We all know our gardens slow down considerably in the colder months, but there is no need for our veggie patches to slow down. There are many vegetables that can tolerate cold and be classified as winter veggies, yes even minus degrees and light frost. With a few simple measures, you can have veggies all year around. And if you are a salad loving person, don’t fret, even your lettuce will survive with a little help. Protecting these with frost cover cloth or cloches, even plastic 2l bottles (cut the bottoms off and whalla! Or “Voila!” if you’re French), will ensure that your salad bowl is never empty. Just remember to remove the protection during the day so that these little guys can soak up the sun.
What about severe cold?
Should a severe cold spell be predicted, artichokes, beets, carrots, cauliflower and celery can be protected in the same way. If your cabbages have formed heads, no worries, they are now strong enough and the frost will not be a problem. Luckily for you, all other brassicas, garden peas, spinach, turnips and leeks can withstand heavy frost. Plant away!
How to lay frost cover (and how not to!)
When laying frost cover over your veggies, make sure that the cloth does not touch the vegetables. This creates a barrier between the cold and your greens. If the cloth does touch your veggies, you are sure to have frost burns on the plants. Save yourself a lot of disappointments and do it right the first time. Sticks and wire make an easy simple frame for you to drape your cloth over. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to build a frame! Bloudraad (wire) is as strong as an ox. Bend it to form small wire hoops and lay across your veggie beds. Cover with frost cover cloth. Ideally you should remove the cover every morning after your first cup of coffee, to allow sunlight. If the weather is dreary for a couple of days, keep it on. No one likes being outside in winter without a jacket. Taller plants? Use sticks. Place you sticks around the plant and wrap it with frost cover. You can leave the top open only if the frost cover is higher than the plant. Should the top opening be big enough for the plant to receive sunshine, you can leave it standing throughout winter.
Don’t forget to watch the weather closely
Frost occurs when temperatures reach zero or fall below, this also depends on dew and wind factors. Very cold winds can cause black frost. Following the weather man can save you a lot of trouble in trying to predict the weather yourself. Tune in and keep watch. Should you live in an extremely cold area, there is still hope of watching your winter crop grow. Plastic tunnels can be made by digging down in your beds and using wire hoops and plastic. Dig a trench on either side of your bed and place the hoops. Fill back the soil after you have placed the plastic over the frame. Remember to keep a side open for easy access to your growing veg. This will act as a mini greenhouse. Your spinach, beetroot and cabbage will thrive in this little greenhouse.You can even sow your salad vegetables in trays and place them in your greenhouse, germination guaranteed! Microgreens are jam packed with goodness and need little space to be successful. Mix up your lettuce, baby spinach and even herbs like rocket and coriander seeds.
Talking about little space…pots, pots and more pots
Plant up with thyme, parsley, oregano, chives and more coriander. Keep them in a warm, draught-free area. Pick at hearts content for those lovely winter stews. Beds that don’t receive enough sun in winter should be left to rest. Keeping some beds empty, allows for early planting in spring, especially in winter rainfall areas where the soil stays too wet. Simply cover with mulch and wait for the goodness to happen.
Bees are classified according to common character traits
Bees can be classified in many different ways. Their taxonomic classification uses shared characters that are indicative of relatedness between species, and this is best expressed as an evolutionary tree. However, nest architecture, sociality and floral biology can also be used to classify bees. According to taxonomic classification, any species can only belong to one group. Other classification systems cross taxonomic boundaries, and species groups will differ according to the classification criteria. Buzz pollinators, for example, will include some carpenters and some diggers, but neither all carpenter nor all diggers. The different classification systems have their uses.
Bee identification
South African bees are divided into six cosmopolitan families. Four of them (Melittidae, Colletidae, Andrenidae and Halictidae) are short-tongued bees. They may be able to extend their mouthparts a long way into tubular flowers, but then the entire mouthparts will be elongated and not just the tongue. Two families are long-tongued bees (Apidae, Megachilidae). The South African pollen-collecting bees can all quite easily be placed into families using The Bee Genera and Subgenera of sub-Saharan Africa (http://www.abctaxa.be/volumes/vol-7-bees/). This booklet can also be used for identifying bee genera and sub-genera.
