First Aloe ferox flowers for the season!

I am so excited! Early already this winter has been freezing and I've been afraid that I won't have any Aloes flowering this season. And yet, here it is! My first flowers for the season! This fairly young Aloe (about 4 years old) is just outside my garden gate and is in full sun, maybe that's the secret. This area also gets very little water as it consists mostly of Aloes and the Coco splumosa trees are big enough to not need all that much water, rain only suffices.

I'm holding thumbs that my other older and bigger Aloes will follow suit with their lovely display of oranges.

What a winter!

Winter is winter, I know, and why anything surprises me is a good question! But this year the seasons have been extremely peculiar. Unlike South Africa's weather, sunny, warm, clear blue skies, even in winter. No. More like the rest of the world's weather!
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Tornadio touches ground in Tembisa, Gauteng, South Africa 

25th July 2016
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After the hectic heat waves we had this past summer, winter has brought in absolutely freezing temperatures and stuff like snow!, hail, floods and tornadoes! Tornadoes? In South Africa?! Well, there you have it. We actually had a few tornadoes.
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As the hail started, I thought of running out and moving some of my succulents under cover, but it was already too fierce. 25th July 2016

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And rain, In the middle of winter. Not Gauteng weather at all, we are a summer rainfall area. And hail, LOTS of hail, big hail! When it started, my mind was racing. What can I save? My plants are going to be
annihilated! What about my garden birds?!

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I watched helplessly as the storm got worse and worse, pounding the trees, the plants and wreaking havoc. Luckily my chooks were already in their coop as I had suspected some foul play earlier in the morning and had left them inside.
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The hailstorm lasted for about 20 minutes, followed by heavy rain the rest of the day and night. And it took my gardener a full day to clear all the leaves, broken branches and rubble. Mr. Brown, a stray rooster, was in the aviary at the back of the pic, hiding in the shelter provided and the sound of the hail on the tin roof must have been deafening, it certainly was in my house, we couldn't even hear one another talking.

My experience is that, if we have late-winter rain, then probably we are in for a good rainfall season, so that's one positive to look forward to!
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An unusual sight - Aloes blooming in the snow! 

Winter - Fire and Ice

Aloe ferox in my garden

Mid-winter (July) in South Africa and the Aloes flower fiery-red against the white of frost. I've been dreading the frost, as some years it has killed all the flowers in the bud. I do have one aloe (the largest of the three, pictured below, which started flowering last) which doesn't seem to be doing so well, the flowers don't seem to have much colour, but hopefully the flowers will still reach maturity, as long as we don't have any more stints of heavy frost.

My chooks have left large, bare patches all over the garden, scrounging for any available greenery as the lawn is all but non-existent.

Lots of mist this morning, a sign that, albeit cold, the day is going to be bright and sunny!

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~ One of Robert Frost’s most popular poems, published in December 1920 in Harper’s Magazine

Staying inspired

I don't know about you, but it can be hard to stay inspired this time of the year. It's cold outside. It gets dark really early. And gets light really late. I'm an early riser and, as much as I love winter, the cold and long darkness can put a damper on creativity. Especially out in the garden.

 Image from Pinterest

So each day I spend a couple of hours searching for inspiration on the internet or scratching around in my store room, trying to find something that I can use in the garden. Isn't the image above absolutely adorable?! I've even gravitated towards my husband's workshop, looking for an old car body that I can utilise like this.

But one needs quite a bit of space to utilise an old car body like that, not very practical or so easy to execute, I mean, who is going to carry it to the garden for me? So in the meantime, all I've come up with is an old wooden wheelbarrow, which I can visualise filled with pansies,  and an old vintage seed planter, which is badly in need of some wood protection for the handles and a coat of paint on the metal parts.

 A wooden wheelbarrow I found now stands in a corner of my garden

I placed them in the garden and now contemplate the next move. Pansies first and then out with the paint. I can't wait to tackle these two (small) projects and maybe follow up on some other ideas I came across, like this old door and frame somewhere in a corner of the garden.

Or a whole lot of terracotta pots (I'm just MAD about terracotta pots!) placed on top of the wall surrounding my garden (like the example below). But who will be getting up the ladder to be watering them...?

Pinterest

But first, I'm going inside to warm up with a nice cup of hot coffee! Enjoy your day!

 Pinterest

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Just before winter, tightly packed

Take some Echeverias (E. imbricata), plant too many in one terracotta pot, have lots of rain and you have a scene of each plant doing its best to be the biggest!

I have found E. imbricata to be a fast grower, producing healthy plants and actually spreads like wild fire. Although succulents are renowned for the fact that they can grow in poor soils and are drought tolerant, this Echeveria thrives in a good, rich potting soil and lots of water, as long as it also gets lots of sun.

