beginner fruit/veg garden

[Inevitability]

I was in Krugersdorp this past weekend and I went to PlantLand. They've got a "50% off" special so I bought some fruit trees and flowers. See below.
They are having a clearance sale cos it's gonna be taken over my new owners soon.
Some good deals to be had... seedling flowers and veggies were R10 for a 6-pack!!
Being a clearance sale, you can imagine that a lot of stuff has been sold already.
Still ... if you're in the area I'd say it's worth stopping by and checking them out to see what they have.

These fruit trees were from R60 up to R120...

 

[Cpt.SpAce.Cowboy]

I was in Krugersdorp this past weekend and I went to PlantLand. They've got a "50% off" special so I bought some fruit trees and flowers. See below.
They are having a clearance sale cos it's gonna be taken over my new owners soon.
Some good deals to be had... seedling flowers and veggies were R10 for a 6-pack!!
Being a clearance sale, you can imagine that a lot of stuff has been sold already.
Still ... if you're in the area I'd say it's worth stopping by and checking them out to see what they have.

These fruit trees were from R60 up to R120...

View attachment 422026

View attachment 422028

Nice find!!! You planing a whole fruit Orchard?

 

[Inevitability]

Nice find!!! You planing a whole fruit Orchard?

Hehe ... if you look way back to the OP, this thread was meant to be about fruit and veg, but I concentrated on the veg cos I was hoping it would give fast results and be beginner friendly.
The gardener who works in my complex planted the trees for me yesterday... so I'm now officially growing fruit trees.

 

[Inevitability]

Updates on my garden...
- I transplanted one Jalapeno and one Peppadew into the ground as an experiment to compare against the "grow bag" experiments.
- After the disaster I suffered with my lettuce and rocket when I went on holiday in December, I am starting all over again with those two. I germinated some seeds over the weekend, and planted them into 2L ice cream containers this week... I see one or two are starting to poke their heads up above the soil.
- I plucked some more dried marigold flowers and I am trying again to get them to grow from seed.
- I have completely covered the unused parts of my garden with cardboard to suppress weeds. I've had to pay guys too many times now to come and clean out all the weeds which just go mad in the open

 

[Inevitability]

Nectarine tree (foreground), lime tree (back left)
...and cardboard

 

[maumau]

Love that cardboard idea. Are you going to cover it with compost or something?

I've been watching videos on that cardboard technique and think I'm going to use it on a section of the front lawn to get a bigger bed.

Slightly loosen the lawn, lay overlapping cardboard and shovel compost, leaves, mulch etc on top. Plant to your heart's content.

 

[Inevitability]

Love that cardboard idea. Are you going to cover it with compost or something?
I've been watching videos on that cardboard technique and think I'm going to use it on a section of the front lawn to get a bigger bed.
Slightly loosen the lawn, lay overlapping cardboard and shovel compost, leaves, mulch etc on top. Plant to your heart's content.

That sounds like a good plan. Grass is very resilient, so you'll need to suppress it.
I'm just gonna weight it down with some stones... I don't care that it looks ugly cos the overgrown weeds looked 50x worse
I am taking it very slowly with my garden, so I don't really have anything to put there for now. When I'm ready, I'll open up pieces of the cardboard and plant small sections at a time.

 

[Beachless]

That sounds like a good plan. Grass is very resilient, so you'll need to suppress it.
I'm just gonna weight it down with some stones... I don't care that it looks ugly cos the overgrown weeds looked 50x worse
I am taking it very slowly with my garden, so I don't really have anything to put there for now. When I'm ready, I'll open up pieces of the cardboard and plant small sections at a time.

You need to actively remove the grass around the trees otherwise it limits growth quite a bit I had plastic around all my fruit trees and the grass just grew under it.
This year was the first time all my trees had fruit, it's been a hell of a long wait. I have lemon, orange, 2 kinds of apple, peach and fig trees. The lemon and orange trees were quite quick to fruit with the apples taking the longest at about 6 years before making more than a few funny looking fruit.

 

[Magnum]

Nectarine tree (foreground), lime tree (back left)
...and cardboard

View attachment 422648

Those trees are too close together. find out what growth space they need.

 

[smiley-zn]

Those trees are too close together. find out what growth space they need.

+1

 

[Inevitability]

Those trees are too close together. find out what growth space they need.

+1

They are about 2m apart... I was thinking it would be ok cos I want to keep them quite small. But ya... maybe I misjudged.

 

[Inevitability]

They are about 2m apart... I was thinking it would be ok cos I want to keep them quite small. But ya... maybe I misjudged.

I'd be happy with a lime tree this size (video below). Just as long as the trunk/bark stays protected from sunlight (cos my Googling says citrus tree trunks are very susceptible to sun damage).

[video=youtube;MkEFPAQqGW0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkEFPAQqGW0[/video]

 

[AchmatK]

Harvested some olives yesterday. Currently in a brine solution and should be ready in 3 months. This is my second harvest and the olive tree is 4 years old and about 3.5m.



Last bunch of Hanepoot grapes getting ripe. Only had a few bunches of grapes as it was the first time the vine had any fruit. Only planted it beginning of last year.



Some berries from a small tree. Gives a few berries every couple of weeks. Should get more over the years.



My new veg and herb garden area. Use to keep chickens there but stopped about a year ago.



Also have 2 granadilla trees giving fruit for the first time this year, a curry tree that we use almost daily, bay leaf tree, lemon tree and some bell peppers growing in pot in the front.

 

[maumau]

Great selection of things you can use daily instead of one humungous harvest then you have a glut.

Is that washing line being used as a trellis? Why's it in a box

 

[maumau]

That sounds like a good plan. Grass is very resilient, so you'll need to suppress it.
I'm just gonna weight it down with some stones... I don't care that it looks ugly cos the overgrown weeds looked 50x worse
I am taking it very slowly with my garden, so I don't really have anything to put there for now. When I'm ready, I'll open up pieces of the cardboard and plant small sections at a time.

Think you only need to plant in a hole in the cardboard, not necessarily remove pieces.

 

[AchmatK]

Great selection of things you can use daily instead of one humungous harvest then you have a glut.

Is that washing line being used as a trellis? Why's it in a box

The washing line is not part of the trellis. The wife likes the spot for small items. The box used to be where i had my veggies in before. I have 10 of those boxes currently not being used.

Pic from when i used the boxes a few years ago.

 

[thehuman]

Hmm have one of those lines in garage not used. Will make nice lawn ornamental full plants

 

[maumau]

The washing line is not part of the trellis. The wife likes the spot for small items. The box used to be where i had my veggies in before. I have 10 of those boxes currently not being used.

Pic from when i used the boxes a few years ago.

WOW such a shame you aren't putting those boxes to use. Constructed by somebody who knew what he was doing, they're way better than the average raised bed.

 

[AchmatK]

WOW such a shame you aren't putting those boxes to use. Constructed by somebody who knew what he was doing, they're way better than the average raised bed.

They're actually shipping containers used for car parts.

Will probably use them in the future. Gave two away and the rest are stacked away in a corner of the yard.

 

[Inevitability]

Anyone know where I can get garden fleece in or around Woodmead / Midrand?
What have you guys grown successfully in winter in Jhb?