Bee nests
Bees construct their nests, and the cells within their nests, in many different ways. Some of these are unique to a taxonomic group: all leafcutter bees belong to the genus Megachile, but not all Megachile speciesare leafcutters – some are daubers or resin bees. Carder bees belong to several closely related genera. Mining tunnels into the ground occurs in many unrelated genera (and in different families), and boring into wood occurs in both long-tongued bee families. Knowing their nest architecture is useful for specific purposes. Tunnel-nesting bees, for example, only inhabit bee hotels, which are artificially provided tunnels for bees, usually in wood. Bees with similar nests could behave quite differently in them. Some small carpenter bees are social, with very small colonies, whereas others are solitary.
Most bees nest in cavities, while some have exposed nests. The best-known cavity nests are those of honeybees – they live naturally in holes in trees and in the ground, and are kept by beekeepers in hives. Stingless bees inhabit cavities similar to those of honeybees, but smaller, and they don’t dig their own cavities. All other cavity nests are tunnels. Some bore their own tunnels (miner and carpenter bees), while others use existing insect burrows, including those of other bees. They mostly raise their larvae in cells within their nests. Exposed nests are usually made of mud (daubers), resin (resin bees) or plant fibre combed to look like cotton wool (carder bees). Daubers, resin bees and carders have either exposed or cavity nests.
Exposed nests of dauber and resin bees are spherical, comprising several oval cells packed closely together. The whole nest, after all the cells have been constructed and provisioned, is rounded off into a ball with mud and/or resin. Carder bees simply have a ball of ‘cotton wool’ in which cells are constructed.
Among the cavity nesters, honeybees make cells out of wax (honeycomb). They use similar cells to store pollen and honey (made from nectar) that they feed to their larvae. Stingless bees have larval cells and much larger pots, also made from a waxy material, for storing honey and pollen. Only honey and stingless bees store food for their larvae outside brood cells. Other pollen- and nectar-collecting bees provision a brood cell and lay an egg in each cell. The materials used to make brood cells are reflected in their names: sand or mud (masons), resin (resin bees), wood shavings (carpenters), leaf or petal (leaf cutters), cellophane secretions (hyaline and plaster bees) or cottony fibre (carders).
Some bees do not collect pollen, namely males and parasitic bees. They are therefore not important pollinators. Most parasitic bees are cuckoos, meaning they lay their eggs in other bees’ nests. The parasite kills the host’s larva and feeds on its provisions. Social parasites replace, or co-exist with, queens of other social species. The host species’ workers raise the parasites larvae. Parasitic bees therefore do not construct nests.
Why are there so many female bees?
In bees, fertilised eggs develop into females and unfertilised eggs develop into males (therefore females have twice as many chromosomes as males). After mating, females store the sperm in a spermatheca and are able to control which egg cells are fertilised, thus they can determine whether they lay female or male eggs. This enables social bees, including honeybees, to have a hive full of female workers and only a few males – when needed.
Dr C. Eardley is from the Agricultural Research Council, Plant Protection Research Institute, and has worked on the taxonomy of African bees and the conservation of their biodiversity for 40 years. His email address is eardleyc@arc.agric.za.
Autumn is a good time to grow vegetables in containers. The milder days are less stressful for the veggies than the blistering heat of summer. Looking ahead to winter, containers can be shifted into sunny, sheltered areas, especially if the veggie garden is draughty or doesn’t get enough winter sunshine.
Position:
Autumn and winter veggies need 5 – 6 hours of sun a day and there should be good air circulation. Move the pots around to make the most of the sun.
Container size:
The bigger the better, because larger containers hold more soil (which doesn’t dry out as quickly). The shape of the container, round or square, doesn’t matter, provided the plant has enough space for its roots and top growth. Even if the seedling looks a bit silly in such a large pot, it quickly grows to fill the space. Planting too many plants in a small pot reduces yield, and increases pest and disease problems.
Broccoli, cabbage, kale – One plant per large plastic pot (35 – 43cm diameter). Baby cabbage can be grown in 20 – 35cm pots.
Spinach, lettuce – One plant per 20 – 35cm plastic pot or three plants in a 50cm pot or trough. Space 10cm apart.
