June Workshop

Tags

Lavender, mint, oregano, plant propagation, propagation, rosemary, Sage, Satureja montana Winter Savory, Wild Rosemnay, Wildeels, winter savory, workshop

Lynne and Karin learning how to propagate

cutting of Rosemary, Wild Rosemary, Sage, Mint, Oregano, Lavender and Winter Savory.

The focus in the June workshop was on plant propagation.  This type of propagation is known as slipping or cutting from soft wood. This is an excellent way to multiply your plants. The new plant will be an exact clone of the parent plant.

 

Good luck ladies, I hope to have some feed back from you soon.

There will be no workshop for July.

Bookings are now open for 2 August. Book your place now.

March workshop

Tags

march, Team Vincent, workshop

Team Vincent

Thank you so much Team Vincent for attending last Saturday’s workshop.

We had so much fun learning about the birds, bees ,seeds, and of course worms (Red Wriggler worms).

Booking is now open for the 12 April workshop.

Come along and learn how to put fresh, pesticide free food on your table all year round.

 

November workshop

Tags

Cape Town, food, gardening, home grown, nature, organic, plants

Viv and Leigh hard at work

Baby Spinach seeds planted

Coriander sown

Thinning carrots

The poor baby discards

Leigh transplanting spinach

Viv watering

The doggie chilling in the shade

This was the final workshop for the year.   In December all the participants will meet to  have a Xmas party.

RELATED ARTICLES :

Workshops 2013

 

 

Start an Elemental Organic Veggie garden – Workshop in Stanford

Tags

companion planting, compost, garden, Kitchen garden, Local Food Heroes, plant, soil preparation, Vegetable, vegetable garden, workshop

I have been asked by “Your Local Food Heroes”  to present a  vegetable and herb workshop  in Stanford on 16  November.

The workshop will be intensely practical and fun, teaching you how to start and grow your own vegetable garden covering soil preparation, composting, planning your garden, companion planting, seeds and seedlings.

Photo courtesy of Cath Croxton

Booking is essential as space is limited. Cath Croxton from Your Local Food Heroes can be emailed at croxton@gmail.com for details and bookings

Come along and learn how to put fresh, pesticide free food on your table all year round.

 

Related articles

• Install a vegetable garden (grassconsumeraction.wordpress.com)

September workshop – The Sunset Garden

Tags

Calendula, garden, gardening, gertrude jekyll, Home and Garden, home grown, organic, plants, red poppies, Seed, sunset garden, three gardens, tomato, ztl

Sonia, Shelley and Renata were full of SUN-shine when they created the

“Sunset garden.”

The J garden was past its prime and needed a huge rework.

Here Renata and Sonia discuss what seeds they are going to plant. Chili, Tomato, Bright Lights Spinach were decided upon.

Shelley found treasure of dozens of Calendula seedlings in Craig’s garden and proceeded to plant them in rows like the rays of the sun, radiating out from the pineapple.

The red poppies were left at the one corner and more lettuce was added.

The completed rework…. now all we need is a little rain, sunshine and patience.

A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.
Gertrude Jekyll

RELATED ARTICLES :

Workshops for 2013.

Learning to grow your own workshop 2 March

The April Elemental Organic – vegetable growing course

May Elemental Organic growing workshop – The Winter Garden

July workshop garden – ZTL garden (Zero to landfill)

 The August workshop – Three gardens in one

The August workshop – Three gardens in one

Tags

coke bottles, egg shells, food, garden, gardening, herbal plants, Home and Garden, home grown, organic, plant, planting seeds, useful plants, worm farm

The course participants introducing them selves to each other. Here we have Colin, Carlene, Enid, Felicity, Penny-Jane, Erica, Linda and Marina.

The weather was perfect for gardening. The group divided themselves into 3 groups and each group created a different garden.

 

Compost, gardening tools, plants , old coke bottles and wood were all gathered up with which everyone used to create their gardens.

Everyone frantically busy creating their gardens.

Enid planting seeds. Enid looks after orphans in Kayalitsha and is starting to grow food to feed them.

Deep in design thought and discussion.

Linda sprinkling the crushed egg shells to deter the snails.

Even our resident  Cape Angulate Tortoise came along to see what all the activity was all about.

Erica, Justin and Enid created “The Sweet Garden” due to the fact that a worm farm was incorporated, the vegetables planted are sweet and Lavender which will attract the bees.

Carlene and Felicity (Linda had to leave early) show us their “Pizza Garden” Fabulous to go outside and pick fresh produce for your Pizza!

Colin, Marina and Penny-Jane created a useful plants garden, consisting of herbal plants.

A wonderful fun workshop was had by all. After the last 2 days rain the plants will be growing actively in no time at all.

 

Related articles :

Workshops for 2013.

