2020

The baboon raids on our home had increased in intensity and on one ocasion my baboon defenses had been breeched. To prevent baboons from entering our property, in 2020 , we decided to erect an electric fence around the perimeter of our property to protect our vegetable garden and protect our home from possible intrusion by baboons.

Fortunately, this intervention worked well, and we were able to reclaim our lives and grow nutritious organic vegetables without being hindered by these pests.

Although the 2019 raised bed design had worked well for about 18 months; after that, the wooden sides of the raised bed garden started to deteriorate due to water damage caused by irrigation.

The electric fence around the property successfully prevented baboon entry.  However, due to the water damage to the woodwork I decided to rebuild my raised beds out of concrete blocks, keeping the main cage enclosure to protect the plants from birds.

I also decided to increase the size of the enclossure to accommodate a second raised bed.

Instead of the previous haphazard arrangement, I introduced a square foot gardening system to achieve an ordered planting arrangement.

The new raised bed gardens set out for square foot gardening were built within a week.

I kept the shade cloth on the roof of the cage but replaced the shade cloth on the sides with chicken mesh to prevent bird entry, but to allow pollinating insects in.

I took down the right and left cages, leaving the left cage containers outside the main enclosure.

The soil from the previous right cage was rich, fertile, and held moisture with good drainage and contained essential micronutrients; I decided to use the soil in the new bed in the main enclosure.

Vegetable gardening used to be the poor relation of the ornamental garden. However, now that eating vegetables has become more trendy as their health benefits have been realized, they are gaining more respect in the gardening world.

After taste, small home gardeners want a high yield in a small space.  Fortunately, science and technology have responded to this need, and varieties and hybrids have been developed to grow in a small footprint and are resistant to disease and pests.

My aim for the 2020 season was to learn more about the vegetable species grown, including their variants and cultivars and the abiotic limiting factors that influenced their growth and productivity.

I was also interested in their history, appearance, growing conditions, harvesting, and nutritional value.

Plants were added tom the new structure, and the square foot garden was well on its way within a few weeks.

The vegetables grown in 2020 are shown, described, and discussed in the 2020 vegetable section.