My New Garden : Progress 15 - Jan 2011

"In search of my mother's garden I found my own." 

-Alice Walker 

It's hello to a new year and January always seems to be a quiet month with nothing much to do except for cutting the lawn three times a week! and watching the garden grow. So I hung up a couple of garden ornaments and decided to put in some Marigolds. They always provided welcome splashes of colour. 

 Some flowers I painted on a square of glass

 Some knick-knacks I attached to a circle of wire

The Weavers were going strongly at their nest building, even though I thought it was a bit late in the season. But they're a joy to watch, so I never complain!

 I just love it when lots of rain brings beautiful mushrooms to the garden. Then Chrissie gets strict instructions not to disturb them and to mow around them.

I also decided to plant some Nasturtiums near the Marigolds as well as in pots. I thought it might be a bit late in the season, but these grow so quickly that I decided to take the chance.

And it wasn't long before the seedlings were already sprouting their first flowers! I decided to keep one or two in pots and the rest were transplanted out into the garden.

And so our hottest month of the year came quietly to an end. In the next couple of weeks it will just be a last sprinkling of compost and some final trimming before Autumn sets in and my garden starts slowing down, getting ready for her well-deserved winter rest.

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My New Garden : Progress 14 - Apr to Dec 2010

"To find new things, take the path you took yesterday." 

 -John Burroughs 

 The garden at 7am after lots of rain

Autumn was almost finished and in April we were still having lots of rain! Even though the temperatures were cooler, the garden absolutely lapped it up. We have very deep and well-drained top-soil and the water seems to disappear like a flash, sinking deep down, leaving the top layers dry, so rain is never to be scoffed at!

The winter was fairly uneventful, the frost having killed a couple of my weaker plants, but by spring the Monkey Tail Cactus was in full bloom. It always seems the colder the winter (as long as it gets enough water), the more beautiful it blooms.

November 2010 was when I planted my first Agapanthus in the front of the garden, having rescued it from too much shade in my bathroom court-yard garden. I was hoping that it would spread and cover this bare area, which it actually did.

I also started a new herb garden, with Bulbinella (Bulbine frutescens) being the first. I put in about 10 plants spaced fairly far apart as I know how well they spread, but they looked so utterly lost in this big space. This wonderful indigenous plant is, like Lavender, an outstanding remedy for minor burns, cuts and abrasions, and insect bites. Simply break off a leaf and squeeze the juice or jelly onto affected areas.

November chores included transplanting my sorry-looking Echeverias from full shade to this sunny spot next to the herb garden in the hope that they will return to their full glory again.

For the first time in many years I also planted Hydrangeas again. The four (expensive!) little bushes looked all lost in the allocated space but I thought that, seeing as Hydrangeas can get quite large, rather suffer now than having to cut them down later. And by December the little bushes were already covered in many lovely flower heads!

 

My Cycas revoluta (planted in 2007) was still bearing witness of the winter in December, not having lost it's bottom leaves yet. But I don't cut those off, they serve as protection during winter time.

The spot that I had filled earlier in the year with Hen 'n Chickens and some indigenous grasses seemed to be a bit bland, so I added an old terracotta pot and a couple of stepping stones and pebbles, just to provide a bit of character. That ended the year off nicely for me and I was looking forward to next year's adventures, joys and mishaps.

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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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My New Garden : Progress 12 - Jan 2010

 

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“Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” 

In 2010, the new year kicked off well - we had a tremendous amount of rain for about 2 or 3 months and everything grew like wildfire. The sword ferns below needed to be thinned out they were so rife - luckily they are easily transplanted to some other empty corner.

The indigenous grass in between the Celtis africana and the Acacias offered lovely cover for the tortoise and for Molly, my resident Mole snake. 

The Hen & chickens grew so prolifically, it seemed to be pushing the log ahead of it! 

The new erigerons I planted spread nicely and soon covered this empty area. 

The fat, open florettes of these Echeverias attest to the great amount of rain we had.  

Gardening in the heat of January in South Africa can be quite a challenge. Hot temperatures and the baking sun soon dries out the soil and I use plenty of mulch and straw to cover the ground in between and around plants. It doesn't make for the greatest look, but is absolutely crucial if we do not get plenty of rain.

