found a speaker who is a nurseryman from Superplants and is willing to speak to the club for one of our meetings. – Members to think up suggested topics.
- Debbie is to be away every alternate month till October
- Name tags – please ensure you return your name tags at the end of the meetings.
- Visitors to use a sticky name tag, and permanent members to use the plastic butterfly tags.
- Books: “Jane’s Delicious Garden” is now available in our library
Nikki presented a fabulous talk on her garden, and its progress over the past few years!
- To paraphrase:
- They rebuilt and raised their walls
- They started from scratch with their soil and grass
- They laid very attractive concrete paths coloured with oxide and given a cobblestone impression
- A few trees planted too close to walls etc by the previous owners had to be removed,
- Some brave plants from before the build, such as a (now) huge Cape Honeysuckle have recovered from the building and are flourishing!
- They cleared many rocks which Nikki collected together as a feature in the garden.
- One of the rocks was extremely large, but fortunately, heavy winter rains helped the moving process along.
- New stairs were built
- A fabulous deck and pergola were built for chilling under and watching the great view of the city
- Nikki’s garden was full of interesting and healthy happy plants!
- Two lovely wine barrel planters were home to vibrant cabbages and other veggies
- Thanks so much Nikki! I know we all really enjoyed sharing your successes in your garden.
Joanne Austin suggested starting a Seed Bank!
- The idea is for members to collect the seeds / bulbs from organic fruit/veggies/flowers etc that were particularly successful/tasty/ abundant, prepare them appropriately, and submit them to the bank.
- Members would be able to take seeds from the bank to try in their own gardens.
- Joanne Austin kindly offered to manage the bank
- Once seeds from unrefridgerated fruit/veg are harvested, members are encouraged to rinse any pulp etc off the seeds, and leave the seeds to dry in the sun for a few days. Once dry, package them in a paper bag and label with variety and date, and any relevant notes.
- Joanne Austin did some research and learnt that intense cultivation and pesticides are causing only a limited number of varieties of our fruit/veg to survive, meaning we’re quickly losing the heirloom varieties from years gone by.
Sally suggested planting our seedlings in empty egg cartons. Once germinated, just tear the individual egg ‘cups’ off and plant directly into the soil.
Debbie suggested we also do a recipe swap – with recipes containing the fruit/veggies we grew ourselves
- The recipe book that the Constantia Valley Garden Club compiled about 7 or 8 years ago was discussed. It contained recipes used by the ladies in the club, and was focussed on cooking seasonally and deliciously.
By Alison
March Meeting Minutes May 19, 2010
Flourish Garden “Special” Meeting Minutes
Held on Saturday, 6 March 2010 at the home of Marion Siebrits
Wow, what a super garden club meeting we had on Saturday. It’s so encouraging to see that our fledgling garden club is growing steadily and is matched by everyones enthusiasm for gardening. Two new members signed up, so we would like to extend a warm welcome to Tamzen and Jennifer.
HOT TOPIC OF THE DAY
Our hostess, the very charismatic Marion Siebrits from Starke Ayres Garden Centre invited us into her lovely home and garden. She spoke to us on how to get started with planting and maintaining a thriving vegetable and herb garden. Marion refers to her garden as an edible one as her entire garden is just vegetables and herbs.
Lately, a lot of Marion’s inspiration comes from the latest book by Jane Griffiths, called Jane’s Delicious Garden. This she keeps next to her bed as she’s always thumbing through it. (FYI – Flourish Garden Club has its own copy but you may need to book it and return it by the next meeting, as it’s bound to be hugely popular with all the members!)
Please forgive me but I’m going to quote the next few paragraphs from the Starke Ayres brochure as it sums up some of our discussion beautifully.
Growing your own veggies is always the healthy option, as well as being a very satisfying pastime. One doesn’t even have to have a dedicated vegetable patch, you can plant them in a sunny spot in between your shrubs and flowers and create an “ornamental kitchen garden”. A border of red lettuce around your rosemary or lavender is very attractive and you can harvest whenever you please. Planting a selection of vegetables in this manner also allows for easy crop/plant rotation which helps prevent diseases and pests becoming a problem. If the same plant is grown in the same place every year pests and diseases may build up in the soil, while others add nutrients. Rotate the plants in the following order for maximum benefit:
· First legumes (peas and beans)
· Then leaves and fruit (lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers)
· Followed by roots (beetroots, carrots, leeks, onions, potatoes)
Plant out only a few plants of a variety at a time to avoid a surplus and plan your planting at three-week intervals to ensure a steady supply of veg. Place compost on the beds when you plant, water regularly and feed with a liquid food for added growth.