Baby carrots, radishes, beetroot – Direct sow seed into troughs, window boxes or pots that are at least 20cm deep. Thin to 10cm apart.
Types of containers:
The lighter the type of pot the easier it is to move. The Urban Box has castors so that it can be wheeled into position. Terracotta pots are heavy and more porous, which means they need more watering. Dark pots can get very hot because they absorb the sun’s heat. Also steer clear of plant boxes made of treated wood (creosote) as the chemical can end up in the veggies.
Soil mix:
Use the best quality potting soil, not ordinary garden soil. However, commercial potting soil does not contain enough nutrients for vegetables. Mix in the following supplements:
Fertilis Earthworm Castings;
Vita Grow 2:3:2 fertilizer;
Vermiculite for good water retention;
Bonemeal or BioRock Root Builder;
Line the bottom of the container with hessian clot or weed-guard fabric to ensure good drainage before filling it.
Made for containers:
Broccoli: ‘Spring Rapini’ is a sprouting broccoli that produces edible leaves, stems and small heads that can be harvested sooner (50 – 60 days) than conventional broccoli.
Kale: ‘Vates Blue Curled’ is a compact low growing cut-and-come again variety. The first baby leaves can be harvested within 25 days.
Carrots: ‘Sweetheart’ is a tiny Nantes-type group carrot that is only 10cm long, and ‘Parisian’ is a small and sweet, round orange carrot.
Radishes: Radishes now come in a range of colours. ‘Watermelon’ has a white ‘rind’ and deep pink core (like a tiny watermelon).
Beetroot: Baby beet ‘Rainbow Mix’ can be grown as a sweet-flavoured baby beet or left to mature into larger veggies. The mix provides a lucky packet of colours: deep red, yellow, white, candy-striped and lighter purple-red. ‘Chioggia’ is an heirloom candy-striped beet.
Lettuce: Loose-leaf lettuce doesn’t need as much space to grow as crisp-heads, and individual leaves can be harvested for longer. Plants are not frost hardy but will survive under frost cloth or in a sheltered position.
Swiss chard: ‘Bright Lights’ have such colourful stems and are just so pretty. Their stems can be chopped into soups and stews.
Endive Chicory:‘Catalogna Bi-colour Blend’ is a salad leaf with an edge. The curly leaves and crispy white stems add crunch and a tinge of bitterness to winter salads. Pick young, before the plant blooms.
Container growing tips:
Water often and adjust to changing temperatures as days become cooler.
Spray pests with organic, non-toxic solutions like Biogrow Pyrol, Ludwig’s Insect Spray or Margaret Roberts Organic Insecticide for pest attacks like bollworm, vegetarian ladybird, scale or mealybug, as well as for aphids, white fly and red spider mite.
Starting about a month after planting, feed your vegetables about once a week with a water-soluble fertiliser, like Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger, or a home-made manure/green tea. Alternatively feed with a slow-release fertiliser like Vita Fruit & Flower 3:1:5 every 3 to 4 months or as per crop requirements.
Don’t forget:
Don’t forget to add the vegetable container garden soil to your compost at the end of the season. Reusing soil from year to year can spread infections and insect infestations. Scrub the container and rinse with a solution of one-part bleach to 10 parts water, then rinse with clean water and store in a dry spot.
Although its growing season is in the warmer months, thyme is the perfect choice for the winter herb garden. Not only is it very frost hardy but it also copes with dry conditions, and the low-growing varieties can give you a groundcover that stays green even in the coldest months. It’s an essential ingredient in many winter soups and stews, and its strong antiseptic and antifungal properties mean you have a potent home pharmacy on tap!
Growing conditions
One of the easiest herbs to grow, thyme only needs full sun and friable, free draining soil that tends towards the sandy side. Constant picking will keep it in shape and drenching it with a liquid fertiliser once or twice a month in the growing season is a good idea if you are harvesting constantly. It can become woody, but never prune it hard before winter. In spring you can divide older plants that have become leggy, making sure each piece has some foliage and roots.