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Blissful Chooks closing down

Hedgie's Nature Journal

I'm removing Blissful Chooks from this blog and all the posts that were here and future ones about my chickens are moving to my Nature Journal, where I feel they will fit in perfectly. But I'll still be blogging about my girls, so I do hope you will be visiting me there and keep up with my chooks and their escapades as well as all the other wonders of nature.

I started this blog in 2009 purely as a record-keeping exercise for myself for the progress on my new garden when we moved here in 2004 and which I'm not sure if anybody finds it particularly interesting! smile! and I will probably continue with that for a while. So if you are a chook- and nature-lover, I'd love to see you over at Hedgie.

Bye bye and see ya at Hedgie!

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My New Garden: Progress 11 - Oct to Dec 2009

Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets.
To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.
- Aldo Leopold

2009 is coming to an end, and so soon will summer. We still have 3 or 4 months of blissful sunshine and birds frolicking in the garden to enjoy and I always revel in the thought of Autumn with its beautiful colours and then Winter with it's stark contrasts of bare branches and blue skies.

But for the moment my garden is at its peak and the Silky thread grass below will soon start releasing its thousands and thousands of salt-and-pepper-like seeds to the surrounding soil, ready to be transplanted as soon as they get big enough.

My little place in the African soil is providing me with endless hours of pleasure, not only gardening, but watching the daily animal life going on between the plants and it is more and more becoming home to a great variety of animals, insects, reptiles and bird life.

Everything and everybody is welcome here - the termites, Mollie, the resident Mole snake, Mrs. Brown, the resident Brown House Snake, Rinkhals and Adders (only for passing through, otherwise they are relocated to the Blue gum bush across the road!), the resident Black Velvet spider (read more about Mrs. Black HERE), the frogs and the lizards, who often make their homes in our shoes in the house, the Scorpions, who are encouraged to stay outside!, Solly's chickens, the snails, which the Thrushes enjoy immensely, even the rats (the reason Mollie and Mrs. Brown are here).

Our term here on Mother Earth is short compared the insects and animals that have inhabited her for millions of years - doesn't it make sense to enjoy their presence and co-habit this planet with joy and peace?


October 2009 - Silky thread grass (Nassella tenuissima) also known as Mexican feather grass


The Kiss of Sun -
- for pardon -
the Song of the Birds -
- for Mirth -
One is Nearer God's Heart in a Garden
than Anywhere Else on Earth.


Nov 2009 - Sword Ferns at the base of the Acacia karroo and a bird bath, favourite spot of the Fiscal Shrike for her early morning bathing sessions.


Nov 2009 - The Echeveria planted in an old piece of concrete is just starting to flower


November 2009 - The Phormiums made a spectacular show this year


November 2009 - the indigenous trees I planted about 5 years ago now reaching heights of over 8 meters. On the left of the picture is the Acacia karroo with its spectacular thorns and home to all the weavers' nests, in the centre are a couple of Black Karees (Rhus lancea), which attract a vast array of birds and butterflies, and on the right a White Karee (Rhus viminalis). On the left right at the back, the White Stinkwoods (Celtis africana) provide shade in summer and sun for the Cycad in the winter.


I did have a set-back though - termites (which I said were welcome!) attacked my Restio grasses and this is all that is left over! I sat watching these hard-working little creatures for almost an hour as they steadily chomped off the stalks at the bottom, then cutting each stalk up into 2" long pieces and carrying them down their holes.

The remedy? I'm too scared to use termite poison, and I don't really want to kill the little fellas off, so I poured some diesel around the base of each plant, hoping this would encourage them to leave the area and move to somewhere on the other side of my garden wall.


December 2009 - The Restios did start recovering and the termites seem to be gone.


New Restio growth


The termites DID move! They are now in an old log next to the garden path across the way from the Restios.


December 2009 - Progress on the new Rain Garden : Haven't done much in the rain garden yet, but the Echeverias I planted have taken well and a stray Marigold decided to make it's home among them.



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