Fickle (and no, it’s not a plant!)

Fickle Marijuana plant

I sit here before the world, a very fickle person. Somehow I thought that I would be able to quit having so many blogs (I’ve got 28!), keeping only those important to me and deleting the rest. In stead, I make most “private” every now and then, but just for a while before making it public again, confusing the hell out of Google Analytics! On and off. On and off.

The problem is, I can’t stand to see a “public” blog just lying there, with the last post being a year ago. One of my pet peeves is finding a wonderful blog, only to discover that it has been abandoned. I know that one changes, that one loses interest in a certain topic. That’s life. Life changes constantly and what I was interested in five years ago might not be applicable now anymore. But why don’t people then just delete it? Why don’t I just delete it, especially those that don’t get many hits and don’t seem to interest anybody?

One reason could be that I want to keep the blog URL. Once you delete it, it’s gone forever. Another reason is that I just LOVE designing blog templates. I get great pleasure out of designing and manipulating the html code to see what I can come up with. And once I come up with something I like, I don’t want to let go of it! Another problem is, I have s-o-o-o-o-o-o many interests. Art, nature, gardening, jewelry making, collecting aloes and succulents, books and reading, insects, cooking (only of late), animals and wildlife, birds, my chickens, and thoughts on the Universe as a whole. And I’ve got enough thoughts and experiences for each topic to warrant its own blog. I’ve thought of putting everything on just one blog, but I’ve been told that blog readers are very specific. They have their topics and interests, and only want to read about that. So if you’re a chicken-lover and there are many other posts on all sorts of other random topics, they don’t return to that blog.

Another part of the problem as to why I can’t delete any blogs might also be that, in real life, I’m a hoarder. Don’t get me wrong, not as in those “Hoarders” TV programmes, but as in “collecting” things - feathers, stones, pebbles, pieces of driftwood, shells, notebooks, journals, fountain pens, crystals, pieces of wire and wood (there’s always some building project going on somewhere here on the smallholding, so just in case I need it), even cardboard boxes, in case I need to pack something away.

In the décor of my home I’m quite disciplined - I won’t display too much at one time, rather pack away a few things and bring out something new for a change. So there I’m OK, but my MAC is groaning under the weight of files, images, blogs and other useless information that I’ve collected over the years. A lot of it is necessary, like business and personal files, and as for the rest, it’s time for a clean-up. Fairly easy to do, just a bit time-consuming, but then, the internet is so full of wonderful stuff that needs collecting again!

Thank heavens Blogger allows you 100 free blogs! lol!

Would you like to see all sorts of other random topics on this gardening blog…? Let me have your thoughts, thanks!

.

Sedum rubrotinctum

Sedum rubrotinctum has small, glossy, bead-like leaves that take on a reddish hue in full sun. In a climate with very strong sun this Sedum needs light shade. Leaves tend to drop off the sprawling stems and root to form new plants but stem cuttings can also be taken. The leaves are considered poisonous if ingested and their sap may irritate the skin. Heads of yellow flowers, with reddish sepals in strong light, are produced in the Summer.

Commonly known as the jelly bean plant, or pork and beans, it is a species of Sedum from the Crassulaceae family of plants. It has been classified as a hybrid plant — of Sedum pachyphyllum × Sedum stahlii — named Sedum × rubrotinctum.

A newly-planted stem of S. rubrotinctum

S. rubrotinctum, originating in Mexico, is cultivated as an ornamental plant for planting in gardens and as potted plants. It is grown very easily and tolerates all types of soil except for those that are poorly drained. It grows very well in summer, can take variations in climate, although it is not frost-tolerant. New plants may be grown from leaves (or beans) that drop off or are separated from the stem and laid on the soil.

Water the jelly bean plant more in the spring and summer, but still let it dry out in between waterings. Plant in well-draining potting soil and never let it sit in water. Fertilize in the spring and summer once a month with a cactus and succulent fertilizer. No insect pests or diseases are known to severely attack this plant.

Be careful when touching this plant as it can irritate some people’s skin. Also make sure that no pets or children eat this plant. Jelly bean plant leaves are delicate and can fall off easily, so I havenow got about 6 pots with new plants, all from the fallen jelly beans.

.

Re-use your egg shells

Being the natural "hoarder that I am, I find it very difficult to throw anything away, so I have been using egg shells in various ways throughout the years. I'm also a bit Obsessive Compulsive, I just love it how they feel when I break them in my hands! Apart from the obvious uses over Easter, I scoured the internet and added a few of my own ideas so here are but just a few to inspire you to re-use your egg shells!

Compost for Naturally Fertilized Soil
Eggshells quickly decompose in the compost pile and add valuable calcium and other minerals to the soil in the process.

Non-toxic Pest Control in the Garden
Scatter crushed eggshell around your plants and flowers to help deter plant-eating slugs, snails and cutworms without using eco-unfriendly pesticides.

