White Stinkwood (Celtis africana)

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A perfect tree for suburban gardens. This tree is very popular in South Africa and it quickly and easily tolerates wind and drought. Unfortunately not evergreen, but with a graceful habit and neat crown – won’t get too big or untidy.
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If you need a medium, fast growing shade tree you can't go wrong with this tree that will give shade in about four years. It naturally has a low branching habit but can be pruned into a single stemmed tree. The trunk of Celtis africana is easy to distinguish by its smooth, pale grey to white bark. It may be loosely peeling in old trees and sometimes has horizontal ridges.
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A few Celtis africana sharing space with Acacia karroo in a forest-like setting at my pond in my garden
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This beautiful deciduous tree grows up to 25m tall in a forest habitat, but in a garden it can be treated as a medium-sized tree, expected to reach a height of up to 12m.
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In spring Celtis africana is very lovely, with its light green, tender, new leaves that contrast beautifully with the pale bark. The leaves are simple, alternate, triangular in shape with three distinct veins from the base, and the margin is toothed for the upper two-thirds. The new leaves are bright, fresh green and hairy, and they turn darker green and become smoother as they mature.
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In autumn the leaves turn a lovely yellow. Celtis africana leaves are browsed by cattle and goats, and are food for the larvae of the long-nosed butterfly.
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Tiny inconspicuous green flowers are borne in spring and summer. The flowers are followed by small yellow edible fruits that ripen to a reddish colour in autumn. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants, and only the female plants bear fruit. 
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It seems there's some disagreement on the internet as to whether or not C. africana's roots are invasive or not. It thrives if grown next to a water garden, dam or river but should not be planted near any buildings or swimming pools due to its size. It is an excellent shade tree for small gardens, and in larger gardens it looks lovely if planted in groups.
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Because of its dense growth habit it makes a most effective windbreak or barrier for large properties.  The fruit is relished by many fruit eating birds, including ground birds like guinea fowl. The leaves serve as an important food source for game, especially in times of drought.

Info from PlantzAfrica

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Summer's colours

summer’s colors

bending light

finding beauty

taking flight  

- unknown 

The season's first Marigolds have appeared after we had our (late) spring rains a couple of weeks ago. They are always first to add bright splashes of colour to the garden and it's amazing that these, often regarded as simple, little flowers can provide so much pleasure. And not only do they fill empty spots beautifully, they also keep all sorts of harmful insects at bay. Farmers and gardeners have long known that marigolds make important companion plants all over the garden. Not only does the scent of the marigold (Tagetes spp.) repel animals and insects, but the underground workings of the marigold will repel microscopic worms and other pests for up to 3 years.

No annual is more cheerful or easier to grow than marigolds. These flowers are the spendthrifts among annuals, showing a wealth of gold, copper, and brass into our summer and autumn gardens. Marigolds form the backbone of many plantings because of their diversity and adaptability. Use them freely in beds, borders, edges, pots, and boxes. They grow in almost any soil but do need lots of sunshine. Seeds sown directly into the garden about 1-inch apart sprout within days in warm weather and plants bloom in about 8 weeks.

But be warned! Their seeds are dispersed by the wind and if you are a fussy gardener, you might not be pleased that they suddenly appear all over the garden where you might not want them. Since putting in a few seeds a couple of years ago, I have never bought or planted marigolds again!

All the deciduous trees are also now dressed in their finest greenery and the soft green of the new Celtis africana (White Stinkwood) leaves look beautiful against the backdrop of the darker Karee lancea (Black Karee) leaves. The Acacia karroo (Sweet thorn) also pushed out their brand-new little leaves the day after our first shower.

Celtis africana (White Stinkwood)

Acacia karroo (Sweet thorn)

The thorns of the Acacia karroo are always an indication of how much water it gets - during the rainy season my thorns are always huge and fat. The sweet thorn gets its common name from the gum which is exuded from wounds in the bark. This pleasant tasting gum is eaten by people and animals, including the Lesser Bushbaby which feeds exclusively on insects and gum from trees, particularly acacia trees. And that reminds me, I haven't seen any Bushbabies for years, they used to be regular visitors to my garden... The same with Chameleons...

Flowers of the Acacia karroo usually appear early summer or after good rains, so I'm looking forward to these lovely little puff-balls!

The sweet thorn makes a beautiful garden specimen. The bright yellow flowers look very striking against the dark green foliage. The rough, dark brown bark is also most attractive. The flowers are sweetly scented and are renowned for attracting insects which are essential to any bird garden. Birds also like to make nests in thorn trees as the thorns offer them some protection from predators. Caterpillars of 10 species of butterflies are dependant on the tree for survival. These include, the club-tailed charaxes (Charaxes zoolina zoolina) and the topaz-spotted blue (Azanus jesous).

Flower of the Echinopsis cactus

Echinopsis are cacti native to South America, sometimes known as hedgehog cactus. They are fairly ball-shaped and can spread fairly fast, forming clumps of individual cacti that can be lifted and transplanted. They are renowned for their amazing flowers, often giant … 5″-6″ in diameter … and frequently dwarf the cactus that they grow on. Mine carry pink flowers but they come in reds, violets, oranges, yellows and numerous mixtures. Such a shame they only last a day or two after opening, though I guess that really makes them all the more special.

Lots of babies from just two mother plants

Pic taken 5am this morning

 It's amazing how one can water the garden every day for weeks and then just 20mm of rain and everything springs to life!

Geranium flower

 Nasturtiums

Arum lily

Naturtiums and a couple of leaves in a bottle of water hanging from a tree - don't keep your flower arrangements for just inside the house - they complement the garden beautifully if hung or placed in strategic spots.

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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!

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