Jane's Delicious Garden Blog

I have just completed the manuscript for the next book – “Jane’s Delicious Herbs. Healing plants for home, health and happiness.” And now the photography starts. I have gone through my bottle collection and fished out every interesting one I have ever tucked away. It really helps being a hoarder when you start styling photographs.

I think this is why I enjoy writing and producing books – I get to do such a variety of things: Writing and researching, developing recipes, hunting down and photographing herb gardens, styling and shooting recipes, spending time in my garden shooting beautiful photographs of herbs . . .

So here are my bottles:

And checking details on a set up . . .

I first heard about a chicken tractor from one of my American magazines about ten years ago. It was a review of a book a homesteader had written about using chickens to till and fertilise the land. I wanted one. And now (finally!!) I have a chicken tractor with four happy hens installed in my garden.

It is all thanks to Keith who hammered and sawed the thing together (with a tiny bit of ‘hold this’ and ‘pull that’ help from me) We decided to make it using as much recycled material as possible.

This is the wood from an old fence that we took down a few years ago. It was more difficult to work with than purchased wood as it is quite uneven, making it harder to fit all the bits together.

After looking at plenty of designs we decided on a A Frame with the shelter on one side at the top of the A. This would maximise the amount of ground space the chooks would have.

The sides of the A being made:

Power tools help! (You can see it is still winter – the creeper on the house is not green yet . . .)

One side with reinforced edges

Joys of recycling – having to gouge out bits from uneven wood to make everything fit.

A man with a plan!

A frame taking shape:

Cross beams added for support.

Securing the top . . .

It was cold when we were working on it and we’d read that chickens don’t like being cold so Keith pulled out some polystyrene boards that had been used on some film shoot and used them as insulation. Lucky chooks!

Recycled roof.

A door so we can clean and feed.

The tractor finished and the chickens just arrived. Not sure who is more fascinated!

And the chooks settling in . . .under Tilu’s watchful eye!

Tosca having a sniff.

By the next morning the fascination had not worn off.

And now finally the lawn is back to normal instead of being a coop construction zone . . .

“I am the special ingredient!” is the quote on the back of the chef’s T shirt in the open plan kitchen at Xudum camp in the Okavango Delta. And does he live up to it. I have just arrived back from six days in the Delta – travelling via bumpy little planes, even bumpier landies, fast speed boats and slow makoros, I have had the most magical and wondrous time.
Watch this space for more! As soon as I get home I will be adding photos and delicious details . . .

Not that long ago, people who grew their own vegetables or used grey water for irrigation were considered fringe tree huggers. Just four years ago I only had one friend that I knew of who grew her own vegetables. And look at us now. These days I get stopped in the queue at supermarkets by people wanting to show me photographs of their vegetables on their phones! And many more people are becoming aware that organic gardening is all about working and living in harmony with natural systems and minimising and replenishing the resources that we consume. And one of the most important resources in our climate is water.

In the past, wars were fought over salt and graphite. Currently, wars are being fought over oil. In the very near future, wars will be fought over water. It is time to start thinking about our water supply and how we can save, harvest and recycle as much as we can. I have recently had JoJo tanks installed to harvest rainwater from my roof: 1mm of rain falling on one square meter of roof will supply 1 litre of water. I have a large roof and all those litres currently wash away down the storm water drain – but I am really looking forward to the next rains when instead they will be saved into my tanks. I will let you know how it all goes when the spring rains come . . .

Here are the rainwater tanks being installed:
Tanks arriving

Pipes etc being connected

Having a double storey house covered with very thick creeper caused a few hitches. We had to hire an extra length ladder and the pipes had to be carefully adjusted as there was no way they were allowed to cut creeper branches that are probably 30 years old!

Here they are nearly done, the last few pipes on the right still has to be connected (and the plastic packaging recycled!)

