Ice and sunshine

O sweet spontaneous

earth how often have

the

doting

          fingers of

purient philosophers pinched

and

poked

thee,

has the naughty thumb

of science prodded

thy

      beauty.

how

often have religions taken

thee upon their scraggy knees

squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive

gods

        (but

true

to the incomparable

couch of death thy

rhythmic

lover

          thou answerest

them only with

                        spring)

e.e. cummings

The beautiful sharp contrast of ice and sunshine – an early-morning shot of an icy winter’s morning in my garden.

This Aloe ferox just keeps on delivering delight after delight every winter, providing much-needed sustenance of her sweet nectar to Sunbirds and insects and also making splashes of bright colour in an otherwise drab landscape.

This hardy succulent is indigenous to South Africa.

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Echinopsis cactus

Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Tribe: Trichocereeae
Genus: Echinopsis

Echinopsis grows pretty much anywhere. Here in South Africa they can tolerate summer temperatures of 30°C or greater, which is hot enough to spur growth of both Echinopsis pups and their amazing flowers. They also tolerate cold temperatures well during winter months. However, I bring my potted ones inside during hard freezes or their water-filled bodies will freeze as well.

Compared to most cacti, Echinopsis bloom fast and furious. They typically begin blooming in spring. Most blooms only last one or two days and they frequently open at night. But it’s common to have several buds on one plant developing at different rates; so a single plant can be in bloom for several weeks.

As a general rule, the smaller the diameter of the blooms a Echinopsis species produces, the more blooms the plant produces. Species that produce monster blooms (some over 6” in diameter) tend to have fewer blooms as so much plant energy goes into producing each one.

Echinopsis generally begin to produce flowers when they are two or three years old.

Echinopsis is a large genus of cacti native to South America, sometimes known as hedgehog cactus, sea-urchin cactus or Easter lily cactus. One small species, E. chamaecereus, is known as the peanut cactus. The 128 species range from large and treelike types to small globose cacti.

Echinopsis are greatly hybridised, but the species I have in my garden do well throughout summer and winter, always bearing huge, beautiful pink blooms in spring.

 Echinopsis flowering next to my Golden Barrel cactus

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A melt-down and a broken heart

I've had a melt-down. And I've got a broken heart. And so have my girls.

First, the melt-down. My girls have absolutely ruined my garden! In about two years they've reduced it to a barren landscape with all but a few of the hardiest plants gone. GONE! My prized Echeverias, which I started with just a few plants given to me by my dad shortly before he passed away in 1990, and which had grown into beautiful specimens which I had in various parts of the garden, are all but annihilated.

The same area as above before the girls arrived.

I've managed to rescue a few of my Echeverias and planted them in a basket and placed them in my bathroom court-yard garden. Hopefully they will recover to their previous glory.

Where there used to be a thick carpet of ground covers, now there's only dead leaves and a big mess. Not that Missy minds, she's quite happy to relax there with Artemis close-by, blissfully unaware of my melt-down.

Kiep takes time out on the rock just behind Missy.

Now for the broken heart part. I'm broken-hearted because I've banned the girls from the garden. Locked up in the chicken run. No more chickens happily doing what chickens do, scratching and foraging in the garden. Having gorgeous sand baths, chasing after grasshoppers and other bugs. One thing I must say, my garden is totally bug-free - no cut-worm, no fruit beetles, no plant lice. In fact, no anything. But I'm not so sure that's entirely a good thing either. I haven't seen a lady bug or a praying mantis for absolute ages. My lizard and frog population has also suffered tremendously. NOTHING is safe from these bug-devouring lovelies!

"Why, oh WHY can't we come out?!" In stead of scouring the grass for insects, the girls would spend hours at the gait, waiting for me to open up.

ChiChi and Snookums, who grew up in my studio, are totally puzzled with this new development. They've never been locked up and cannot understand what's going on.

A couple of months ago, I did start some landscaping inside the run and I presume that, shortly, there will also be nothing left of this.

Now, as I see the matter, I have three or four choices. One is that the girls stay locked up in the run forever. FOREVER! Or I can reduce the population and only keep three or four (that's not likely to happen!). Another option is that I adapt the garden to suit the girls - no beautiful, colourful borders, no tender Echeverias and give up my love for insects and all the other garden visitors.

Hmmmmmm... Decisions, decisions....