We also looked at companion planting and this would include the following:
| Leeks and celery
|
Lettuce and carrots | Celery and onions and leeks |
| Lettuce and radishes
|
Chives and carrots | Chives and tomatoes
|
| Parsley and tomato
|
Beans and potatoes | Sage and cabbage
|
| Celery and beans
|
Carrots and dill
|
THINGS MARION CAN’T DO WITHOUT
· Gardenia Scissors
· Latex gloves
· If you are looking for the “Rolls Royce” of compost, Reliance Compost is the way to go. Starke Ayres Garden Centre sells large bags for around R40 p/bag. (info@reliance.co.za)
FOR YOUR DIARY
If you are free this Wednesday and you would like to attend the launch of Jane’s new book, Jane’s Delicious Garden, visit Starke Ayres Garden Centre on Wednesday, 10 March at 17h00 for 17h30. (R.S.V.P. Lucinda@starkeayresgc.co.za for catering purposes.)
Alternatively, they will be holding a workshop on Thursday, 11 March, 10h00 for 10h30 until 13h00. Cost is R200 including tea. Booking is essential! Contact Lucinda at (021) 685 4120.
ON YOUR TO-DO LIST FOR MARCH
Annuals
· Sow indigenous seed mixes like blue kingfisher daisy and African daisies.
· Plant sweet peas in a sunny spot, making sure tall varieties have a trellis to climb up.
· Sow the shade-loving fairy primula in areas of filtered shade under trees or shrubbery.
Perennials
· Split and divide agapanthus, day lilies, arum lilies and cannas.
· Prune flowering shrubs like bougainvillea and hibiscus.
· Tidy up climbers by removing dead branches and seed pods.
· Deadhead hydrangeas (cut off as much of the stem as possible) and fertilise with Humac.
Prepare for the months ahead
· Remove fallen autumn leaves from lawns, paths, gutters and ponds.
· Buy winter flowering bulbs, but wait until April before planting them.
· Stake and secure dahlias and hollyhocks to protect them from the winter winds that lie ahead.
Give your garden a boost
· Feed your lawn with 3:2:1 or LAN.
· Feed azaleas with iron chelate and one tablespoon or Epsom salts per bush.
· Feed tomatoes with phostrogen.
· Feed citrus trees with Epsom salts and magnesium sulphate (All Phostrogen).
No further garden club matters were discussed.
Please note that the next Flourish Garden Club meeting will take place on Saturday, 17 April. Please watch e-mails for further details!
March 2010 Meeting Minutes March 10, 2010
Flourish Garden “Special” Meeting Minutes
Held on Saturday, 6 March 2010 at the home of Marion Siebrits
Wow, what a super garden club meeting we had on Saturday. It’s so encouraging to see that our fledgling garden club is growing steadily and is matched by everyones enthusiasm for gardening. Two new members signed up, so we would like to extend a warm welcome to Tamzen and Jennifer.
HOT TOPIC OF THE DAY
Our hostess, the very charismatic Marion Siebrits from Starke Ayres Garden Centre invited us into her lovely home and garden. She spoke to us on how to get started with planting and maintaining a thriving vegetable and herb garden. Marion refers to her garden as an edible one as her entire garden is just vegetables and herbs.
Lately, a lot of Marion’s inspiration comes from the latest book by Jane Griffiths, called Jane’s Delicious Garden. This she keeps next to her bed as she’s always thumbing through it. (FYI – Flourish Garden Club has its own copy but you may need to book it and return it by the next meeting, as it’s bound to be hugely popular with all the members!)
Please forgive me but I’m going to quote the next few paragraphs from the Starke Ayres brochure as it sums up some of our discussion beautifully.
Growing your own veggies is always the healthy option, as well as being a very satisfying pastime. One doesn’t even have to have a dedicated vegetable patch, you can plant them in a sunny spot in between your shrubs and flowers and create an “ornamental kitchen garden”. A border of red lettuce around your rosemary or lavender is very attractive and you can harvest whenever you please. Planting a selection of vegetables in this manner also allows for easy crop/plant rotation which helps prevent diseases and pests becoming a problem. If the same plant is grown in the same place every year pests and diseases may build up in the soil, while others add nutrients. Rotate the plants in the following order for maximum benefit:
- First legumes (peas and beans)
- Then leaves and fruit (lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers)
- Followed by roots (beetroots, carrots, leeks, onions, potatoes)
Plant out only a few plants of a variety at a time to avoid a surplus and plan your planting at three-week intervals to ensure a steady supply of veg. Place compost on the beds when you plant, water regularly and feed with a liquid food for added growth.