I have also installed a grey water system. I have learnt quite a bit about this in the last few weeks. Grey water comes from showers, baths, hand basins in the bathrooms and water from your washing machine. (It does NOT include water from the toilets, kitchen/ scullery sinks or dishwasher. This water is classified as black water.) Firstly – if you are going to use grey water on vegetables you have two options: You must either use the water within 24 hours of it entering the tank or you must have a cleansing system in place. If grey water sits for longer than 24 hours, bacteria begin to get to work and it quickly becomes fetid and stinky. Not what you want on edible plants! So, I decided to install a slightly more complicated system from Free Rain (such a lekker name!!). This includes a pump to circulate ozone into the water and an oxygenator in the tank. All of this keeps the water clear of any bacteria. As another precaution, the grey water is then fed from the tank, using a pressure boosted pump, into a drip irrigation system in the vegetable garden. The irrigations system uses soaker hoses that fill up with water and then slowly release it. This ensures that very little of the water is sprayed onto the leaves of my edibles, it all soaks directly into the soil – which of course being healthy soil full of organisms, acts as the final filter.
Here is the before pic – this is a bougainvillea that never flowered and wasn’t in the right place as it alwys had to be kept cut back.

First step is to lay an even platform

Installing the pump

And the end result. It is going to look even better in summer when the green creeper grows back around it.

And, as a final touch, the JoJo tanks actually look attractive – they are the Slimline tanks that aren’t obtrusive and they are a lovely speckledy sandstone colour. Practical and pretty – right up my alley! It is something we should all be putting at the top of our “to do” lists.

I have very bizeee! Again. Spring is just around the corner so it has been time to sow seeds and get my garden ready for the warmth that is just around the corner. Keith has been handymanning. I have been wanting a chicken tractor for ages and it is becoming a reality. A double storey A frame it is being built using all recycled material. The only thing we will have to buy is the chickens – maybe I can barter for them!
The other mission I have been on is finalising Jane’s Delicious Garden Planner. This is an amazing piece of software developed by Grow Veg in the UK. I have been busy adapting it for South Africa.  This planner let’s you draw up an exact plan of your garden, with very user friendly tools. Then simply drag and drop your vegetables and herbs into the beds. Add to that a personalised garden plan based on your garden, plus loads of info on all the vegetables, the planner is a valuable addition to your garden basket. Test it out for free here p

The Cat Who Ate Everything

The knee high wave swirled around me, tugging at my calves. I could feel the sand disintegrating under my feet and I wriggled my toes deeper. Southbroom. Summer. Holidays. I looked down into the clear sea and there was a black and white cat swimming under water. “That’s not right,” I thought. “It’s not going to be able to breathe for long under there.” Keith was standing a little way behind me and as she swept past me I called out to him to catch her. But he missed. As the wave turned and began to pull back, the little black and white body was just in my reach and I grabbed. She was surprisingly warm and dry as I cuddled her and she began to purr.

I woke to the sound of the golden oriel, its liquid call coming from the massive milkwood outside my window. I was at the cottage in Southbroom for summer holidays. Reading the Mercury over my morning coffee and rusk, an article jumped out. A cat rescue home near Durban had kittens looking for good homes. A number. A phone call. And two days later I met Sprocket. (Well, they called her Cowpatch because of her black and white markings, but that name didn’t stick.) She and her tabby sister had been rescued from a building site. At six weeks old they were so thin I could touch my fingers together above their stomachs. The Kit Kat sisters were never going hungry again.

I knew there was something unusual about Sprocket within a few weeks. I am allergic to cats and have to be careful about not touching my eyes or face after stroking them. Sprocket was different. She even smelled different. I could put my face into her soft tummy and she didn’t make me itch. With a blindfold on I could tell which sister was which. Then Keith read an article in National Geographic, about white cats not having the same allergic effect as other cats. And Sprocket was 90% white with a few black patches. How ironic in the new South Africa. “Well, I am allergic to black cats but not white ones . . .” But that’s the way it was and because of it I grew to love Sprocket even more.

