1/02/2008

New Year's Garden

Mom wanted to know the size of our little patio - here's a picture with the view from our front door (our only view!) Sila might be just a smidge sick of having his picture taken.
We went to the beautiful big garden center on Liesbeek Parkway to look for some plants. Sila wanted basil and I wanted tomatoes.
We found gorgeous starts tomato starts (var. Heinz and Floradade) which were so big they were busting out of their pots. Maybe they'll fruit in a few weeks. They had some Habañero starts too, which inspired a whole chili thing. We started some yellow pear cherry tomatoes from seed so when they get big enough we can hang them to grow upside down in 2-L soda bottles. We can hang them on the garden wall.






Inspired by the habañeros, I dug around in the kitchen and cracked some dried chilis for seeds. Planted two trays of Chiles de Arbol which I brought from the Mexican market in California. They are so hot and delicious, I made my own hot sauce in the blender last week with toasted sesame and cloves and allspice and cider vinegar. It is so good! Can't wait to try some of these fresh. Can't wait to get more dried Mexican chilis and try to grow them.
Also planted two trays of birds eye chili seeds that I was saving for Jodie. We bought these on the highway in Mozambique last March. They are crazy hot and Jodie wanted to try growing them so I've been saving seeds. If the starts come up I'll give her some. If not - I still have more chilis. There is no way I would be cooking with the seeds so I can start saving them again!


Here's the back corner of the patio which could be used for a garden but it gets the least sun. Sila is thinking of building a shed roof between the house and the garden wall and shaping surfboards in there. Hmmm. Gotta keep the guy busy some how I suppose. This is much better than the previous plan, which was to build boats in the yard.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the patio photos, C! Looks great. You two are always working! Love, Mom

Trifarina said...

I can't wait to see the pop bottle plants!

Is there some way Sila could partake in such craftiness away from the house? I am ashamed not to defend the making of things in every fashion, but as I recall from the lighthouse house, that resin is a slippery slope. I will research art studios in Capetown.

Trifarina said...

Idea... maybe he could talk one of the shapers in town into letting him hang out at their place, like an apprenticeship or something. He can just turn on that infamous charm of his and smooth talk right in teh front door (with some beer). (turns out studio space advertised online is a bit pricey.)

Christie Rowe said...

We're gonna do a gravel pad there to deal with that old resin problem. Also our brick patio is just laid in sand so if sila makes a mess on the bricks, he can spend a weekend before we move out turning them over! Don't worry I remmber the resin disaster.

Erin K. said...

Ahh - pepper madness! I forgot to mention on your fish taco post - I remember flying back to Utrecht with a giant bag of masa harina in my luggage! We used it to make a pretty tasty 'tamale pie' that was easier than making tortillas from scratch. I'll dig that recipe up for you.

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