Since starting my green journey a year or so ago I have learned much. The biggest lesson I have learned is that we really don't know all that much! There is a wealth of information on the internet which is the most accessible information - it seems there are many experts on every concieveable topic. This has proved time consuming but very interesting.

I have successfully grow bags and bags of sweet and juicy beans (these get eaten by the handful by everyone who visits so I didn't even bother to cook them!), about 20kg of tomatoes which my Ouma helped me to bottle most of them for sauces and stews (very easy to do and absolutely delicious!). I have struggled with growing potatoes (they died while the tubers were still only the size of marbles) and gem squash (these plants succumbed to leaf mould which I was unable to get rid of)...

I have tried one last planting of gem squash in a brand new bed which I am hoping doesn't have any disease in the soil so we can have some healthy squashes... holding thumbs!

I got my dad to help me make some raised veggie beds. We made boxes that a 1 sqm and 0.4m deep. This box is on legs that have the top of the boxes at 0.8m off the ground. It's a little late for planting beans but I have given it a go anyway - I planted beans in one row at the back of the boxes and planted carrots in the front 3/4 of the boxes. These are year round crops so they should be fine still.

I've been cultivating a few sweet potatoes in my pantry for planting out the vines. This is done by putting the sprouting sweet potato into a bowl of water and topping it up regularly. There are probably 20 vines coming out of each potato which are 50cm long - perfect for planting in my newly prepared beds... This will hopefully happen tomorrow.

I am training my domestic worker to use green techniques in cleaning (she's of the school that uses a whole container of handy andy and domestos a week...) which has been a true challenge but I am hopeful that we'll get this right! I have stopped buying harsh cleaning chemicals which has been met with moans and groans about the new stuff 'not cleaning properly'... However, now that we're following the directions on the pack we're doing much better!