But she wasn’t special just because of that. It did set her apart from the other cats. She was able to sleep in our bed, which somehow the rest accepted and even with the windows open, they would never come in – only Sprocket did. She was different in the way she let herself be loved. She was so trusting. I could pick her up and put her into a basket and carry her around slung over my shoulder, her head sticking out the top, her eyes asking, “Where are we going?” If I was busy in the garden, she’d come and join me. After a cat nip nibble, I’d pop her onto the wheel barrow, where she’d sit up front, looking over the edge, happily being driven wherever I wanted to go.

Under the loquat tree there is a macramé pot holder. One morning I was readjusting things in the garden and had taken the pot out. Looking at it hanging there I had an idea. It looked like a perfect cat hammock. I popped Sprocket in and, after a Hmmm moment, she precariously steadied herself in the swaying pot holder. Turning until she found a comfy balance, she settled into a cat circle and hung from there for hours. It became a regular spot for her – although I’d always have to help her in. She liked hanging things. Whenever I climbed into the hammock for a lazy Saturday afternoon read, she would appear and ask to join me. She would comfortably settle down, softly and perfectly fitting herself into a nook. She had the oddest way of sleeping. Most cats curl into a ball or lie with their heads on or next to their front paws. Sprocket would lie on a mat or chair with her front legs folded backwards and her head stuck forward, chin flat on the ground or hanging over the edge of the chair.

Tilu loved Sprocket. Their morning ritual involved Tilu lying still while Sprocket swirled back and fore, bashing and rubbing herself against Tilu’s big white dog head, purring loudly and wrapping her tail into Tilu’s face. Tilu knew this boisterous behaviour could evolve into claws popping out, so she would keep very still and wary until Sprocket had calmed down. Then it was Tilu’s turn to lick, clean ears and thoroughly deflea Sprocket (even if there were no fleas – it was the massaging ritual that counted).


When something started eating my tomatoes it took me a while to work out what it was. All the green tomatoes had slash marks in them and the red ones were being eaten until just a bit of skin remained. One morning I saw Sprocket stealing a tomato from a bowl on the kitchen counter. She grabbed it and hauled it to the floor where she hunkered down and ate the whole thing. I had found my tomato pest. And I understood what was going on in my garden. Cats are colour blind. To work out whether a tomato was perfectly ripe, she had developed a claw test. If they resisted when she clawed them, they were too green. If her nails dug in and pulled the tomato off the bush, it was perfectly ripe and edible.
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My berries are doing so well – we made a “Berry Alley” out of gum poles and wire and have been persuading the raspberries, blackberries and tayberries to stay inside this caged off area.

It’s been working really well. Instead of rampant growth all over the garden and out of hand brambles, here they are, neatly contained and fruiting abundantly – and they are easy to pick.

The last of the potato harvest:

You would never find one like this in the supermarket!!!!

And the last of the tomatoes . . .

Here are some pics of the ongoing pool conversion process:

Making the supports for the plants:

The steps have become a holding area for plants.

Pots being drilled and waiting to be filled . . .

And it is already looking beautiful – I loooove the reflections. And if you look into the water it is clear all the way to the bottom, but because the sides and bottom are black, it reflects.

And out of the garden into the kitchen – I did a dem at Angela Day which was fun

And gave a workshop at The GardenShop in Pretoria . . .

And so we go into autumn. Potatoes are harvested, walnuts are shelled and brassicas are going into the beds. But – I am still harvesting tomatoes, egggplants, squash, beans and more. Hopefully for another month or so too. I love the in between seasons, the sun has lost its bite and change is in the air.

Here are a few pics from the garden in the last few weeks.

This is an Italian heirloom marrow – I have harvested about ten to twelve a week for months now. I think I could write a book on 101 ways to cook a marrow!

My jungle . . .

. . . which the bees love . . .

. . . and the ladybirds.

