The succulent grows in symmetry

The succulent grows in symmetry,

Budding as a flower,

Reaching for moisture,

And sunlight every hour,

She waits in peace for loving,

Someone to grow beside,

Hopeful in the waiting,

With no shade to hide behind,

But then, a plant is placed by her,

A quiet friend to greet,

So, now they'll grow in harmony,

Until their purpose is complete.

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Reasons Succulents Are The Best Plants Ever!

They are low maintenance

they come in all kinds of colours

They're fat and happy

They like hanging out!

They can live in teacups or anywhere else

they regularly have babies

You can use their cuttings to make more succulents

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One for Monday

koi swim in the pond
riot of colour swirling
a day in the garden

A week of gardening ideas

It's Spring! and time for cleaning out, re-organising, re-vamping and generally just getting inspired! Many of my succulents are now starting to outgrow their pots and the time has come for me to start a new succulent garden (if I can find a sunny enough spot!), so I scoured the internet for some ideas.

Pic from Palmbob

My Echeveria harmsii have been growing beautifully in their respective pots and getting a bit pot-bound, so this seems like a lovely idea to put them in the garden - I can already see them thriving and spreading!

Pic from internet

Or perhaps some of them can go into bigger, more exciting pots.

Pic from a magazine

A re-vamp of my garden path or a new path, surrounded by succulents, is also in order!

Pic from internet

A nice idea for transplanting my Aloe cooperi (Grass Aloe) amongst some rocks (the pic is Aloe verecunda)

Pic from internet

I've got some Echinopsis cacti in the garden that are not looking too well after the winter (they don't like frost) so I'll get a nice pot for them where I can keep them on the patio and tend to them until they're in perfect condition again.

Pic from internet

A sunny, north-facing wall will be ideal to display some of my bigger specimens.

Pic from internet

Echeverias planted en masse always look good!

Pic from Pinterest

A lovely idea for displaying some Echeverias and I DO have a chair similar to this!

Pic from a magazine

My little corner similar to this has succumbed to my girls' constant scratching, so time to transplant the Echeverias and add new pebbles

Pic from Pinterest

This seemed like a lovely idea for against a sunny wall, until I started worrying about all the work of maintaining and watering them!

Pic from the internet

A beautifully laid out succulent garden! Something to strive for! (Image Willem Van Greunen in 'MinWater' group on FaceBook)

Pic from Pinterest

I just love palettes! A beautiful idea for a lounge or dining room, except I haven't got any big windows like this...

The Aloe Farm's display on their side-walk (you'll find them on FaceBook)

I apologise that I don't have links for all the images, but I forgot to copy it and can't find any of them now! So if you find your picture here, please feel free to contact me! Smile!

So, armed with lots of inspiration, there's no excuse for my garden not looking beautiful this summer!

In a garden one is making memories

Probably most of us have been in a garden on a particular day and time and felt a rush of well-being – of joy, being recharged, uplifted, a sense of healing, being in tune with the infinite. Gardens can clear away the fog of the noisy, fast, techno world, and the mindless focus on the clutter of trivia. Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.
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Gardening is an instrument of grace. In a garden one is not growing rare plants and trees… one is making memories… Gardening is one thing, maybe even the only thing, that brings people from all over this world, together. Gardening teaches us compassion – just walk past the ‘nearly’ dead tree every day, pat it on the bark and whisper, “just hold on for one more year”. It really does still serve a purpose – little raptors like the Fiscal Shrike loves the vantage point the dead branches give her and many birds will bask in the early morning warmth of the sun on a cold winter’s morning in the very top branches.

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Consider what you bring to the partnership and what the rest of nature brings. Gardening as a partner with the rest of nature means we have to let go of control to allow the garden to do its magic. When we allow ourselves to see the garden more in its own terms, to reach beyond ourselves to the garden, then we become more one with it, and no longer standing outside and above.

A soul garden is one where the forces of nature are more powerfully evident than our own power. This is honoured and expressed through plants that regenerate, and are thereby not as dependent on humans for their existence. These are often labelled as weeds. There is a dance between the power of the weed and us. Allowing weeds to grow in your garden is not just a new fashion, which calls for a wild patch alongside tame ones; wildness is necessary within a garden, it’s a connection between nature and ourselves.

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Spring is in the air! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪♪ in every sight and every sound!

Finally the garden is waking up! The first signs that winter was at an end, were the Clivias, followed by just about all the succulents, each one revelling in the fact that it is spring!

Pleiospilos nelli - flowering for the first time since I got it in February 2015

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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!