pic:: greenpopWell today is more of a spring day than yesterday was. I was not feeling a spring vibe at all yesterday. More like the middle of winter, today however is a totally different story. It's feeling fresh out there, but not icy. It's sunshine rather than a blanket of black cloud.

So now that it's official what are your green plans for springtime? Spring is the beginning of a new growth cycle, a time for getting your fingers in the soil again...

For me this time of year is mainly about getting the veggie garden all fired up once more. Its been ticking over during winter as, with no frost, we can still grow a lot of the staples, albeit more slowly: root and leaf veg mainly. I've just lifted the first potatoes - sadly they will also the last ones for a while, as cutworm and snails put paid to the aerial parts (so they're premature baby potatoes!). The beetroot and carrots that have been vegging around since April and are nearly good to go. The perenial kale is a year round performer and the broad beans have started to pod up nicely. There is also some lettuce, swiss chard and sorrel that has been featuring in the odd green smoothie, but that has been about it.

But ticking over is not what it's about. This season we have big plans and high hopes to return to salad sustainability and hopefully take it a bit further with some new varieties we've not tried to grow before. So I'm really looking forward to getting things cranking in the garden. Bring on those salad days again...

The planting list for September looks promising with some of the summer veg going in early. I've just transplanted the climbing beans (lazy housewife, not Wanda, but the variety of bean!) and there are some pumpkins (witches wart, queensland blue) inside on the window ledge that are ready to experience the great outdoors soon too. The courgette has not had a good start (damp or some seedling wilting disease?) and there were a number of tomato seeds that have not germinated, so am ready to try them again. I've got russian red kale, coriander, basil and sunflowers lined up on the windowsill. And there are other exotic heirloom vegetables that I'll be growing for the first time this year (take a look at Living Seeds' selection and lookout for our imminent spring newsletter, for our seed giveaway.)

Here's what you could be planting in September if you live in the winter rainfall part of SA: Amaranth, Basil, Beans (climbing & bush), Broad Beans, Beetroot, Butternut, Carrot, Swiss chard/Spinach, Cape Gooseberry, Celery, Clover, Chives, Chilli's, Cucumber, Egg Plant, Kale, Kohlrabi, Ginger, Globe Artichokes, Leek, Leaf Mustard, Lettuce, Jerusalem Artichoke, Onion, Parsley, Peas, Potato, Pumpkin, Radish, Rocket, Rhubarb, Maize, Sweet Potato, Turnip, Tomato, Watercress, Watermelon, Zuchini (courgette). (From the seed winter rainfall planting calendar).

That's 38 types of of veg / herbs! Why not give a few a try?

SA has a diverse climate, so planting in other regions of the country will differ. Inland areas at high altitude may still have to contend with frost and the tropical coast may have its own requirements.

In other areas you should do okay with most of the above, but start them off indoors in areas subject to frost and it might be too late to plant peas, broad beans, cauliflower and broccoli which prefer a cooler climate.

I'd like to keep better planting records this season, recording the costs of inputs, time, yields, etc. I started growing veg when we lived just outside of London, in St Albans, where our garden - about 3 square metres - was how I connected with nature. Heck, it was not quite the same as hiking in the Magaliesburg, but nurturing a small seed into a monstrous plant that supplied us and our neighbours with giant marrows throughout the (very short) summer was oddly satisfying! My primary motivation has been enjoyment and fascination at discovering, for example, just what an aubergine plant looked like. Would you recognise an eggplant (my son doesn't believe eggs grow on plants either) if it came out to bite you? I never knew that it was also a solanum, related to tomatoes, peppers, cape gooseberries, potatoes and tobacco. Who wudda thunk!

So this season I'd like to push the envelope a bit further in the home grown food dept. We've not had to buy salad leaves for a couple of years now, but I'd like to take it another jump closer to sustainable food production (as sustainable as we can get within an urban context).

So for record keeping I'm going to start using myfolia, a website I stumbled on recently. Think social networking meets gardening. The site has some cool features, like tracking your plantings, swopping seeds and connecting with local gardeners, but I'm still trying to work out which USDA hardiness zone Cape Town falls under!?

If growing your own food doesn't appeal, consider planting a tree as another way of developing your green fingers. The world needs more trees. Yesterday (1 September) was Arbour day and this week is Arbour week (through to 7 Sep), so now's the time to get digging.

Each year Arbour Week highlights two specific trees, one common and one rare species, although in 2010, lucky us, three rare trees are featured.

The common tree under the spotlight this year is Acacia xanthophloea, the striking Fever Tree, and the rare trees are the Cape Gardenia, Bell Gardenia and Tonga-kerrie.

Read more about the trees by following the links above to the PlantZAfrica site, a great resource for indigenous plant info. The Tonga-kierie has beautiful looking flowers and apparently an "awful stench"!

Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) celebrates 20 years of greening South Africa with over 3.4-million trees distributed to disadvantaged communities across the country and will be planting 1 450 trees throughout September.

And a new volunteer tree planting collective, Greenpop, has popped up and is aiming to plant 1000 trees in under-greened areas across Cape Town during spring 2010.

You could contact FTFA and Greenpop and get involved in planting a tree in a neighbourhood that needs it or you could plant your own tree in your garden or on your pavement. What about planting a tree in rememberance of someone dear to you?

If you don't want to get your fingers dirty (soil phobia?) you could get someone else to plant a tree for you: Food & Trees for Africa, Greenpop, Platbos (Africa's southernmost forest), Greenworks and seed will all accept donations for trees to be planted.

If you're waiting for the weather to improve, or want to time your planting with the spring equinox, then remember that Planting Season is happening on 23 September. So far 26872 civilians and 593 companies have committed to planting an organic vegetable in their home or office.

If you know of any other tree-planting (or vegetable planting) organisations or initiative's please drop us a mail at sprouts [at] urbansprout.co.za and we'll cover them in a separate post.

Happy planting!