You will never see potatoes these shapes in the supermarket.

Looks like an Easter egg hunt . . .

Still plenty of eggplants growing bigger.

And yellow gems.

Last of the tomatoes which will ripen in the next few days

Beans and tomatoes twining together.

Beautiful sage.

I have been sorting photographs and realised I missed out on adding quite a few events. There was such a swirl of activity towards the end of the year. So here are some pics from them all:

On the way to Pietermaritzburg . . .

Pietermaritzburg launch of Jane’s Delicious Kitchen

Signing . . .

Young readers – I will be posting pics of their vegetable garden story soon.

With Cheryl from Pmb Exclusives

And family . . .

Back to Jo’burg for the launch there a few days later . . .

Great turnout!

Speech!

And a week later in Cape Town, being interviewed by Michelle Matthews at Kalk Bay Books for the Cape Town launch.

La Cucina in Hout Bay prepared about 20 dishes from the book. It was quite a surreal experience!

And I gave a talk about the food . . .

Time out from all the speeches and events – to stroll through Elgin’s exquisite gardens.

And of course I had to pick some slips to bring home . .

Back to Cape Town to Jenny Morris’ fabulous Giggling Gourmet Kitchen where I gave a cooking class.

Ingredients for herbal salt:

No wonder I didn’t have any time to blog!!!

The pathways in my veg garden are overflowing with squash plants and nasturtiums.
My tomato tower is flourishing.

Gems, beans and cherry toms are winding sky high. I love this time of year! I also love the promise of a New Year – it is always a seductive time, full of plans and ideas with months stretching out ahead. Especially with the long days and balmy evenings.

My plans include building a chicken tractor and turning our swimming pool into a pond. The chicken tractor is an idea I read about years ago. It is simply a portable chicken run which is regularly moved around the beds of the veg garden or lawn. The chickens scratch out weeds, fertilise the ground and eat the goggos. I have cleared a section of garden in between my compost and elderflower tree and the A-frame run will go there, in between moving around the garden. Yesterday we hauled out piles of logs and planks that had built up behind the shed and sorted them into different lengths. It looks like I won’t have to buy anything to make the run as I will use all these old recycled fence planks. I already have a large roll of chicken wire – all I will need to buy is two chickens!

Our pool has been covered up for about 3 or 4 years. We had a problem with leaking pipes and as it was the end of summer we just covered it up. Since then we haven’t got around to uncovering it and fixing the pipes. Summer seemed to flash by each year and we were too busy travelling or doing other things to mission with digging up the paving . . . until Tosca arrived.

She spotted the puddle in the middle of the trampoline-like covering on about day four. It then took her about two seconds to bite her way through the top netting cover to get to it. And the games were on. She would romp from one side to the other, through the puddle, splashing and biting the water.
And it wasn’t good enough to have one entry point. She had soon chewed three or four holes so she could hop in and out wherever she chose. This was all fine while she was a pup – but 30kgs of fully grown shepherd starting wearing the edges of the trampoline away. We had visions of the edges tearing and our Tosca Noonoo floundering and drowning. And immediately we uncovered the pool.

The thought of digging up the pipes and an aversion to chlorine led to the natural pond idea. I have seen natural swimming pools, where one side has plants and the other has clear water that is filtered through the plants. But the quotes I received for doing those seemed rather excessive. I don’t mind swimming in a dam with a murky bottom so I decided to turn the whole thing into a “dam,” with fish, frogs bullrushes et al.

It is already rather “natural” from being covered up for so long. There is algae on the sides but the water is clear. The plan is to create different levels of raised “ledges” using recycled water drums. The planting baskets will go on these ledges. I have already raided a friend’s pond and have bullrushes, reeds, lilies etc standing by in large buckets. A simple water feature will keep the water aerated for the fish and we’ll add a wooden deck and bridge across the pool, so the fish can hide and we can dangle our legs in the water. And maybe fish from!
Here is the first step: