In The Boiling Pot

We currently have a few “projects” on the horizon. Their implementation will depend on various factors, but mostly the availability of the vital ingredients: time and money.

Project #1 relates to gardening, where we have no type of facility where the girls can grow cooking requirements, herbs, and some pretty flowers to attract the bees, nor any formalised veggie patch with proper soil in decent sunlit conditions. First prize will be a trellised square directly behind the house, in close proximity to the kitchen. Known as the “potager jardin”, this project has been discussed for a number of months, with ideas building up a picture – the term translated from the French is “vegetable garden”, consequently “kitchen garden.”

Whilst nothing is set in stone as yet, with no finalised details, it is likely that the potager will be approximately 10x10 directly behind the garage, fenced with a trellis (to keep puppy feet from trampling the delicate herbs and flowers). It could also site the gas BBQ, the metal outdoor dining table and chairs, and perhaps, sometime later, accommodate a pizza oven as well. The very first concept draft was drawn on the back of an envelope, but the final picture could look completely different…

(Above): The famous Potager Du Roi – probably a little bigger and grander than “Potager Du Chartwell”, but, hey, some people have veggies to grow… and garlic, too…

(Above): The pebbled area with the brown pipe-stand is the approximate location of where we would like to site the potager.

The other “project” in the boiling pot is a chook-coop (chicken run), which we would like to build to accommodate a team of laying hens, sufficient to provide us with eggs for a  family of six, and still have some left for omelettes and baking needs. Their existence will depend on their ability to give us eggs valued at least at the cost of their feed and upkeep. Free range organic eggs in New Zealand vary in price between 55 and 70 cents each (in SA terms that’s R5.00 to R6.40 each)…