My New Garden: Progress 3 : Sep '05 to Mar '06

Soil . . . scoop up a handful of the magic stuff. Look at it closely. What wonders it holds as it lies there in your palm. Tiny sharp grains of sand, little faggots of wood and leaf fiber, infinitely small round pieces of marble, fragments of shell, specks of black carbon, a section of vertebrae from some minute creature. And mingling

with it all the dust of countless generations of plants and flowers, trees, animals and – yes – our own, age-long forgotten forebears, gardeners of long ago. Can this incredible composition be the common soil?

- Stuart Maddox Masters, The Seasons Through

We're out of the grip of Winter and Spring is in full swing again (September 2005) and the first rains have fallen - the cacti are absolutely jubilant and are all in full flower. The Red Hot Pokers are still in full bloom, much to the glee and enjoyment of the Black Sunbirds. The Echevarias survived very well, they actually like the dry season without any water and really bloomed prolifically.

Aug '05 - Had to clear out a lot of the grasses that did not make it through the winter and also heavily trimmed some of the reed species - big open patches that need filling!

Cactus flower


Cactus flowers


Close-up of cactus flower

June '06 - Red Hot Pokers still in full bloom

Echeverias covered in their stalks with small bell-like flowers

December 05 - have had a lot of rain and the lawn is running riot, desperately in need of a cut!

Jan '06 - My Pachypodium in full bloom

Pachypodium flowers

The garden by candle light in February '06

Started on the pathways and got half-way before we were driven inside by some rain, which has lasted almost a week.

Some huge fungi sprouted next to one area of the pathway and look like fossilised fairy umbrellas - too gorgeous!

circa 1982 Natal Fig bonsai in January 2006 before the Winter hit him.

This winter seems to have been rather severe - left my 1982 Natal Fig bonsai out till June and came out one morning to find all his leaves hanging black and limp. I immediately took him inside and started pampering by loosening the soil a bit and keeping him in a warm place - will wait till all the leaves fall off and hopefully he'll return in Spring. This is the first time in 23 years that he has been hit so severely and losing all his leaves...

Next up-date - April - July 2006

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My New Garden: Progress 1 - Jan - Mar '05

It is apparent that no lifetime is long enough in which to explore the resources of a few square yards of ground.

- Alice M. Coats

After having completed the initial layout and set up of my new garden last year, things are starting to look a bit better now at the beginning of 2005, and with all the holidays being finished and things starting to get back to normal again, the work-in-progress can be continued. Must say, the holidays were a nice break, kept me out of the sun during December and as I loathe wearing a hat, as soon as cooler days start setting in, I'm in the garden like a shot.

JANUARY 2005 -

After a wonderful rainy season, some of the trees are already flowering - the Acacia Karoo delighted with it's fat thorns (a sign of lots of water) and beautiful yellow pom-poms.

In the area where I decided to make an indigenous grass area, all the grasses were also seeding and flowering.

The Indigenous grasses flowering

February 2005 - garden taking shape and pathway actually becoming visible!

February, and everything taking shape very nicely.

The sword ferns enjoying the shade under the White Karees

March 2005 - Grasses at the edge of the pathway, which will soon be beautiful!

Added some old dead logs and more rocks which really started attracting insects and lizards...

A seed from the Black Karee took root next to the log...

Placed some rocks next to the Echevarias...

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My New Garden: Progress 2 : April to Aug '05

"Tread softly!" a signpost in my garden reads: "Your feet are killing me!"

The Garden on a quiet April night

Thank heavens this 2005 Winter seemed extremely mild, because our area, Tarlton, gets severe frost regularly, wiping out anything that's remotely marked as frost-tender, and by beginning-July most of the trees already had blossoms and tiny leaf buds.

The lawn is taking a bit longer and it's amazing that, no matter how much you water, with the first rains, no matter how little, everything springs to life.

The White Karees have done well this summer and are well-prepared for the coming winter.

Even the Euphorbia pulled through

July and mid-Winter - things are looking decidedly dry. the lawn is dry and yellow and didn't even put up a fight against the severe frost we're having.

It's August, spring is looming and the Sword Ferns and Hen & Chickens were almost wiped out completely.

