Monday 19 August 2013

My New Garden : Progress 13 - February 2010


"An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life." 

February in the garden was a quiet month seeing as that Chrissie and I were on top of most chores (except the mowing of the lawn - with so much rain it needed to be cut twice a week!) and I'd been spending some time tending to my Bonsai and pot plants in and around the house.

A Philodendron in my bathroom - can't make up my mind whether it needs trailing or should I just leave it hanging? 

The English Ivy sprouting some lovely new growth 

We don't mow the grass at the pond - leave it long for Torti, the tortoise and Molly, my resident mole snake. When it's longer in winter, it also provides cover for them from the cold of winter and frost.

The pond turned slightly green with all the rain we had 

Molly the Mole snake enjoying some sun at the pond 

Having Molly around is a pleasure - she's beautiful, about 1.7m in length, a golden yellow-brown and, above all, a great deterrent to the rats plaguing the pond area. But Molly and the Brown House Snake is where I draw the line - In the past couple of weeks I had already rescued and evicted two Rinkhalses (Spitting Cobras) from my garden (the pleasure of my garden only to be enjoyed by Mollie, my resident Mole Snake or the Brown House Snake - all others like the Rinkhals and the various Adders are summarily evicted!). Chrissie, my gardener, immediately takes a short-cut home when she sees I'm busy catching a snake for safe delivery to a dam nearby us.

Rinkhals - Spitting Cobra (Hemachatus haemachatus)

Torti, my Leopard tortoise having her breakfast 

The Kiepersol (Cabbage tree - Cussonia paniculata) fully recovered from last winter 

In my bathroom court yard everything was lush and green and the sword ferns needed some trimming back, but I decided to wait until after winter for that.

My Pachypodium looking lush and green - she is always brought inside for winter 

I'm looking forward to Autumn - cooler but still warm days and a whole different colour palette in the garden.

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