Our Kickass veggie patch @plantingseason

Weeds cleared, soil sorted... this is our companion-planted organic veggie patch planted on Planting Day, 20 March.

In this 3x4 m square we planted.....

• Lettuce
• Sage
• Spinach
• Basil
• Broccoli
• Rosemary
• Tomatoes
• Thyme
• Carrots
• Parsley
• Peas
• Wild garlic
• Chives
• Nastursium
• Marigolds
• Celery

Importance of having an organic garden:

The environment

Health

The absolute delight of living in harmony with nature.

The garden is growing fast and furious - must be the worm castings. Looks like we are gonna have YUMMY food very soon...!! :)

I'm off to Splashy Fen now for a long weekend. See you on the other side.

Getting ready for our veggie patch.

Daniela-Designed is a member of planting season. Planting season is an interactiveweb campaign aimed at getting one million people/businesses to plant vegetables on planting day twice a year(march and september). They enable members by providing them with loads of useful info and links (on how to plant a sustainable organic veggie patch). check it out http://www.plantingseason.co.za/

So this year, my boyfriend and I made it our goal to plant a kickass veggie patch. We are unfortunatly (for the time being) are urban dwellers, recently moved into a new suberban spot, with not a much space, and hectically overgrown by weeds.

<-----------------This is we had to work with!!!!

It took us two sweat dripping weekends to clear, get rid of, and prepare soil.

Vermiculture --> Design meets Worm farming?? #earthfriend.ly living

This is our worm farm!

It may seem bizarre to be talking about worms on a jewelley blog, but i love these little guys and am in the process of bringing an aspect of these amazing creatures into my design. Not yet sure how im going to do that,(maybe play on the black-gold concept)but it will come.

Our worms and the worms used most commonly and effectively for vermiculture are known as Red Worms or Red Wrigglers. We feed our daily organic waste to them, with lots of love, and in return we get the best of the best --> nutrient rich organic compost as well as worm wee(super juice) which is a plant food and natural pest repellent. We started our worm farm with 1500 worms 6 months ago and our popultation has since tripled. We love our worms and treat them as we do our pets.

“We are emerging small- scale city farmers” and we use our worms to recycle, reduce reuse and restore.And to have free top of the range organic compost and worm wee.

Recycling our organic matter (the worms food) and then turning it into nutrient rich material.

Reducing our kitchen waste therefore reducing our carbon foot print by reducing the waste we send to landfill sites therefore reducing methane emissions.
Restore, using our vermicompost to put organic rich matter back into the soil.... giving us a great harvest of organic nutrient rich herbs and veggies.

Vermicompost is the highest grade of humus and the richest fertilizer, packed with micro-organisms, good bacteria, enzymes and micro and macro nutrients all in natures perfect ratio. And its 100% organic (that is, if you eating organically from your garden or buying the organic options in stores).

No wonder vermicompost is known as black-gold, and Queen Cleopatra declared earth worms sacred.

My favourite stand @DesignIndaba

My all time favorite stand at the Indaba!

This was done by an Emerging Creative, a Graphic design student from Port Elizabeth, Jedd McNeilage(doo design). There were a few different variations using different dogs... very cute! From what i understand the students had to enter a "making a difference" competition as part of the Sappi Ideas that Matter initiative. This is what he came up with, won and then Sappi sponsored printing and they put these life size cardboard dogs up at all the robots in P.E.

We need more designers like this!

And thanks, Jedd, for the takeaway... Readers, please sms PET to 38300 to help a dog in PE, thanks :)

Jedds details

doo design

Jedd_mc@hotmail.com

Goodtimes in Cape Town @DesignIndaba

Design Indaba is the mecca of design in South Africa. SO much creative inspiration packed under one roof. It was an absolute privilege to be apart of it as an Emerging Creative.
Re-use and Recycle definitely seems to be the way forward.... not only in everyday living but in asthetic design as well. I love it! Its fantastic to see people doing amazing AND USEFUL things with junk and waste. At some point, hopefully soonish, I will most certainly come out with a range incorporating recycled materials and silver.

The next best thing about my trip to CTN was the Kirstenbosch Gardens.... beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Had an amazing day there. Took loads of pics that i will undoubtedly use as direct reference in jewellery pieces to come.

And this was my stand. Such fun! :)

Daniela-Designed
Emerging Creative