Unfortunately they are not very frost tolerant and every winter I bring those that are in pots into the house for winterizing. This is not ideal, as they tend to get leggy searching for more light and results in me cutting them down and replanting them every spring. Yep, I know that sounds a bit excessive, but the alternative is dead or frost-damaged plants that hardly ever recover before the next onslaught of winter.

Even when it's winter...

Even when it's winter and I'm not out in the garden much, I still think of my garden! Here are a few things I planned last winter : to sketch and plan new little corners for the garden, to move pot plants around, to rearrange all the succulents on the plant stands, to trim low-hanging branches of the trees to allow in more sunlight, start a compost heap again and maybe start a new rock garden. I just have to find a large, sunny spot.

Thunder rumbled its way into the distance, and then the rain came, dropping words to the ground all around me.

Step outside after the first storm after a dry spell and it invariably hits you: the sweet, fresh, powerfully evocative smell of fresh rain! If you’ve ever noticed this mysterious scent and wondered what’s responsible for it, you’re not alone. It's called “petrichor.” It’s the name of an oil that’s released from Earth into the air before rain begins to fall. This heady smell of oncoming wet weather is something most people are familiar with – in fact, some scientists now suggest that humans inherited an affection for the smell from ancestors who relied on rainy weather for their survival.


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Mid-winter rain in Gauteng

Mid-winter, July 2015, and it's raining, it's pouring!! Unusual for Gauteng... I'm really grateful for the rain, everything has been so dry and dusty, but at the same time I'm worried about all my succulents - it has been freezing cold and together with the wet I'm not sure if they will all survive...

Here in Gauteng we're not used to cold AND wet, that's Cape weather. When I lived in Cape Town, that was one of the most disturbing phenomena for me - cold, rain and wind, all together! Here in Gauteng, the weather is organised - rain in summer, cold in winter and winds in August! I don't know if Mother Nature is confused or whether she knows exactly what she is doing... Maybe this is our first Spring rains? Yesterday I noticed tiny little green leaves on the Acacias (thorn trees), and I thought that was rather odd, right in the middle of winter.

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A walk through my June garden

After a beautiful mild Autumn, winter has struck with a vengeance, giving us -3℃ temps at night and 7℃ in the middle of the day with a couple of warmer days in between.

Thank heavens for Phormiums and Restios, the hardy back-bones of the garden!

My herb garden is feeling the effects of the cold nights. I think a total revamp here in Spring would be in order...

Lanky and shrivelled Aeoneums and Echeverias

The young Aloe ferox along one of the garden paths is also showing signs of suffering

Over-worked wheelbarrow!

Arum lilies, who do not mind the cold at all, but slightly trampled by my chooks. Why on earth would they want to walk ON TOP of the plants...?!

Whoot whoot! Two of my Aloe ferox seemed to have escaped the effects of the frost and are flowering, although the one at the bottom seems to have been burnt a bit already, just hope its flowers are OK.

The wildlife pond has sprung a leak and this is how much it has drained so far. Next step is to scoop out the last bit of water (being careful and keeping an eye open for any aquatic wildlife), but I'm waiting for a day a bit warmer than 16℃!

I am absolutely thrilled to bits! This is the first time my Aloe marlothii has flowered since I planted her in February 2012! These aloes do best in a more temperate climate and I was worried that it would not make it through our severe winters, but so far she's holding her own!

Close-up of Aloe marlothii flower

Hopefully my Aloe marlothii will manage to complete her blooming, I'm dying to see the open flowers.

My little private forest at the pond, now the trees are leafless and letting through much needed sunlight

I'm surprised that the Sword Ferns are still green and maybe it's a sign that this winter is not as severe as I perceive it to be. Just a month or two more, roll on Spring!

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Just before winter (April 2015)

Winter hasn't sunk in yet and I'm still hanging out in April! It has been sooooo absolutely cold that I haven't yet managed to catch the devastation that's happening in my garden. I'll get around to that this week, but in the meantime, let's still bask in the sunshine and greenery of Autumn!

Autumn (and the month of April) is when many of my Aloes start flowering. The Aloe ferox (the larger Aloes) will start a bit later, roundabouts May/June, but the aloe zebrina (with the long stalks), are already in full flower, above and below.
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Walking through the garden just after sunrise is still a pleasure with the sun shining brightly through all the plants. But soon most of those Nasturtiums will be gone and the Sword Ferns will be withered and dead. But the hardy back-bones of the garden like the Phormiums, Restios, Aloes, Arums, big trees and succulents normally escape unscathed, leaving something to tend to.

I'm looking forward to when the Aloe ferox start flowering; if they're not caught by a bad frost in the early-flowering stage, they will provide splashes of orange to brighten up all the greenery.

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Miracles happen after the rain

After the first thunderstorm of the season - and an orb in the left-hand top corner of the photo?!
(Read more here about Orbs)

After an extremely cold and harsh winter, we seemed to skip spring and headed straight into above 30°C temperatures. My garden was absolutely devastated by the extreme frost we experienced and then suffered from heat exhaustion no matter how much I watered. Then, to top it, I sat without internet for ages, unable to get to my blogs except for some viewing via my phone or tablet.

