Gauteng Smallholder December 2015-January 2016 | Page 3

GAUTENG COMMENT, by Pete Bower MAGAZINE HOW TO MAKE YOUR PLOT PROFITABLE V16 No12/V17 No1 Dec 2015/Jan 2016 PUBLISHED BY Bowford Publications (Pty) Ltd Established 1985 (Reg No 2004/019727/07) PO Box 14648, Bredell 1623 Tel: [phone] or 076 176-7392 Fax: [phone] e-mail: [email protected] website: www.sasmallholder.co.za facebook.com/gautengsmallholder PUBLISHER & EDITOR Pete Bower RESEARCH EDITOR Vanessa Bower GRAPHIC DESIGN Michelle Urquhart ADVERTISEMENT SALES Call 011 979-5088 ADVERTISING RATES (All Rates Full Colour, incl VAT) Full Page - R6800 Half Page - R4200 Quarter P - R2340 1/8 page - R1240 Smaller sizes: R95 per col cm (Minimum size - 4 col cm) (Black only: colour rate less 40%) Booking discounts (Payment lumpsum in advance) 3 insertions - less 10% 6 insertions - less 15% (other payment and discount options are available) Circulation Area More than 19 000 copies distributed free through outlets in the Agricultural Smallholding settlements of Gauteng and adjoining provinces. Also available by mail and online. By Mail To receive the Smallholder by mail send us a supply of stamped, selfaddressed A4 envelopes. Or, subscribe for only R210 per year. See coupon in this edition. Online http://www.sasmallholder.co.za Copyright Title and contents protected by copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher. Disclaimer While every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of the information in this journal, neither the Editor nor the Publisher can be held responsible for damages or consequences of any errors or omissions. The Publisher does not stand warranty for the performance of any article or service mentioned in this journal, whether in an advertisement or elsewhere. FRONT COVER The Christmas turkey. We wish our readers everything of the best over the festive season. Interconnectedness T he permaculturists get it. Prince Charles gets it. And a few of us smallholders get it, too. And that's the realisation that everything, but everything, on this little ball of slowly-cooling lava we call Earth is interconnected. As mankind's great and good meet this month in Paris, that beleagured City of Lights, to discuss our environmental future at the COP21 summit on climate change, it's worth reflecting on just how our actions ~ and inactions ~ affect what happens around us, now and in the future. And also to reflect on how big, and yet how small, the issue of environmental change, degradation and management really is. To make the issue manageable to somebody not seeking fame and glory on the political world stage ~ most of us, in other words ~ let's look at our own environments, namely our smallholdings. You’ve heard of companion planting? That's a prime example of the interconnectedness of plants and insects, (and also a prime example of natural chemical engineering). Plant a marigold in among your tomatoes and the natural pyrethrins in the marigold act as a deterrent to the whiteflies and other bugs that you would otherwise need to zap with chemical sprays if you wish to harvest unblemished fruit. Encourage ladybirds into your vegetable patch and they will feast on the aphids that suck the sap from the leaves and stems of your otherwise healthy plants, leaving them weakened and therefore unable to provide you with fruit. Even out in your fields, a hedgerow of bushes and trees along a boundary fence, apart from providing shade and a windbreak for your animals, will provide a habitat for birds, feeding grounds for bees, and a safe haven for small invertebrates, rodents and mammals. These in turn, will feed on worms, grubs and other bugs, in turn providing live food for magnificent owls and other birds of prey. Conversely, when you decide to fell a tree that has been growing for decades, because you wish to grade a new road, plough the field in which it grows or do anything similar in the name of “progress”, be aware that you are destroying a habitat for creatures of all sizes and varieties, many of which will simply die as a result. If you cut down enough trees, like in destroying a forest in the name of progress, you risk driving entire species to extinction. Look at the sea: ultimately everything we do ends up there. The carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide we produce in our power stations and by forest burning and myriad other industrial activities is absorbed into the sea, and changes into acid. The plastic rubbish we produce when we buy packaged foodstuffs in supermarkets, and cooldrinks in cafes, finishes up in the oceans, in the central Pacific and central Atlantic forming huge (and I mean HUGE … many hundreds of kilometres across) floating islands, slowly revolving at the epicentre of the ocean currents. Into this spaghetti of industrial waste become entangled turtles, birds and other marine predators mistaking the mess for food. Even the acid mine drainage out of the old gold mines of the Witwatersrand, more than 1 000km from the sea and about which so much has been written and not so much done to prevent it, eventually finishes up in the ocean, simply flowing, like all water does, downhill from stream to river, to bigger river and on out into the sea. Day after day, slowly raising the pH (acidity) of the sea water to the extent that it can no longer support marine life. \