🍄 The bliss of gardening on my little piece of African soil. A year-by-year record of the progress in my old garden. My "new" garden of 2000sq.m. started in 2004, and ended when we sold our smallholding in 2017and moved to the Dolphin Coast in KwaZulu Natal. Now "my garden" consists of a postage-stamp-size mostly-indigenous succulent garden and it always amazes me how supposedly drought-resistant plants do so well in this tropical coastal region.
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Monday, 18 April 2016
To bless this kind earth... and yourself
Now that we're over the worst of summer (and it really was the pits, with extreme heat-waves, temps in the 40℃'s and drought) and had some lovely rain to break the heat and drought, I'm enjoying time outside in my garden again. I just get absolutely cranky, and listless, when it gets that hot, and can't seem to get around to doing anything outside. But as we all know, we NEED to get outside, we need to spend time in nature, otherwise life becomes unbearable. Well, for me anyway. My plants and the birds in my garden are part of my family, and I feel as though I've lost track of what's going on in their lives. I just did the bare necessities during that heat, filling the water bowls and feed tables and the rest, like watering the garden, was left up to my trusty garden manger, Chrissie. I even thought of telling her to chat to the birds, because I wasn't getting round to it!
But my garden doesn't seem to have minded my absence. It's like a jungle out there after all the rain. Nature's revenge to neglect is that, when left undisturbed and given time, she will reclaim anything built by humanity. So basically, no need to feel guilty here, life winds a way.
There's a pathway somewhere in there, totally covered now by Bulbine and Sword ferns.
Even the birds don't seem to have noticed my absence. No excitement or fluttering or welcoming twittering when I started spending time in the garden again. Maybe they were even pleased about not being constantly stalked by my camera. Eating and bathing and nesting carried on as usual, making me feel a bit unwanted...
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