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Growing Mondays
Attention
Hi! I'm Jo, writing from Heart & Soil homestead, a 1-acre homestead in the Far South of Cape Town, South Africa. Every week I share inspiration and education for your growing journey. Thanks so much for reading!
Welcome to Growing Mondays, where I share ideas to help you grow edible and medicinal plants.
Don’t compare your chapter one with someone else’s chapter six.
Tomatoes this morning. They’re in, and they’re growing much faster in the tunnel than here in the bed.
Giving veg your attention
The more I garden, the more I think good veg gardening comes down to giving plants your attention. Usually it is attention, more than knowledge, that helps your plants thrive.
As you start the spring season, create lots of reasons to walk through and see how your plants are growing. If you can catch problems early, it’s easier to fix them. More attention when your spring veg are young will help tremendously.
When planting out young seedlings in the spring, this mostly involves attention to soil and water. When a seedling’s root ball is tiny, particularly if it has been transplanted into the bed, it is very sensitive to pockets of poor soil, dry soil or differences in particle size. I find that putting nutrients into liquids can help to provide nutrients when a seedling is small. For example, worm tea or kelp tea. Another option is planting with a small amount of worm castings. Worm castings are rather miraculous sources of health for seedlings. If you don’t have these or you’re on a tight budget, cooking liquid that has cooled (pasta water, rice water, bean water) can provide starch for microbes in the soil to feed on, and so provide nutrients slightly more indirectly.
Wherever you can, plant extra, have backup plans, and don’t sweat it when things die. It’s easier not to worry when things die if you have a bunch of backup plans. Choose your priorities, match your resources to these priorities, and go for it!!! I mean, grow for it! Here’s to a great season of growing.
Wait, the tomato isn’t supposed to look like that… I waste less than 30 seconds worrying about the why, and focus on the "what now”- I replace quickly with seedlings I have on reserve for events like this.
Summer growing Part 1 THIS Sunday, 25th August 10-11:30 This workshop is to help set you up for a great summer growing season. I'll show you our approach, limitations, and growing plans, and walk you through common challenges. The goal is to allow you to apply our experiences and mistakes to YOUR circumstances.
Raising quail and ducks: Exploring alternatives to chickens 31 August, 10-11:30 If you’ve ever wondered about keeping quail or ducks, this is the workshop for you. I’ve grouped these two together, even though their needs are quite different, because their contrasting needs may highlight your preferences and help you take your first step.
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