How to "Jalapeño"...organically!

In South Africa we should have great weather for jalapeno plants. I started planting from seeds in November 2013. I didn't have much luck at first, even with organic pesticide. I stopped making pesticide and again just let nature take its course. The plants were attacked by snails and worms during winter and only one small jalapeno on each plant. By the middle of spring the plants started blooming again and they looked healthy with no pesticide aid. I also noticed the peppers grew fast and bigger. Now I just leave them to see how big they will get before I harvest them. 

I definitely would suggest adding some jalapenos to your garden. They are great help for your immune system. I started by planting them into pots then after 2 months I transplanted them in different locations throughout the garden. In the shade the plants will not grow much so I focused on the plants that were doing better in full sun. In all cases I would always water the plants a lot especially if it hasn't rained in 2 days. So with efficient sunlight and water, you would be good to go.

Jalapeno it up in your garden.I will post pictures if I find different pepper seeds to grow. Have a good day people.

Celery - Taking Its Time

Hello people. Today I thought I would talk about the celery that I planted and the little success I had.

At first I planted the seeds in trays, but you are welcome to plant them directly. In general, I really have more success with seeds planted in trays first than planting them directly into the garden. They take long to germinate and a lot of water, but my duration of the germination might have been affected by my lack of watering. Nevertheless, as I started watering them regularly, they still came up. By the time they were about 7 weeks old I decided to transplant them. They didn't grow as big as I would buy them from the supermarket, but I just kept pruning the tops at about 7cm from the ground or just above the new heads, if I saw any. I find that they grow great in full sun, semi-shade or even full shade.The most important thing was watering as often as I could. Some days I would let 4 days pass before I watered again. What I liked about it was the fact that it grows fast enough to use in two meals per week. I suggest you can grow as much as you think you'll need per week.

 After 7 months some of the plants started blooming, and I'm still hoping to see some seeds showing, but it's taking long. So I encourage you to try some celery, and you can check out this Germination Timetables from www.growgreatvegetables.com. I found most of my info(on growing greens) on various sites online and would go with what works better and more efficient for my own garden. I hope you guys get some great ideas out there and start your own. Stay awesome.

Celery seedlings @24 days

Celery seedling @24 days

Transplanted celery plants just after one month

Celery plants @2months

Celery just after 2 months

Celery after 3 months

Basil Plants

I thought I would start with basil plants. The seedling that you see are the green basil plants but they never matured because pests, like grasshoppers, kept eating them. At first I tried homemade organic pesticide but that did not help me much. I have decided to try permaculture in my garden and not use any kind of pesticide. Let nature take its course. I do use organic fertiliser called Seagro and only that.So you could say not permacultured yet. You would be able to get more information regarding Seagro on the internet.  I will post more pictures of all the other plants that I'm growing and seeds that I'm harvesting. Have a good day people, and try to start planting your own food.