Learning to grow your own workshop 2 March

The April Elemental Organic – vegetable growing course

May Elemental Organic growing workshop – The Winter Garden

July workshop garden – ZTL garden (Zero to landfill)

 

July workshop garden – ZTL garden (Zero to landfill)

Tags

compost, food, Food waste, garden, gardening, Green waste, home grown, Landfill, organic, Waste management, workshops, ZTL garden

Meet our participants Tristan and Robyn.

The morning was perfect for gardening, nice and cool and some good hard gardening to warm us up.

This month we have planted a garden using a new compost product from a company called

ZTL Organics (Zero to Landfill).

Zero to Landfill was started in 2008 with a focus on recycling organic waste, in particular food waste, from hotels, restaurants and businesses in Cape Town

Zero to Landfill Organics food and garden waste compost is unique in that it contains high levels of nutrients which are broken down and stabilised during the composting process. Egg shells, seafood shells and bones supply high levels of Calcium, meat and fruit waste provides high levels of Nitrogen and Potassium, Coffee grounds are rich in Nitrogen and leaves and garden waste provide the carbon. Using food waste as an ingredient in our compost also saves water. The high moisture content of food waste makes it possible to compost dry material without using thousands of litres of precious water. Soil is mixed in to our compost to help to stabilise the nutrients and to make a rich potting mix that can be used in new beds and as a lawn dressing.

No need to add bone meal here! The chicken bone is evident there is enough Calcium in the mix.

Tristan getting stuck in with Robyn at his side.

We await to see how the garden will develop!

Workshop dates/booking

May Elemental Organic growing workshop – The Winter Garden

Tags

Beetroot, Bright light Spinach, coke bottles, companion plants, course participants, food gardening, home grown, nasturtium, potatoes, tires, worm

 

Meet Dominique and Nuri the participants on last Saturday’s workshop.

We covered subject from a huge spectrum of gardening advice and teachings.

Both ladies were very enthusiastic and eager for more knowledge.

 

When we finally got down to creating the veggie garden, we opted to plant a “Winter Garden”.

The pot was divided into 4 and four tires were placed in each quarter. The soil was enriched with compost, 4 x  2l coke bottles were planted for watering. (The bottles will have pipe added to the top when the next tires are added) Sprouting potatoes were chosen and 4 planted in each tire. In the remaining space the ground was prepared and beetroot and Spinach Bright lights were sown. On the 4 corners, Nasturtium seedlings were transplanted to four companion plants.

We even had Tim from last month’s course arrive to check on the  Worm garden.

To avoid disappointment, as space is limited, book now for the next course which will be held 8th June.

email : aristonorganic@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

The April Elemental Organic – vegetable growing course

Tags

course participants, food, gardening, home grown, organic, South African endemic plant, workshop, workshops, worm farms, worm garden

The morning dawned cooler, with cloud cover and a small bit of drizzle, perfect weather for gardening.  Here we see the course participants getting stuck in and preparing the soil.

All the hard work now complete, including installing 2 mini worm farms to giving the soil a continuous feed. The garden has been named the “Worm Garden”. Wow, everyone just fell in love with the worms.

Here we have our participants.

From left : Daniel, Mani, Jennifer, Lambert, Tim and Manish.

To avoid disappointment, as space is limited, book now for the next course which will be held 4th May.

email : aristonorganic@gmail.com

Learning to grow your own workshop 2 March

Tags

carrots, compost, eggplant, food, growing from food scraps, horseradish, lettuce, marjoram, nature, oregano, pineapple, planting, plants, preparing soil, propagation, rocket, rosemary, spinach, wild garlic, winter savory, workshops, worm castings, worm compost

We had a fabulous workshop yesterday. Jo and Janine arrived full of energy and enthusiasm.

We started by assessing the site in which we were going to garden.

We proceeded to improve the soil with compost made from straw, cow manure and mushroom compost.

We then planted some 2 liter bottles with small holes in the bottle to make sure we have water going down to the roots.

We then look around for plants we could propagate to plant . Rosemary,  wild garlic ( our companion plant), horseradish, winter savory, oregano and marjoram were chosen.

The worm farm was harvested for worm compost. Oh my word the girls just fell in love with the worms.

We then planted using the worm compost.

Seeds that were chosen to sow were : carrots, spinach, eggplant and lettuce. the carrots were sown directly into the ground, the others were planted up in seed trays which Jo has taken home to nurture until they are ready to be planted out.

Our piece of resistance for the day was planting a pineapple from food scraps.

We finished the bed by mulching with leaves and compost again and a thorough watering.

We all left thoroughly dirty and tired but thoroughly satisfied.

Book now for the next workshop in April

https://aristonorganic.wordpress.com/workshops-for-2013/

email aristonorganic@gmail.com