Your winter friend
The herbalist’s thymes, common thyme and lemon thyme, add flavour to almost every kind of dish, with lemon thyme being the most useful. Being a robust herb, it can withstand long cooking in warming casseroles, stews and roasts. Medicinally, thyme is a powerful antiseptic and tonic that strengthens the lungs, and can be used as a remedy when treating throat and chest infections such as bronchitis and whooping cough.
Flu tonic
To make a single dose, take 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme and add it to a cup of boiling water. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes, then strain and drink. Take 3-4 doses per day. For an even more powerful infusion, you can add some fresh parsley for vitamin C, yarrow to lower fever and hyssop, which works as an expectorant.
Bulbs have long been an invaluable asset to humankind, starting off as an essential part of our diet, as we have evolved, so has our appreciation for their many qualities.
Often the word bulb is used rather loosely, generally as a reference to any plant that stores nutrients and water in underground organs. These may take the form of modified stems (corms, tubers or rhizomes), tuberous roots or true bulbs. Most have a period of active growth during a wet season and then retreat into dormancy when conditions are too stressful for most plants to survive.
Origins
Most bulbous plants are found in countries where the winters are cool and wet and the summers hot and dry. Take our country, for example: South Africa holds more species of bulbous plants in her soil than any other area in the world and these are not just obscure varieties that are only of interest to collectors. More than half of all bulbs grown in gardens around the world have their origins in Southern Africa. Most of these come from the winter rainfall areas of the Western and Northern Cape, although some beauties, like the flame lily and arum lily, are from the summer rainfall interior.
Most parts of South Africa experience a short, relatively hot spring, so some bulbs that have their origins elsewhere are just not suited to our climate. Crocuses are a prime example, and tulips are another. Of all the many stunning varieties of tulip available, only the Darwin hybrid will grow here with any success, and even then most will only flower for the first year. Most success is to be had with temperature manipulated tulips. These specially treated bulbs flower in August, a month earlier than their untreated counterparts and because temperatures are lower at that time the plants thrive, offering up long stems with larger and longer-lasting flowers. Another advantage that treated tulips have over untreated tulips is that there are not limitations as to the areas where they may be planted – they thrive both in full sun and semi-shade. These treated tulips don’t have a shelf life so they have to be ordered directly from the supplier. (Visit www.hadeco.co.za for details.)
People often think that tulips come from Holland. While there is one species, Tulipa sylvestris subsp. Sylvestris, which is native to the Netherlands most are native to Asia, particularly the Middle East. Even North Africa has some tulip species, Tulipa sylvestris subsp. australis for example and Tulipa primulina from the Aures Mountains of Algeria.
Seasonality
When planting bulbs in domestic gardens it is imperative that you take into account their origins. You don’t have to know exactly where they come from, but it is important to know whether they are summer or winter growing. For example, it is quite easy to grow many Western Cape bulbs on the Highveld as long as you mimic their winter rainfall patterns. When deciding to purchase bulbs, you also need to bear the seasons in mind. By the time the displays of daffodils are looking wondrous it will unfortunately be too late to buy the bulbs.
If you wish to create a spring display with bulbs you need to plan and execute in autumn. Spring bulbs are available from the end of February. They should be settled in their new home once the heat of summer has left your soil (usually around Easter), but no later than the last days of May.
Hybridising
The ixia or tritonia growing in the wild will be a far cry from the ‘super’ bulbs you find on offer at a nursery. While their blooms may be eye catching, they might be smaller, their flowering time erratic or their disease-resistance lower. These bulbs would only be of interest to an ardent collector. Gardeners naturally expect good results from plants that they purchase so commercial bulb growers concentrate on the best strains and have managed to hybridise many of our endemic bulbs with excellent results. A visit to a nursery in autumn or spring will reveal a host of indigenous as well as many favourite exotics for sale, and any bulbs bought from a reputable bulb grower will have been specifically bred for their flower size, disease resistance and their adaptability to various climatic conditions. These bulbs will also contain all the nutrients necessary to flower successfully.
Choosing from the various pruning and cutting tools on the market depends on the work that needs doing in your garden. Smaller jobs, such as cutting back shrubs and thinning branches can be tackled using a small hand pruner. Larger pruning jobs, such as cutting through thick tree limbs, requires more sophisticated tools such as loppers or saws. The right tool can save stress on you wrist and allows you to make clean cuts that keep your plants healthy, rather than opening bark up to pests and diseases. However, in winter don’t prune everything in sight as different plants need pruning at different times of the year.
