Gardening at night

Have you ever gardened at night? I mean really AT NIGHT, 3am in the morning? Well, that's what I did this morning. I woke up at 2am and for the life of me couldn't go back to sleep (it happens quite often, I believe it's an "old age" thing. I've always been an early-to-bed early-to-rise person, but it's never been this bad!)

I discovered it was warm and balmy outside when I took my cup of coffee out to the patio. We have quite a few garden lights which stay on at night, and as I sat drinking my coffee, I noticed that one of my Nasturtiums in a pot looked like it had been broken off, so when I finished my coffee, I went and had a look, finding that something had eaten the stalk off, probably some cut worms. I immediately emptied out the pot onto a piece of plastic sheeting I found in the garage and proceeded to search for the culprit.

Image credit 13 Organic Non-toxic Ways to get rid of cutworms

And find him I did! Two of them! They immediately went into a jar that I kept for insects to feed to my chickens and this they were going to love!

I then had to put all the soil back, added a bit of compost and planted a few Nasturtium seeds I still had from last year, waiting to go into the garden this month.

I also noticed that the river pebbles flanking the pathway were full of soil, a mole had surfaced right in the middle of the pebbles! That's always such a nuisance, it means getting rid of the soil and re-packing all the pebbles again. Which is exactly what I did.

I have this mole, or probably a whole mole family, traveling around under my garden, surfacing and leaving their mounds in the most annoying places, like in the middle of my river pebble arrangements. I don't mind in the middle of the lawn, I just level the heaps over the grass, it's the most wonderful top soil that they deliver, ready to use as topping! And to top it all, it is the common Mole Rat (Cryptomys hottentotus), found throughout Africa, that I have here - They are herbivorous, mainly eating geophytes (plants with underground storage organs) and grass rhizomes, in other words, the roots of the plants in my garden!

Mole (Cryptomys hottentotus) Image credit

I don't use any poison or traps to get rid of them, usually I just put the hosepipe down their hole, hoping to make things so wet and unpleasant for them that they would move to the other side of the wall outside the garden. But they must have a maze of tunnels, sometimes the water can run the whole day without it getting full or surfacing anywhere else.

Mole Rat (Cryptomys hottentotus). I apologise for the image quality, but this fellow was hopping mad and wouldn't stand still for one second, looking for a way out of the bucket. I caught him to release him on the other side of the garden wall. 

The Golden Mole, native to Southern Africa (family Chrysochloridae) and one of the ten most endangered mammals in South Africa, which eats termites, insects, earthworms and snails, would be most welcome here!

After all that, it was 5am and time to go inside for another cup of coffee and to sit down and write this post. Hope you all have a perfect day!

 (Photos taken in my garden at 3 am - Camera : Canon EOS 500D. Setting: 'Night Portrait')

.

Summer is back!

Summer is back! and even though winter was extremely mild, and spring seemed to last only two weeks, it’s something to really be grateful for. I’ve missed my usual garden chores, although it didn’t stop completely during winter – just slowed down to the minimum. Now it’s time for watering cans, gloves and hats once more and trying to make sense of what has survived and what didn’t make it. 

It’s also time for relaxing on the patio, sipping a glass of cold water, camera or sketch-book in hand to record the goings-on of all the garden birds. 

The Black-headed Oriole, who was a constant visitor during the winter, has now brought his wife along and I’m hoping they’ll find a nesting spot here instead of across the road in the blue gum bush where I see them heading off to after they’ve had their fill of fruit at the feed table. 

We’ve had our first rains yesterday (14th Sept 2013) and finally the dust has settled and everything is sparkling and fresh. No matter how much you irrigate or stand with the hosepipe watering the garden, after just 2mm of rain everything seems to blossom and smile.

As I live in a summer rainfall area, dust is a major problem during winter. 

I’m a great admirer of minimalistic décor but I also have this problem – I’m a hoarder of note and have collections of “stuff” everywhere, so dusting really does turn into a major job! Every winter I promise myself I’m going to scale down and every summer I find more wonderful things to collect and display! 

A plate filled with a collection of seed pods, wasps' nests, dried oak leaves, antelope dung and a large piece of Rhino dung found on a friend’s farm. 

Summer Light - Thru the Trees 

Summer Light - Spotted Me 

Summer Light - Palest Gold 

Summer Light - Bright and Bold

I Saw Summer Light Descend 

Summer Light, Made Shadows Bend 

Summer Light, On An Emerald Pond 

I Reached Out… It Touched My Palm 

 I Love Summer Light 

- MoonBee Canady 

::

I would like my chooks to see you...

Won't you come into my garden? I would like my chooks to see you... 

If you love having a pristine garden, then don't even consider having free-range chickens. Having chickens in one's garden is a choice to set yourself up for having a less-than-perfect garden and permanently having to fix damaged and up-rooted plants.They spend a lot of time sand-bathing, leaving big holes wherever they can find lovely soft soil. In winter, when there is no grass to graze, many plants in the garden are their choice of greenery.

But my girls are all very special to me, even though they tend to wreak havoc in my garden, and I choose them over perfection in my garden. So won't you come in and meet the girls?

