Tuin - Ware Tuinslaai

Vandag skryf ek die storie met gemengde gevoelens. Dinge lyk sleg in die land en daar is min hoop dat dit vinnig gaan verander. Tussen die politiek en die droogte gaan ons as verbruikers lelik noustrop trek.

Plantbak by die kombuis

Ek het al verskeie stories geskryf oor die gebruik van goedkoper vleissnitte en ek moedig mense aan om bietjie moeite te doen om gewone disse spesiaal te maak. Dis nie so moeilik nie.



Vandag wil ek gesels oor die klein dingetjies wat jy kan doen om jou lewe bietjie makliker te maak. Bietjie moeite vir lekker eet en sommer ook 'n besparing.

Die waterskaarste knyp ons almal en dis my opinie dat net die gelukkiges kan nog tradisionele tuine onderhou. Die neiging na houers toe is nie net prakties nie maar ook meer hanteerbaar vir mense met 'n besige lewe. Dit waaroor ek hier skryf is dinge wat ek self doen en dus is my stories nie mites nie maar praktiese ervaring.

Kombuis Houer:

Vars uit die tuin

Ek het by my agterdeur genoeg spasie gehad om 'n bak te bou van hout. 2.1m by 800mm en 280mm diep. In hierdie bak saai ek radyse, basil, rocket, tatsoi, pietersielie en kappertjies. Al die plante gee my 'n lekker tuinslaai met etes. Ek plant bv net 12 radyse elke 7 dae en sodoende het ek altyd vars radyse byderhand. Ons is net twee mense so ek rantsoeneer my aanplantings om daarby te pas.

Al die plante wat ek hierbo genoem het groei maklik in houers.

As jy die volgende doen;
3x 200mm potte waarin jy radyse plant. En plant elke week genoeg saadjies sal jy altyd vars radyse hê. Die goed is duur as jy dit koop en is gewoonlik nie meer vars nie. Met die houer trek jy net dit uit wat jy wilgebruik en los die ander. Sodoendehet jy altyd kraakvars radyse.

Kraakvars en gesond

Plant 'n pietersielie plant in 'n potjie en oes elke keer net die hoeveelheid blare wat jy wil gebruik. Jy sal verbaas wees he groot so pietersielie plantjie word.

Dieselfde geld vir Rocket, Basil en Tatsoi.

As jy nie jou eie saailing wil maak nie kan jy die klein sixpak bakkies koop. Plant twee plantjies in 'n potjie en los die res in die bakkie. Dan so week later plant jy weer twee en later weer twee. Sodoende het jy van die kruie vir feitlik die hele seisoen.

Met die plan het jy altyd groenslaai vars uit die tuin vir jou etes en jy hoef nie te koop nie en jy gebruik nie yskas spasie nie.

Ek maak 'n eenvoudige slaaisousie van 1t olyfolie, 1t Suurlemoensap en klits dit goed en roer die blare daardeur. Dan sprinkel ek growwe peper en growwe sout en dis al.

Wortels, beet, aartappels en tamaties is bietjie meer uitdagend. die knolle hou egter lekker lank in die yskas so jy koop teen 'n goeie prys en eet lank.

Tamaties is moeilik want alles in die omgewing wil dit vreet en dan is daar nog ook die irritasie van roes.

Begin iewers en begin klein maar begin.

Kook lekker tot ek weer 'n storie skryf.

Hier is my Facebook Bladsy ... Man Kos ... like hom as jy wil.

Garden - The joy of Chickens

During January 2019 I decided to get a few chickens. I have the space and may as well produce some food on it. Being OCD and all it was a project for me and not merely a case of getting a few chickens. My first checkpoint was to decide on which breed I want to keep. After a lot of investigating I settled on the Potchefstroom Koekoek. They are one of the four indigenous species of South Africa and in a project done by the University of Potchefstroom they were shown to be the most hardy of the four with very few ailments. Secondly they were found to be excellent egg producers as well as a great source of meat. Hens will render around 3.4kg of meat and cocks can reach up to 4.5kg.

These facts sealed the deal for me and I embarked on a mission to find the stock. I found a breeder near Brits and he did have stock that was classified as "Point of Lay" hens.

For the next few days I constructed the coop and fenced the orchard in properly. The idea was to allow the chickens to run free as much as possible. The orchard is around 30m x 60m and that is more than enough space for what I had in mind. My son had to evacuate one of his crypto mines and gave me a lot of expanded metal that was used for the security cages. I re purposed this for the coop.

With everything in place I ordered the chickens. Eight hens and one cock. My friend Pierre picked them up during a business trip to Gauteng and the chickens arrived here late the evening of 14 March 2019.

They settled in well and I checked for eggs every day. To me, "point of lay" meant exactly that. However the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months. On the 22nd of April one of the hens died. After thorough investigation it appeared as if some of the cickens developed an upper respiratory infection. I got the right medication and after 6 days of medication they were all fine.