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Weeping Anthericum (Chlorophytum saundersiae)

Afrikaans : Watergras

Wow! We've experienced the first REAL cold of the season, last night temperatures dropped to 3℃ and this morning the lawn was absolutely white, covered in frost. I feel like covering my garden in one huge frost cover to save the plants!

But here's the thing. Have you ever planted Weeping Anthericum (Chlorophytum saundersiae)? This lovely, but unpretentious, plant flowers as it gets colder and colder. The Weeping Anthirucum is a graceful grass-like plant with mases of starry white flowers on slender stalks above arching green leaves. The flowers are very recognisable as belonging to the Hen & Chicken family although without the little 'chickens' this genus is so famous for. It is native to the Eastern Cape of South Africa, occurring naturally on forest floors and grasslands. Very easily grown, coping with both sun and shade, dry and damp conditions and is also frost-hardy. this versatility has made it very popular as both garden plant and for mass landscapings.

This plant grows about 40cm high with a spread of 25cm and is a very well-behaved plant, needing little in the way of maintenance. It tends to look a bit untidy towards the end of winter so cut it back and it will soon sprout new green leaves. It seeds itself very easily and the bright green leaves of newly-seeded plants will often be found all over the garden. that's not a problem, simply lift and re-plant where you want them, or bag them and give them to friends! It also grows very easily from seed you can harvest and will flower within a year of being planted.

The Nasturtiums are also still flowering, so even in these coldest of days there's some beauty in the garden and something to be thankful for!

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A list of things for gardeners to do in the real world

It's cold outside, the garden is resting and I'm waiting for the aloes to flower. In the meantime, here is some sound advice.

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Aloe ferox - a healing wonder

Aloe ferox (also known as Bitter Aloe) is a plant indigenous to one province in South Africa, and nowhere else on earth! There are over 100 species of aloe in South Africa, but Aloe ferox is the one that had been used by the indigenous people long before the arrival of Europeans to what is now the Cape Province.

Unlike most aloe vera products, aloe ferox never has to be filtered and thus retains all the natural present active ingredients. The bitter aloe is most famous for its medicinal qualities. In parts of South Africa, the bitter yellow juice found just below the skin has been harvested as a renewable resource for two hundred years. The hard, black, resinous product is known as Cape aloes or aloe lump and is used mainly for its laxative properties but is also taken for arthritis.“Schwedenbitters” which is found in many pharmacies, contains bitter aloe.

The gel-like flesh from the inside of the leaves is used in cosmetic products and is reported to have wound healing properties. Interestingly Aloe ferox, along with Aloe broomii, is depicted in a rock painting which was painted over 250 years ago.

• Aloe ferox - is a pure and natural healer 
• Aloe ferox - is herbal 
• Aloe ferox - is non-toxic and has no undesirable side effects 
• Aloe ferox - is renown for it's cleansing properties 
• Aloe ferox - is a natural detoxing agent 
• Aloe ferox - has more vitamins, minerals, amino acids and polysaccharides than aloe vera 
• Aloe ferox- is traditionally use to stimulate cell renewal 
• Aloe ferox - is better naturally 

(This info from Marvelous Aloe ferox)

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Autumn respite

The days are cooler, some actually cold and gardening has almost come to a stand-still, consisting mostly of clearing leaves, neatening borders and fixing up messes made by the chickens. The Marigolds are all but gone with the exception of a few new seedlings which are not going to make it as the days get colder. Our unusual autumn rains have definitely confused the issue as stacks of Nasturtium seedlings have also appeared - these might just survive the winter, I often have Nasturtiums flowering right through the year. But my garden birds are enjoying the  cooler days and spend a lot of time at the bird feeders and bird baths. During winter I always step up the amount of feeding as seeds and grubs get fewer and fewer.

Marigold seedlings intent on facing the wrath of winter

Two metal birds standing watch over the newly-planted Kniphofia (Red Hot Pokers)

My Halleria lucida (Tree Fuchsia) recovered nicely from last winter's frost, but will soon be leafless again

My efforts at starting a compost heap has been a total failure. I followed all the guide lines and it grew bigger and bigger, turning into a huge pile of leaves and other necessary materials and no sign of the 'black gold' I was trying to cultivate! The only good that came out of it is that the chickens had a great time scratching it about! Oh my. So this week the whole heap will be spread around the garden as a mulch, hopefully protecting many of the plants' feet against the impending cold.

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