Hello everyone on Hive and especially my gardening folks on HiveGarden. Zak Ludick form South Africa here. It is moving solidly into Spring here in Cape Town and the majority of the big rains have stopped. It is now time for me to get going with that garden.

As promised, @pixelhuntersam and I will be posting one Garden update every week for the rest of the year! This is to keep us both nice and active on Hive as well as ensure that we are both doing something in the garden every week!

Let's get into it!

My update

So in previous updates, I had constructed a fence frame in the garden and cleared off a bit of lawn. This fence was to keep the kids and their various toys out of the veggie garden.

I then fixed the trellis to the fence as a place for the creeper plants to grow. The rest of the fence has nothing on it yet.

I realized that I do not have enough wood of the same kind to make a full fence. Since finances are what they are and I am aiming at a sort of sustainability and recycling habit, I need to look at using what i have and repurposing things.

From the right-hand side, I have the bottom of the pallet in the middle which gives me three slats to put on between the trellis and the one middle support.

Then the pallet and then another board that I may want to split up and then rebuild.

From the back side. But this will not be what I am working on in this session.

This area I cleared has gotten more overgrown. It is alright. You have to allow the survivors to present themselves and remove them again before going onwards.

I wet this patch of dirt and then got to work with shovel and rake.

Here is an @aimeludick coming to spend time with dad and help out where she can. Many times, she is nowhere to be seen, but if I am busy in the garden, she often appears! I wonder... could it be that she likes the smell of dirt and the gardening work? 😁😁😁

A large amount of grass and greenery got raked out and added to the compost pile.

I got some other planks out. The intention was to build a box at the bottom of the trellis to create a little raised bed for the creepers. But there was not enough.

So I found some other bigger planks in the garage. Same stuff my garden bench is made of and got to work planning!

Out electricity supply in South Africa is somewhat unreliable, but I got my hand saw out and got to work. Then the power came back on and I carried on with a Jigsaw. The point is, that I will not sit idle if there is no power! I will just make a plan. All of us South Africans have learned to do this since there is a very real energy crisis and our local supplier has no real plan to rectify their problems.

So I got all the pieces where they are going to go and dry fit them. Now to fix them together! With nails and screws I put them together. Mostly, if given the option, I will opt for screws over nails most of the time.

Some cross stitching straight pieces of wodd together. Sometimes it is necessary to go out the other side to keep a strong angle...

... then I just sand it down using a grinder.

Ta-da! I also needed to chop up the whole area an level the base of this little structure because the earth was not straight. The wood is connected to the frame of the fence as well so it is not going anywhere.

@aimeludick presents - Earth Box!

@aimeludick as "Material Farm Girl" (Supposed to look like she has the handbag over the shoulder, but instead she has the garden fork. 🤣🤣🤣

Afrter compacting the base and the area around the box, it is time to fill it up with some dirt that we will enrich with my own compost!

Good time to teach Aime how to use the fork and shovel. We loosen the earth with the fork and then pick up the dirt with the shovel.

In it goes!

And that is as deep as I am going to fill this box. This box is open to the ground beneath of course, for deep roots. I am leaving some space from the top to mix in compost but it will also reduce as it settles. I will just top up and take out as needed.

And that is all folks! This was actually done over two days as we had time in between the rest of life!

I will be doing more gardening tomorrow and post about it next week!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa