October gardening

October is a time when the Celtis africana (White Stinkwood) stands proud with brand new foliage. It's a sure sign that summer is now here. One of my chores this past winter was trimming away some of the lower branches, not too many, it's still a young tree and I first wanted to see the result when the leaves appear, and I'm glad I did, the tree seems to be fuller and very happy. Unfortunately I lost one of my White Karee's (Rhus viminalis) to the right of her, have no idea why. It's going to be a big job taking it out, but another thought is to just leave it, the Fiscal Shrike absolutely loves surveying her surrounds from the top of the dead branches. Maybe planting an Hedera Helix ivy at the base would also be a good idea as I can train it up the trunk to cover some of the 'deadness'. But I've also experienced what the ivy can do to a dead tree - when it gets big, and HEAVY, it can bring the whole tree tumbling down, causing absolute havoc in the garden!

There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between July and October, from brown and dusty to clean and sparkly green after the first rains. Our rain has been very late this year, had our first shower last week, but already everything is starting to go green. All the greenery also inspired me to clean up the space between two trees and spruce it up with an ornamental twig basket and some crusher stone and river pebbles. Two little terracotta pots filled with some Sempervivums and a driftwood found on the beach completes the picture.

I lost six of my Clivias due to the heavy frost a year or two ago, so I placed a vintage hand planter amongst them to temporarily fill the spot. Maybe a coat of paint would be in order...

 

 

However, surprisingly enough, most of my nasturtiums survived the winter, adding a lovely splash of colour to the otherwise winter landscape. They're already sporting lots of large seeds, which I've already started pushing into the ground in some sunny, empty spots.

I'm never actually sure when to trim the Hydrangeas down, but this year I did it right at the beginning of winter and it seemed to have worked. They've sprung back to life with a vengeance and I've already got a couple of first flowers. And every year my flowers seem to be a different colour - whether I add compost or not seems to have a lot to do with it. Unlike my previous garden, which had a very acid soil and I mostly had blue flowers, now I'm blessed with lovely pink ones, obviously the soil here is much more alkaline.

My Geranium, placed on some wooden pallets together with some cacti and succulents, also survived the winter and is now ready for transplanting into the new garden I will be landscaping in the chicken run.

A garden ornament hanging from a branch of my Acacia karroo (Sweet thorn). Amazingly, the first green leaves on the Acacia appeared within hours (it seems!) of the bit of rain we had a couple of days ago.

Yellow Wood Sorrel (Oxalis stricta), commonly called Oxalis or sour grass, is a vigorous weed. It is a summer annual -- sometimes perennial -- that thrives in fertile, warm and moist soils and likes shade. (Identified by MyBlueDaisies in the comments below - Thanks Daisy!)

This little weed, which can spread like wildfire if left unchecked, covered most of my dead lawn during the winter, so I left it as it provided some sense of greenery in an otherwise dead scene. I'm sure I'm going to be sorry, because last summer I sat for hours on the lawn, pulling them out root and all, otherwise they just grow again. I did actually find it rather therapeutic sitting on the soft green weeds, taking in the scenery and just letting my thoughts wander. Have no idea what it's called, still doing some research to try and find the name.

Unfortunately the winter also killed off most of the plants around my pot feature (and the chickens played a great part too! You can see ChickyBoo above trying to find some greenery!), so I'll be choosing something more hardy to fill up with here again - the Hen & Chicks that filled up this spot is much too tender for winter and also much too tasty to the chickens!

My pot feature just before winter.

It's the middle of October and I'm only half-way through the chores I set for myself - soon November will be too hot to do anything but water the garden, so I'll have to hurry to finish off and fill in the empty spots before winter catches up with me again!

.

August in the garden

Never yet was there a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom. 

— Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

The 1st of September is officially Spring in South Africa but all the signs of spring are there much earlier, sometimes as early as late-July — peach trees full of blossoms, Tiger grass and other plants pushing out new green shoots — but today is one of the coldest days of the past winter with temperatures at -2℃ early this morning and not going much above 10℃. Hopefully this will be the last of the cold and it's forth into summer from here on!

Every August I stand in wonder as the landscape transforms itself from a dead-yellow and dusty-brown to wondrous greens. We had a ferocious veld fire last week, thankfully the only one this season, and already the green grass shoots are peeping through the blackened landscape.

As usual, the Bulbinella (Bulbine frutescenc) came through the cold fairly unscathed and put up a lovely show of flowers. Most species of Bulbinella are endemic to South Africa and is used as a remedy for wounds, burns, rashes, itches, ringworm, cracked lips, herpes, cuts, insect bites, cold sores and acne. Crush the leaf softly between your fingers and squeeze the clear leaf sap out, putting it directly on the cut or burn. I cannot seem to work in the garden without getting cuts and scrapes and this wonderful plant has come through for me time and again.

 This year my Tree Fuschia (Halleria Lucida) has stayed green, a testament to the mild winter we've had. Last year I thought I had lost it but luckily it sprung to life again in spring.

My Tree Fuschia (Halleria Lucida) to the right of the pot looking all but dead last August

These Aloes, which I had not planted and which had somehow taken root next to one of the pathways, make a lovely border. They haven't flowered as yet, so I'm still trying to identify them. The Nasturtiums carried on right through the winter, not taking any notice of the cold, but the Hydrangeas right at the back are definitely looking worse for the wear!

An Aloe and some Echeverias I planted in an old metal tub last spring have surprised me with their prolific growth. The Old Man Cactus in the pot in front has made an identical twin, probably needs to go into a bigger pot...

And so, as we officially leave winter, I'm hoping to get a bit more done in the garden in September, I've really been taking advantage of the cold as an excuse not to do much and my garden is showing signs of neglect. I'm taking some blame, can't blame it ALL on the chickens!

.

My garden, plain and simple

Well, my "new garden" has now become "my garden", a well-deserved accolade after almost 10 years. I dare say, after ten years, that I can now call it "established". Some of my trees are now a nice eight to nine meters tall and home to many birds and insects, which is the primary object of my garden. I get a thrill and a sense of well-being when I see wildlife in and around my home and garden. Because of how life happens, my lawn and garden beds tend to look a little more unkempt and a little less manicured than I’d like to, to the point where I expect to receive disapproving glares from neighbours. However, this lack of regular pruning, mowing, and trimming produces an unexpected bonus: more natural areas that are welcoming to wild creatures.

I've learnt what to plant and what to NOT plant, I've changed and moved plants around to more suitable locations and unfortunately also lost many plants and a tree or two.

My Umbrella Thorn only just starting to sport new green leaves almost at the end of summer in November 2006, already a sign that it is not doing too well.

One that succumbed to a particularly cold winter in 2009 was the Umbrella Thorn, Acacia tortilis, and even though I knew that it was frost-tender when I planted it in 2004, I hoped against hope that it would do well here. It provides excellent cover for birds against predators like hawks and kestrels and is favoured by many birds for nesting sites.

Acacia tortilis tends to grow in areas where temperatures vary from 0 to 50 degree Celsius and rainfall is anywhere from about 100–1,000 mm (3.9–39in) per year. We rarely get temps below 0°C, but some years we do get a heavy, severe frost, known as 'black frost', which I suspect is the culprit that killed it.

Black frost is a popular term that originally denoted any freeze not accompanied by white frost. According to the Weather Bureau, the term now generally signifies a "killing freeze" (the vegetation turning black) without the formation of the ordinary or white frost. Black frost, however, is not used officially by the Weather Bureau, which classifies freezes as light, heavy and killing. Basically it is a dry, invisible killing frost that turns vegetation black.

The Umbrella Thorn beautiful and lush in December 2007 - it seemed to have a sudden spurt of coming right 

It did seem to be doing OK for a couple of years, but after a very severe winter in 2008 it was dead but I only cut it down the following winter, just to make sure it wasn't still alive.. It was impossible getting to that part of the garden due to the masses of thorns now permanently exposed and let me tell you, getting stuck in them is no joke! They can inflict painful pricks which don't heal easily due to the fact that the point of a thorn often breaks off in your flesh, leaving the area swollen and infected.

Throughout Africa, these thorny branches are used to erect cages, pens and cattle kraals, even keeping predators like lions and leopards at bay. The thorns are also used by African women for sewing.

Some thorns collected from my Umbrella tree 

Finally, in May 2009, my Umbrella Thorn was officially declared dead and cut down.

And so one lives and learns. I have many favourite plants that just do not cut it in our climate and I've had to harden my heart and avoid planting them again.

A quick catch-up on the past year - February 2013 and summer is slowly coming to an end...

In April I was forced to cut down the Karee that had died, even though I knew how much the birds like to sit in it, catching the morning sun. But it was leaning dangerously close to the roof and I must say, it was quite a business cutting it down. Solly climbed to the top and cut piece by piece until we could do the bottom bit. Hopefully never again...

 

May brought beautiful Autumn colours but the weather was so beautiful, it utterly confused my 20-year old Peach Tree, who was already sporting some new buds! This could be disastrous if some real cold hits us...

The pond area

 Torti's hide-out - she's in there somewhere!

July brought a fair bit of cold weather, and the lawn slowly started disappearing. The pond area where Torti, my Leopard tortoise, lives, was devoid of any vegetation and we had to supply her with lots of grass where she was cuddled up in one of her hide-outs for winter.

 Torti catching up on a bit of sunshine

Torti having breakfast

Leopard Tortoises don't do the full hibernation thing in winter. Weather permitting, she often surfaces to have a snack and catch up on baking in the sun, warming her body temperature in readiness for the cold night ahead.

The best part of winter - when the Aloes are flowering! Not only do they give a beautiful splash of colour to the garden, but they attract Sunbirds, bees and other insects, providing a great source of nutrition in the cold months.

This 2013 winter proved to be exceptionally mild and my peach tree has managed to hold onto her buds, with tiny pink spots now appearing. another bounty of fruit awaits us this season!

.