 Missy, sweet and loving

 Artemis - King of the roost

Chi-Chi - beautiful and regal

 ChickyBoo - bright-eyed and intelligent

Mr. Chook - second-in-command

Hettie - skittish and shy

 

Kiep - adorable and loveable

 

Megs - a very special lady

 

Micky - shy and a loner

 

Snooky and Snookums - the terrible twins

::

Arum lilies after the winter

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
- Georgia O’Keeffe

Wit varkoor (Afrikaans); intebe (Xhosa) ihlukwe (Zulu)
Family: Araceae (Arums, Anthurium, Caladium and Philodendron)

What could be more beautiful than a creamy white arum lily – whether in your garden, a pot, or the wild? Arum lilies (Zantedeschia) are native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi and grow well in full sun near water, but prefer a semi-shaded environment when there’s no permanent water nearby.

The faintly scented flowers attract a multitude of crawling insects and bees, which pollinate the flowers in exchange for food, each one in its own way. The white crab spider, for instance, visits the flower to eat the insects. It does not spin webs, but makes good use of its paleness as an effective camouflage in the spathe.

Porcupines are crazy about the large rhizomes and will savagely destroy whole colonies of arum lilies. The good thing is that thanks to this brutal pruning, the plants regenerate fresher than ever with the most amazing flowers. If I had porcupines, it would be worth the massacre!

My Arums look like the porcupines have been at it, but it's only the chickens!

Zantedeschia is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The Zantedeschia species are poisonous due to the presence of calcium oxalate. All parts of the plant are toxic, and produce irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, acute vomiting and diarrhoea. However leaves are sometimes cooked and eaten. Who would believe that these beauties carry a deadly secret?

In the South-West of Western Australia, Z. aethiopica was introduced for horticulture. It has become a widespread and conspicuous weed of watercourses, heath, and wetter pastures. The so-called white calla is derived from Z. aethiopica. All varieties with flowers with shades of yellow, orange, red, purple are mainly derived from Z. albomaculata, Z. pentlandii and Z. rehmanni.

Did you know that the striking arum lily “flower” is actually many tiny flowers arranged in a complex spiral pattern on the central column (spadix)? The tiny flowers are arranged in male and female zones on the spadix. The top 7 cm are male flowers and the lower 1.8 cm are female. If you look through a hand-lens you may see the stringy pollen emerging from the male flowers which consist largely of anthers. The female flowers have an ovary with a short stalk above it, which is the style (where the pollen is received). The spadix is surrounded by the white or coloured spathe. According to Marloth, the whiteness of the spathe is not caused by pigmentation, but is an optical effect produced by numerous airspaces beneath the epidermis.

The common arum is found from the Western Cape through the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and into Limpopo Province in South Africa. It is evergreen or deciduous depending on the habitat and rainfall regime. In the Western Cape it is dormant in summer and in the summer rainfall areas it is dormant in winter. It will remain evergreen in both areas if growing in marshy conditions which remain wet all year around.

Although called the arum lily, it is neither an arum (the genus Arum) nor a lily (genus Lilium). But it is associated with the lily as a symbol of purity and these elegant flowers have graced many bridal bouquets.

 Arum lilies in my garden done in watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

::

As winter fades to spring...

… hangers-on will be forced to let go, 

 making room for new growth 

fresh color, 

 life. 

::

A little corner created in the shade 

It's almost mid-September and the warmer weather has spawned an activity of going through my garden to check on what needs to be done and I was horrified to notice that the chickens had just about annihilated my whole garden - what the winter didn't get, they did! I haven't been totally oblivious of this, it's just that it's been too cold to do much about it. 

The start of a new garden 

First it was the major job of cutting down and/or removing dead stuff and then taking stock of what was left - lots of open space! Many of the plants I removed were those that needed sun and had totally deteriorated because of too much shade in my garden now that all my trees have matured to 10m beauties - it's amazing how things creep up on you without you noticing…

So some new spaces were created in the sun with old favourites. Some crusher stone defines a pathway for easy access, now it's just the waiting until the plants get big and fill the spot.

 After removing Red Hot pokers from a shady patch and not having anything to replace them with, I thought it easier to create a feature for the time being, below, but will have to get to the nursery some time or another! 

A temporary feature in a shady patch It's amazing what a bit of crusher stone and things found will do to help out when you're stuck without any plants… 

Joseph filling up an empty spot with some crusher stone and turning it into a new pathway. 

And of course, no day in the garden is perfect without our feathery friends enjoying a snack! 

Make way, I also need some! 

::

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.

I would just like to mention that, when landscaping my garden about 7 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 (but good!) things in life. Hope you enjoy and find this 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 Tiger Grass (Miscanthus). Grown in India, Australia and Madagascar, South Africa and other warmer countries in Europe, Tiger grass is believed to be the grass that the Bengal tiger uses to clean and maintain its sleek coat. "With the knowledge that the animal kingdom is more in tune with its habitat, Bengal tigers roll around in this grass to sooth wounds and skin irritations, devouring its leaves while waltzing around!" (Don't ask me if that's true, I read it on a Miscanthus site while looking for info on this plant and now can't remember where it was!)

The Tiger 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) on the 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, Masked Weaver and the Sparrows.

And so I often sit and drink tea in the mornings, and come out at dusk to listen as the world tucks itself in for the night.


.