Splendid Seedling Starters
Fill biodegradable eggshell halves with potting soil instead of using peat pots to start seedlings for the garden. And an egg carton on the windowsill is the perfect way to start a dozen tomato seedlings in shells before transplanting to the garden in the spring.

Eco-friendly Household Abrasive
Shake crushed eggshells and a little soapy water to scour hard-to-clean items like thermoses and vases. Crushed eggshells can also be used as a nontoxic abrasive on pots and pans.

Natural Drain Cleaner
Keep a couple of crushed eggshells in your kitchen sink strainer at all times. They trap additional solids and they gradually break up and help to naturally clean your pipes on their way down the drain.

Indoor gardening
I often use egg shells for little miniature indoor gardens. A few succulents planted in egg shells and placed in a sunny spots around the home brings your garden inside and does wonders for the morale!

Provide birds with a nutrient boost
Crumble the egg shells into small pieces and sprinkle them in the feeder. The calcium-rich shells will act as a natural supplement to help female birds lay strong eggs (which are about 95% calcium) and maintain bone health. I also sprinkle the crushed eggs shells over my chickens' food. Besides the calcium intake, it also provides roughage in their crops.

 And you thought eggs were amazing simply for their protein content!

Farm talk - Surrounded by Karee's

The front entrance of my home, densely framed by two species of Karee’s – Karee viminalis (White Karee) and Karee lancea (black Karee) and various indigenous grasses and aloes.

I’ve had a couple of requests to ‘share’ a bit more about where I live on my little piece of African soil, so I decided to do a short series of my home in Tarlton, South Africa, situated on an 8.5ha smallholding. This is purely for fun! and I will also be including a few posts on the interior of my home. I would just like to mention that, when landscaping my garden about 10 years ago, I took inspiration from Africa, and nature in particular, choosing to plant only indigenous trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers, with the result that I have a rather wild garden with not much colour, as indigenous flowers and shrubs tend to be less spectacular than most exotic plants, which just don’t do well in our climate at all, with very hot and sometimes dry summers and winters that can dish out the coldest of frosts.

I am not ostentatious by nature and prefer the simple and natural things in life. Hope you enjoy and find this series interesting! I know I just LOVE to see other people’s living spaces, be it small or large, simple or ornate, in suburbia or the country, in a basement or a sky-scraper, inland or at the coast.

A garden ornament hanging from a Karee Viminalis (White Karee), and Jacko sitting at the front door 

An old (and now rusty!) paraffin lamp provides some light at night. On the corner of the pathway is a clump of Restio (Cape Reed grass) and right at the back is planted some Zebra Grass (Miscanthus). Grown in India, Australia and Madagascar, South Africa and other warmer countries in Europe. 

The Zebra Grass gets these beautiful white plumes at the onset of winter before dying down. 

One of the many bird baths in my garden. An old log is being cleaned up by some termites (I’ve been chasing them all over the garden by pouring Diesel down their holes and this is the latest spot they’ve surfaced!) 

My vantage point on the patio from where I survey the birds and my garden. A concrete-relief gecko adorns the patio wall. 

Rhamnus prinoides (Dogwood or Shiny Leaf) front right of the pic – (Afrikaans : blinkblaar, hondepishout) – a tall, conspicuous evergreen shrub, or small tree – a root decoction has been used to treat pneumonia, and the leaves used as a liniment for sprains. Parts of the plant are also reputed to have protective powers against lightning and evil spirits. It’s a rather scrambly plant and seems to be taking over this section of the garden. Planted it in the wrong spot ...

My Acacia karroo (Soetdoring) in the foreground – I just LOVE this Acacia’s beautiful thorns and little yellow pom-pom flowers. It also provides shelter and safe nesting spots for the Red Bishop and Masked Weaver (but not for the Lone Ranger! lol!)

 A large metal Gecko adorns the wall of the garages

The chicken coop next to the garages where Artemis and the girls spend their nights. During the day they terrorise my garden!

The lawned driveway leading to the garages

The fenced area of my wildlife pond where Torti, my Leopard Tortoise, used to live. Now I keep it fenced just in case I have another visitor to take care of!

 A vintage metal plant stand on my patio housing some of my succulents

::

I've done the unthinkable!

My 1982 Bonsai spending summer on my patio

Well, I've done the unthinkable! I have planted my Natal Fig bonsai (Ficus natalensis) into the garden. 

I got him as a 3-year old in 1982 and for 33 years I've been tending him, neglecting him, tending him again, pruning him wrong, taking him to an expert to be fixed, pruning him wrong again, putting him outside every spring and carrying him into the house every late-Autumn for the winter. A symptom of the neglect is that he got very big. He has been in the same pot for years without me taking him out and trimming his roots to maintain a reasonable size. Getting heavier and heavier, it became a major job for two men to move him every winter and spring. His trunk is beautiful, thick and gnarled, with aerial roots hanging down the one side, anchoring him more firmly to the ground.
.