Some of the Acacias look worse for the wear, but tiny green leaves are already sprouting!

I forgot to move My Old Man cactus under-roof, but didn't seem to mind the cold and even seems a couple of centimeters taller, but the frost got the one Coco Splumosa, below.

These little Phormiums are truly wonderful, don't seem to get affected by cold, wind, water or drought. Must actually plant some more of them.

The old peach tree, which I didn't have the heart to remove, was already covered in pink blossoms early in July and now, in August, already has most its leaves.

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My New Garden - Saying Hello - Aug - Dec '04

Saying Hello to the new garden

To dig in one's own earth, with one's own spade,

does life hold anything better?

- Beverly Nichols

Hi, after saying goodbye to my old garden, which I lovingly tended for almost 23 years, it is time to start a new chapter in my gardening history, one which comes a long way from my childhood, when I used to help my dad in his vegetable patch that he kept on the banks of the Vals River in Umtata, Transkei, South Africa.

I remember his rows of beans, neatly on X-posts made of bamboo and string, allowing the beans to climb to their hearts' content and deliver the most luscious green beans I'd ever seen. I was fascinated; the same with the plump, red tomatoes and green peppers, all dangling invitingly. The rows of lettuce, cabbage, potatoes and strawberries were equally fascinating and I would sit for hours helping him de-weed and moving the water pipe for flood irrigation... We used to get home towards dusk with baskets full of veggies, impossible for one family to consume, with the result that the whole neighbourhood had a supply of free vegetables all year long. I didn't understand then why my father never sold the vegetables - it could have been quite a thriving little business - but later in life I realised that his passion for the ground and all things growing went further than any money could ever satisfy.

When we moved up to our new smallholding, all that there was there, besides the old house, was a long concrete drive-way leading through some very neglected peach trees - pity that they had to go, but they were not really conducive to the grand entrance I envisaged for the new house.

August 2004

Removing the old peach trees was the first job that had to be tackled - the concrete driveway was also broken up and removed and then started the serious business of digging up the whole area, composting it well and then leveling it. The area was measured and I then drew a plan to scale of where to put path-ways, the major trees and working out what other plants to buy, keeping in mind that some day the trees will be big and offer a lot of shade. We also found a source of some beautiful rocks, some quite large (I would have liked bigger, but carrying and moving solid rock is always a problem) and I had them delivered to a corner of the garden from where we carted them, one by one, and placed them in strategic groups.















Trying to follow the 'plan' as close as closely as possible, I planted various indigenous trees - White Karee (Rhus Viminalis),
Black Karee (Rhus Lancea)
Various Acacias Ac. Karoo, Ac. Tortillis
Olea (Wild Olive)

Design stage - laid out the first rocks and small plants
















Once the lay-out became a bit more obvious, we added some borders and pathways - I used some plants I had available like Sword Ferns and Echevarias to fill in some spaces between the rocks and put the ferns under the trees where I knew they would have plenty of shade on the hot summer days.















September 2004 - pathway taking shape















I planted my favourite Barrel Cactus which I had up-rooted from the old garden and made sure that he wasn't close to any big trees to give him enough sunlight.















November 2004 - The White and Black Karees taking shape after wonderful rains in September and October - felt like it was specially ordered for me!















It's the end of December and still raining - and the new saplings absolutely love it!


The new lawn is also taking shape and actually had to be mowed! The trees are still supported by some up-rights and it was time to get to the nursery for some serious filler planting.

My list consisted of :
Cape Reed Grass (I love the stripy effect they give),
Zebra Grass (Mescanthus Zebrinus - light green and yellow stripes) - lovely contrast against the Phormiums (Phorum Rubra) and dark logs I had placed in some areas,
Red Hot Pokers (Kniphofia - the Sunbirds love them),
some Hen-and-Chickens,
Buddlaya (for the butterflies)
Erigeron
Kei Apple
African Sage
Condropetulum,
Anthirium
Bullrush, Pontederia and waterlily for the pond
Aloe Marlottii for the full-sun areas

Next month I'll be up-dating on the progress from January 2005 to about March.

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