There are three basic types of pruners or loppers: anvil, ratchet and bypass which are differentiated by the type of blade.
Anvil pruners feature a single, straight blade that uses a splitting action to cut down on the stem.
Ratchet pruners are similar to anvil pruners but they have a mechanism that allows cutting in stages.
Bypass pruners act like a pair of scissors with two curved blades that make a clean cut.
Mostly these are pruned when they are in their dormant stage before leaf buds appear in spring. However, many spring and summer flowering shrubs set flower buds on the previous season’s new growth and will need to be pruned only after flowering in spring and summer.
Roses
As a general rule, roses are pruned in winter between mid-July and early August. In colder areas they can be pruned early, but in warmer, sub-tropical areas, later is best.
Hedges
These should be pruned regularly throughout the year.
Trees
When diseased or damaged wood is seen, it should be removed immediately. Research carefully when specific fruit trees need pruning. Shaping is usually done in winter when the form of the branches can be clearly seen.
Late spring and early summer is when plant growth is most rapid and vigorous, which is why many hedges and topiaries require regular pruning at this time of year to maintain shape and form. The golden rule is to always cut off as little growth as possible with each successive shearing. This ensures dense, healthy growth and neat, clean cut shapes. Here are a few simple hints and tips to ensure that your hedges and topiaries are maintained in prime condition.
Select the correct plant types for your climatic and growing conditions.
Fast-growing plants achieve the desired effect in a short time, but continue to grow vigorously and require more clipping than slower-growing plants.
When plants with large leaves are clipped the leaves are sheared, which leaves the plant brown and unsightly immediately after cutting. Because of this, plants with smaller leaves generally make better box hedges.
Wait for soft new growth to harden before cutting.
Apply fertiliser and mulch to the plants immediately after pruning to maintain healthy growth.
Always use tools with sharp blades to prevent damage to the plants. Beware of power tools and handle them with due care, adhering to all safety instructions.
Begin cutting hedges by levelling the top. This can be done by eye or by using a line with a spirit level if necessary.
After the top has been cut, trim the sides. Again, a taut line may be necessary to ensure that the correct angle is maintained.
Hedges should be wide at the base and narrower at the top. This will ensure thick lush growth, as sunshine is able to reach most of the foliage. Bare patches are often the result of a lack of sunlight.
Rake or sweep up all the clippings after the task is complete. These can be added to the compost heap.
Slow-growing evergreens and some deciduous hedges may only need 1-2 clippings per annum. This is best done in late summer. Faster-growing plants in warmer climates may require 4-5 prunings.
Pruning is the most important winter task for your plum trees. Here’s how to do it properly to ensure optimal fruit production in summer.
Plums need to be pruned in July and August to ensure top-quality fruit is produced consistently each and every season. Many trees in home gardens are neglected and end up being an unproductive waste of time and space. But older trees can be resurrected with a severe winter pruning, cutting back hard to about 1m in height. However, it’s best to give your trees a good start in life. Plant out young trees of the latest and best cultivars to ensure top-quality fruit production, and focus on pruning correctly from the beginning. Follow these simple pruning instructions for the best results. After winter pruning, spray the dormant trees with lime sulphur. The tools you will need are sharp secateurs, long-handled loppers and a pruning saw. Make sure that all tools are sharp and in good order, and disinfect the tools after pruning each tree to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
What to do
During late winter, prune back the central leader stem (a) at a height of 1.5m. Cut back laterals (b) by half to downward facing buds. Remove all lower branches below 50cm (c).
In summer, after fruit has been harvested, remove part of the new season’s growth to thin out the body of the tree. Leave 15- 20cm of the new season’s growth on the tree.
During subsequent winter seasons, prune back the main stem (d) by two thirds of the previous season’s growth. Continue with this practice annually.
Continue to cut back each summer after fruiting has been completed. Remove the new season’s growth tips, retaining 15-20cm of the new wood. Prune out any weak or unproductive shoots
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