We also looked at companion planting and this would include the following:
| Leeks and celery | Lettuce and carrots | Celery and onions and leeks |
| Lettuce and radishes | Chives and carrots | Chives and tomatoes |
| Parsley and tomato | Beans and potatoes | Sage and cabbage |
| Celery and beans | Carrots and dill |
THINGS MARION CAN’T DO WITHOUT
- Gardenia Scissors
- Latex gloves
- If you are looking for the “Rolls Royce” of compost, Reliance Compost is the way to go. Starke Ayres Garden Centre sells large bags for around R40 p/bag. (info@reliance.co.za)
FOR YOUR DIARY
If you are free this Wednesday and you would like to attend the launch of Jane’s new book, Jane’s Delicious Garden, visit Starke Ayres Garden Centre on Wednesday, 10 March at 17h00 for 17h30. (R.S.V.P. Lucinda@starkeayresgc.co.za for catering purposes.)
Alternatively, they will be holding a workshop on Thursday, 11 March, 10h00 for 10h30 until 13h00. Cost is R200 including tea. Booking is essential! Contact Lucinda at (021) 685 4120.
ON YOUR TO-DO LIST FOR MARCH
Annuals
- Sow indigenous seed mixes like blue kingfisher daisy and African daisies.
- Plant sweet peas in a sunny spot, making sure tall varieties have a trellis to climb up.
- Sow the shade-loving fairy primula in areas of filtered shade under trees or shrubbery.
Perennials
- Split and divide agapanthus, day lilies, arum lilies and cannas.
- Prune flowering shrubs like bougainvillea and hibiscus.
- Tidy up climbers by removing dead branches and seed pods.
- Deadhead hydrangeas (cut off as much of the stem as possible) and fertilise with Humac.
Prepare for the months ahead
- Remove fallen autumn leaves from lawns, paths, gutters and ponds.
- Buy winter flowering bulbs, but wait until April before planting them.
- Stake and secure dahlias and hollyhocks to protect them from the winter winds that lie ahead.
Give your garden a boost
- Feed your lawn with 3:2:1 or LAN.
- Feed azaleas with iron chelate and one tablespoon or Epsom salts per bush.
- Feed tomatoes with phostrogen.
- Feed citrus trees with Epsom salts and magnesium sulphate (All Phostrogen).
No further garden club matters were discussed.
Please note that the next Flourish Garden Club meeting will take place on Saturday, 17 April. Please watch e-mails for further details!
Jane Jordan’s Rose Growing Tips December 29, 2009
Here are Jane Jordan’s Rose Growing Tips, from our November meeting at her lovely house.
Enjoy!
Flourish Meeting Minutes – 17 October 2009 October 19, 2009
Shaune welcomed us into her lovely home in Kirstenhof for a good chat, and some very tasty tea and treats! Thanks Shaune!
Items raised and discussed
2010 Committee
Due to the rather low turn-out, we decided to postpone the vote for the new 2010 committee to the November meeting.
Fortunately, a number of members expressed an interest in getting involved! Thanks ladies!
We’ve create a new role for 2010, focussing on researching and managing opportunities for our club to get involved in community programs, or specific schemes or charities we’d like to donate to! Shaune proposed herself for the role.
Michelle proposed herself to take the role of secretary.
Thanks ladies.. we’ll confirm these proposals at the vote next month.
Committee members stepping down are: Jo Reidy, Jo Austin, and Ally (I’ll be involved simply as far as managing the blog, and initially to hand-over to the new chairperson).
The roles that still need to be filled, or don’t have any volunteers to fill them yet, are as follows:
Membership Co-ordinator: This role involves keeping track of attendance and RSVPs, managing our list of the member’s contact details, managing the flourish email account and co-ordinating with the treasurer with regard to payment of subs etc.
Speaker Co-ordinator’s Assistant: this role would involve assisting Caroline with managing and finding topics / speakers/ and venues for our meetings etc
Vice Chairperson: The idea of this position is for one of the members to assist and fill in for the Chairperson when she needs extra help, or cannot host a meeting herself. This isn’t an entire role in itself, so would be held by a member that already has their own role. This member would then be prepared and ready to take on the Chairperson role in the following year.