But at last we've had our first rains of the season, my internet is back on, things are back to normal and my garden is smiling! So am I, with the rain came the relief of cooler temperatures and at last it's a joy to spend time in the garden.

After the first thunderstorm of just 15mm rain, just about all signs of the devastation of my lawn have disappeared. Just before winter I sprinkled a generous layer of LAN (a nitrogen rich fertilizer which encourages fast leaf growth, ideal for citrus trees and lawns) so hopefully I'll see the benefits this season. Already we have to mow the lawn twice a week in some places.

Just before the rain the hosepipe was Chrissie and I's constant companion! I don't have an automatic irrigation system for two reasons - I should have installed one BEFORE the garden  got established and, number two, I just love "washing" my garden by hand, it's the time when I relax and meditate and also see all sorts of things that have to be done in the garden.

My Phormiums tenax are thriving after all the rain. Phormium, also known as New Zealand flax or Flax lily but are not related to Flax, is a genus of two plant species in the Xanthorrhoeaceae family. One species is endemic to New Zealand and the other is native to New Zealand. The tough, sword-shaped leaves grow up to three metres long and up to 125 mm wide and the rigid flower stalks can be up to five metres long, projecting high above the foliage. Mine have never flowered in 10 years, probably due to the cold we experience here.

Artemis and the girls enjoying a late-afternoon snack of flying ants (termites on the wing!). I do have a problem with termites in my lawn. At the onset of winter and during winter they cause large, empty patches as they take the grass down to their nests to stock up for winter and I've given up trying to fight them. The only  way termites can be killed is with a contact poison so, unless you can actually get the poison right down into EVERY nest, it's a useless exercise. Using poison above ground (and I do not use any chemical poisons) is dangerous to wildlife and serves no purpose for eradicating termites.

Here's the difference between "flying ants" and "winged termites :

Winged termites have a straight waist and straight antennae. Their wings are equal in size and are shed soon after they emerge from their nest, or swarm. Winged termites usually swarm in the early spring when it is warm and rainy.

Flying ants have pinched waists and bent antennae and are often mistaken for swarming termites. They have two sets of wings, one larger than the other. Depending on their species, flying ants may swarm at different times of the year.

Despite the fact that these Echinopsis cacti are drought tolerant, mine seem to thrive with extra water and seemed to have doubled in size since the rain!

Protected from the frost every winter, my Echeveria glauca absolutely thrive on water in the summer, producing huge rosettes and the most beautiful flowers.

The Geraniums had just started budding, but after that first shower, they all burst into bloom simultaneously!

My Sword ferns (Polystichum munitum, I think!) were all frosted dead but after being cut down at the end of winter, the sprang back to life and will soon be filling this area gain.

While they are most commonly found growing in moist wooded areas, sword ferns are quickly becoming popular in the home garden as well. You’ll find the young fronds, or fiddleheads, appearing in early spring from their underground rhizomes with most plants eventually reaching four to six feet long. In addition to spreading through rhizomes, sword ferns will also reproduce via spores that are found along the backside of the fronds. These spores appear as brown spots, which are clustered together in groups. These ferns are native to western North America.

With quite a few early blooms for the season, it looks like my Hydrangeas will be doing well this summer.

After moving all my Kniphofia (Red Hot Pokers) from the shade to this sunny spot, I already have the first blooms of the season and soon my garden will be filled with the tjeeps and chirps, of the Amethyst Sunbird (Black Sunbird) and his wife, who are regular visitors during the summer. Last year I was lucky enough to catch a few shots of these little busy bodies that never sit still long enough for a photographic session! Here is one of the paintings I did of a female feeding on a Kniphofia flower :

While the male is metallic black with the most gorgeous iridescent amethyst throat, the female in contrast is a dull brown with spots under her throat and abdomen.

Kniphofia at my wildlife pond, thriving on lots of water from the over-flow area.

 Kniphofia at the pond and Aloe marlothii, which just survived the winter beautifully.

Planting Nasturtiums next to Kniphofia (both sun- and water-loving plants) provides a beautiful contrast of spiky and round.

Still a bit stark-looking after the winter, hopefully my pathway will soon be filled with Marigolds and Nasturtiums again. both seeded extremely well last summer, so I'm holding thumbs!

Aeoniums and some Echeverias thriving in the dappled sun next to a pathway.

Recently I managed to get hold of a piece of Vygie (Mesembryanthemum) and it's taken nicely here in its temporary home. As soon as it is well-established, I will make a little rock garden, something I've been wanting to do for years, and once again be the proud owner of some beautiful, flowering Mesembryanthemums!

"I hear the sound.  And as I look out the window I see it.
Rain.
Falling wet and grey.
Nourishment for trees and plants that grow.
The watering of the Earth.
And I’m thankful!"

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

~ Langston Hughes

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