On the 23rd of May the first egg was in the nest. This was a very good experience for me. It was 10 weeks after I got them. So it looks like "point of lay" is merely a ;able and not really a fact. On the 30th of May there were 4 eggs. I think it is safe to assume that 4 of the hens are in production. Hopefully the other 3 will wake u soon.

Currently 20kg of feed lasts 6 weeks. At R115.00 that is not too expensive.

The first moment  appreciation was when I cooked two of the eggs for breakfast. Wow, the yolks were deep yellow, almost orange and the taste was amazing. After eating shop bought eggs for almost 50 years I once again experienced the real taste of a free range egg.

Another big bonus is the way the chickens are cleaning the orchard. We have massive issues with termites and I am glad to say that there is almost no trace of any termite activity in the orchard. Usually we have lots of flies in the orchard when the guavas starts ripening. The little band of peckers are very busy under the trees and there is almost no trace of flies around.

According to my calculations, I should get 36 eggs per week from the 7 hens. That means that we will be fully self-sufficient as far as eggs are concerned and this will trim around R70.00 from the grocery budget. Friends and family is already keen to buy surplus eggs. Not a really big commercial operation but the chickens should pay for their upkeep.

Important to note that these chickens are not deal for a small town yard because the really dig your place up.

Now the surplus lettuce from the aquaponics is fed to the chickens and not going to waste.

I haven't decided yet if I will allow the hens to hatch some eggs or whether I should buy a small incubator. I would like to get the population to a point where  can slaughter one chicken per week. But that is at least two years into the future.

For now I enjoy my breakfast and love watching the chickens operate in the orchard.


Kook lekker tot ek weer 'n storie skryf.

Hier is my Facebook Bladsy ... Man Kos ... like hom as jy wil.

Garden - Taming the backyard

In June last year I sort of retired. Unfortunately I am not someone that can sit around and do nothing. For the past 25 years or so I worked basically 18 hours per day and rarely paid any attention to the garden. Over this time my wife managed it mostly but she was met by many disappointments. Our soil are typical Lowveld gravel that is fairly acidic. This meant that many of the plants she carted in just whithered away and died.

Ponds

I built a fairly large set of koiponds 10 years ago to cut down on the amount of lawn we had. I also collected a fairly comprehensive number of orchids. Over the years some of them did well but many simply whithered away to poor excuses for what they could be.

Before

When I bought the place I did a large amount of renovation and it included some walkways and decking. After almost 23 years the walkway railing was beginning to fail and was in desperate need of repair.

So one morning early I stood at the back door and looked at the failing railing. This was the main entrance to our home and it looked dilapidated.

After

I am blessed with a fairly creative and innovative mind and as my eyes wondered over that part of the garden a picture started forming in my head. I took some photographs and sat down behind my computer.

Within a few hours I had a plan and went out and instructed my guys to start ripping out the old railing.

Three days later the material needed was on site and construction started.

Before

I decided to replace the railing with some dual purpose structures ... raised flowerbeds.

After

My wife was not very impressed but I just smiled and carried on. Fortunately I have space and my mind went wild. I decided to create more than enough room so that we could have our best plants in a controlled environment with the right type of soil and easy to manage irrigation. What is more important is that these raised beds are easy to access for older backs and stiff joints ... not the herbaceous ones 😜

The whole project took around 3 months to complete because as I started cleaning up sections of the garden we had to prepare other spaces for the surplus plants. Just for the record, my yard is roughly the size of 2 rugby fields ... that is a lot of ground to cover.

Flowers and Cucumbers

Here are some images of the raised beds. I have been asked by many people if I will do it commercially and did not really have any interest in it. Then a while back I helped my oldest son to spruce a townhouse up that he wanted to sell ... so we did some design work and turned a fairly mundane little garden into something special and most of all ... manageable.

Easy to reach

Shortly after that my son was getting requests for some of the units and I agreed to to participate. And that is how the #ManKos Planters came to be. Now some frown on the relevance of these units and #ManKos ... well I mix my boxes with flowers, herbs and some root vegetables. It is quite rewarding to take stroll around the boxes in the late afternoon and pick some fresh herbs and other things for dinner. I plant radishes for example, 12 seeds every 10 days. This ensures that after 3 weeks I have fresh radishes every night for the salad. I pick rocket and basil as needed and I have started to use more chilies in our food.

Style and purpose

These planters are well suited for the smaller townhouse gardens. Your beds are raised and your lawn can grow under it. We can fit irrigation for you and as you can see in the pictures the beds can be alternated with open shelves ... there is really lots of options to employ to make your garden unique.

Another advantage is that with these #ManKos Planters you can keep your precious plants out of reach of your pets.

If you are interested and live in the Nelspruit area you can contact Jacques.