Chairperson: This role simply involves coordinating with, and empowering the rest of the committee members as they execute their own tasks by ensuring they have the tools they require; It’s also a chance to keep an eye on the general vibe of the club, to make sure there is a positive momentum and that everyone is still happy and enjoying it!
2010 Venues
A number of members have already volunteered their homes for next year’s meetings. Thanks! Please contact Caroline if you’d like to host at your house.
Spring/Summer Photo Competition
The deadline for the Spring/Summer photo competition is the end of February – And we’ll take a vote for the winner at the March meeting at Debbie Turberville’s house!
‘Project Flourish’ Day
The April meeting, at Nikkie’s house, will be dedicated to members showcasing the transformations they’ve been making in their gardens, whether big, or small, complete revamp, or one simple veggie patch. Members will get a chance to share their pictures, cuttings, success and failure stories and also ask advice from the rest of the club.
November Meeting
The November meeting will be at Jane Jordan’s place, and we’ll be given the privilege of seeing and learning about her gorgeous roses.
Library Books
Constantia Valley Garden Club have been kind enough to offer to ‘refresh’ the selection of books we’ve been loaning from their library!
We’ll be adding Jane Jordan’s book, “My Delicious garden” to our own collection.
Nikkie has a contact at Readers Warehouse – so if you’d like to buy books for the club, please chat with her, and she can arrange a discount.
Membership Subs
Nikkie will take a look at the financial situation, and decided whether or not we need to increase the subs slightly for 2010.
Christmas Party
The Christmas party will be on November 28th. We’ll meet a little later in the morning, and everyone is asked to bring a plate of eats, and something to drink, as well as a plant to put into the plant exchange.
- By Ally Reidy
5 September Flourish Meeting Minutes September 7, 2009
5 September 2009
Flourish Meeting Minutes
Judy Maconachie, Caroline’s mum, kindly hosted us at her lovely house in Constantia, and also showed us around her fabulous garden, answering our many questions and queries.
Items raised and discussed
- Book Proposal: Jane Griffiths “Janes Delicious Garden (how to grow organic vegetables and herbs)”
- Recommended gardeners and gardener services were discussed. Refer to the Flourish blog “Handy Info” for recommendations, and send in any suggestions you have to Ally (ally.reidy@gmail.com) or the Flourish email (Flourish.members@gmail.com) email address.
- What to do this time of year:
- Compost
- Weed
- Feed with 3:1:5 or 2:3:4 or Bounce Back
- If you don’t have time or space for composting, Soil For Life will remove your black bags of compost or garden cuttings, and use this to make their own
- The Tokai Lions at the Tokai forest sell great compost: R6 per bag – R50 delivery charge. They also sell stones, and bark, amongst other things
- Pick and Pay’s stones are actually very cheap
- The flower grower, behind Pedlars on the Bend, was highly recommended. Simply visit them at the beginning of the week to order your cut flowers for the weekend. They are very reasonably priced, and last a long time!
- Great wholesale nursery is Little Orchard: on Meadow Lane in Constantia, after the retirement village
- Open on a Sunday
- Angelina will help you
- Great range of herbs (though not cheap) can be found at Ferndale, but once again, Little Nursery have cheap herbs
- Re-laying a Lawn:
- Remove the lawn
- Apply bone meal and compost
- Firm down to level
- Re-apply the lawn
- Apply a thin lawn dressing, and build it up gradually
- Lawn treatment this time of year
- Superphosphates or 2:3:4 – try first applying the superphosphates, and then 2:3:4 in a week or so
- Bounce Back or Rapid Raiser are great too.
- Sean had a problem with these plants
- Macaya Bella not thriving
- Judy recommended applying Bounce Back, or Epsom salts
- Macaya Bella not thriving
- Bounce Back was recommended, as well as foliar feed, and kelpak.
- Iron chelate was another suggestion
- Lavenders:
- cut them in Feb, after they flower
- the French lavender produces many seedlings
- Harlequin lady birds are unwanted in the garden – they are orangey.
- Flourish 2010 committee will be voted in at the October meeting. Members were asked to concider getting on board, or think about who they would like to propose.
- Our next meeting is at Jo Austin’s house on the 10th October – looking forward to it!
- The November meeting will in fact be our “Christmas Party” at Sean’s house. Date to be confirmed.
Admin Items
Finally, Judy showed us around her gorgeous garden, and we finished off with delicious tea and cake!
n By Ally Reidy