The Ficus spending some time in the garden

But as time went by, he started showing real signs of neglect. When I looked at this photo of him which I took last July 2015 (winter) inside my flower room, it was clear to me that he was at the end of his tether and beyond saving. My heart broke. But now I've got this short-coming that I can't kill anything, not even an un-saveable plant, so in September last year (Spring), I chose a protected spot in the garden and plonked him in a well-prepared hole and said to myself, "que se ra, se ra". Deep in my heart I'm suffering because I've got this suspicion that this coming winter is going to kill him, being an Eastern Coastal Belt Forest resident of South Africa.

After a month in the garden, there was already a vast improvement. Most of the branches had already filled up with new leaves and he was looking bright green and much healthier. In the meantime I've read up a bit more about about this tree and it turns out that the versatile Ficus natalensis (also known as "Mutuba" to locals) is wind and drought resistant and tolerates temperatures from -5C – 30+C. It occurs naturally in both moist woodland and dry open areas of the country and is evergreen, which did not seem evident when I had him in the pot, as he lost a lot of his leaves every winter. With a height of 5m-20m and a spread of 4m-8m, I might just have to change my garden when he gets bigger, if he survives our severe Tarlton frost.

My "gardening skills " ego has been dealt a great blow with the "loss" of my Bonsai, as Ficus natalensis is one of the most widely used species by Bonsai enthusiasts. The fat stem and intricately gnarled roots are perfect for achieving a variety of popular Bonsai styles. This species grows ’banyan’ roots naturally which can be showcased as dramatic air-root or root over rock styles. The Natal Fig grows fast and is quite forgiving if incorrect watering methods are applied, making this the ideal choice for the novice enthusiast. So how "novice" am I ........?

.

Echeverias in summer

What can be more wondrous and soothing than the soft patter of rain on a roof? After a terrible few weeks of a horrible heatwave,  we've at last had a lot of rain and my Echeveria imbricata are thankfully  hosting their beautiful bell-like little flowers en masse this summer and are offering plenty of babies, ready for picking and transplanting. E. imbricata is not frost resistant and I have learnt the hard way, almost losing all my plants as we live in a heavy frost area. So I have transplanted all my stock into pots, bringing them indoors during winter.

Native to Mexico and also known as the Mexican Snowball, these beautiful rosette-shaped succulents are summer growers. Once established they can tolerate extended dry periods without watering but will grow stronger if they receive adequate water during their growing season. Free draining, porous soil is essential to prevent root rot.
 
Echeveria are shallow rooted plants and therefore benefit from good levels of organic matter in the soil. Good ventilation is important for minimising pest and disease risks. Generally, the more sun they get the better they will display their colours and shape, but protect them from excessive sun during very hot weather.

The beautifull bell-like flowers of E. imbricata

Echeverias sharing a wooden planter with Aloe zebrina

Camera : Fuji FinePix 2800Zoom
Location : My garden, Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa

.

The last day of the year 2015

The last day of a year that has flown by much too fast. I intended doing so much and can't believe that 365 days weren't enough for me to do what I wanted to do! Amongst others, I wanted to build a rockery for all of my succulents and also on my list was removing some lawn and putting down a brick-pave drive-way (lawn too thirsty), tile the front patio (the wooden decking was rotten and I had to remove it), dig up and transplant a big Aloe ferox that is now in too much shade, plus some Aloes that came up randomly all over the garden in the most unwanted places, empty the wildlife pond and completely re-seal it, it is losing water at an alarming rate, chop down two big trees that died (why.....?), but I know what the procrastination on that was - the birds absolutely love the dead branches to catch some early morning sun, especially in the winter. And the Fiscal Shrike finds it a great vantage point from which to hunt. I also wanted to extend the garden in the chicken run and plant a tree so that the girls can have some shade in the heat of summer. I very rarely let them out of the run these days as they have annihilated my garden, as well as the insect population. I haven't seen a moth or a beetle for months!

But I did get around to buying some Water lilies for my pond - I got two, which were supposed to be pink, and lo and behold! - a yellow flower! But I'm thankful that they took well and that I've got some flowers.

Another thing on my list was to plant lots and lots of Erigeron (E. karvinskianus) - the profusion of small white flowers looks absolutely gorgeous cascading over rocks, they are lovely for softening steps or paths and they absolutely thrive in full sun. A single plant, once established, will form the capital of a huge empire, spreading itself to any nook or cranny where its preference for sun and good drainage can be satisfied. The one above was a small, single little plant just a couple of months ago. A word of warning - I was told that, because of its spreading habit, you can just pull out a few by the roots and plant them, but this way failed miserably for me. I have found that a few fluffy seed-heads, once sown into some loose, damp soil, takes easily and it's not long before the new seedlings appear.

But looking back at the year, I also did manage to accomplish at least half of the tasks on my list - with chickens in the garden, just keeping the garden neat and tidy on a weekly basis is a task in itself.

I hope you have wonderful memories of this past gardening year and that there will be many more in the new year!

.