Author: Christine

Dominated by large trees on a medium sized property, my garden is very shaded. With no “full sun” areas I have to plant shade and partial shade loving plants. I love shrubs and flowers including camellias and azaleas but Roses and Irises are my favourite and getting these to thrive is a challenge …

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Christine's garden Trees

Cherry blossom?

Cherry Blossom?

I took this photograph today of the alleyway, just outside my office. I love this space, especially in spring when the tree is covered in tiny white flowers. I have no idea what type of tree it is an am assuming it is some type of cherry blossom because of all the tiny flowers that cover it in spring. In Autumn the leaves go orange and then red, fall off and in winter the tree is bare. It was the perfect time of day to photograph the tree with the sun coming through it at lunch time. I love this tree, its one of my favourites …

Cherry Blossom?

(The tree in the foreground is my monster willow tree).

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Gardening Miscellaneous

My favourite gardening blogs

The Idle Gardener

Our blog was accepted at Blotanical (An online Gardening community) yesterday and so I’ve been spending some time looking at other gardening blogs. What a way to get side-tracked from what I should be doing … but I have a great excuse. It’s mid February in Cape Town and MUCH to hot to do anything constructive in the garden. Seriously, it’s a mission just sitting at my computer and clicking my mouse!

But the point of this blog post is all about sharing some of the great gardening blogs and articles I found that made an impression on me or I thought might be interesting for you too. There are millions of them. But I singled these few out because I liked them the most.

Sweet Bean GardeningSweet Bean Gardening: On this blog I found an article called “Dirt Cheap: Homemade Seed Starter Pots”. I know how into recycling you are and I also remember the conversation we had a few weeks ago about planting from seed. (Background for our readers: Lazy girl me prefers to buy seedlings while Barbie does the whole seed planting thing!). So Barbs, this one is for you: Sweet Bean Garden shows us how to make little “seed pots” from old roilet rolls or from newspaper. They are cheap and easy to make, plus they look kinda cute too. From the Blog: “this year I’m attempting to start my seeds in little homemade pots inside my wintersowing container. Naturally, I was on the search for the frugalist (yup, made up that word) pots possible. Enter the toilet paper roll pot. Talk about the ultimate upcycling! And everybody has these around. (And if you don’t, I don’t even want to know why)” … See the article here: Dirt Cheap: Homemade seed starter pots.

The Idle GardenerThe Idle Gardener: This one appealed to me because of the name … and then the first two articles on the home page caught my eye because they are both topics I’m interested in. The first is “Ten tips on how to take good flower pohotographs”- I need all the help I can get! The second will appeal to most gardeners, “My top ten tops for idle gardeners”. With the current heatwave we’re experiencing here, I was keen to read how I could be even lazier about gardening at the moment. Also some good book reviews on the site. I’m off to buy “Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers by the RHS”tomorrow. I hope they have it at Exclusive Books – I’ve been contemplating buying this book for a while. Now I’m convinced that I need it. Visit this blog at: The Idle Gardener.

Garden Walk, Garden TalkGarden Walk, Garden Talk: I was attracted to this blog because of the fantastic photographs in the post “Acorns to Oaks”. We don’t have snow here in South Africa and I love snow! Whenever I visit my Mom in Germany she begs me to come in the summer but I always go in Winter so that I can enjoy the snow! The photographs in this article had me wishing for snow all over again … and the writing on this blog is outstanding too. Add to that the fact that I plan to visit New York in the not too distant future … and so I had to bookmark it! About this blog: “This blog is created to celebrate the beauty and creativity found while gardening in Niagara Falls, New York. I love to paint and draw; design and create; and pass along tips and ideas that may inspire. I am highly trained in my field as a Master Gardener and architect and love my work each and every day“. A passion for beautiful gardens shines through on this blog. Visit it at: Garden Walk, Garden Talk.

Northern Shade GardeningNorthern Shade Gardening: This blog had me spend a good two hours reading and exploring and I’ve bookmarked it so that I can find it again when I have some more time to browse. About the blog: “My garden is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, which is in gardening zone 3, where winter temperatures can drop to -40°C (-40°F). It is usually covered in snow for about 5 months of the year, so the growing season is short. Northern Shade Gardening contains information about the types of hardy perennials, shrubs, bulbs and trees that perform well in these cold climate conditions“. The photographs are really good, the articles are very interesting and are of particular interest to me because of the shade gardening. Packed full of info, there is also a section on all the plants planted in Northern Shades’ garden. I love that I am learning about gardening in other parts of the world. Canada is so different to South Africa so its very interesting to me. I will be returning to learn more from this blog. See the blog here: Northern Shade Gardening.

Elephant's EyeElephant’s Eye: A fellow South African, Diana, shares her gardening experiences on her blog, Elephant’s Eye. Diana lives out in Porterville, a quaint town nestled on the slopes of the Olifant’s River Mountains. Situated 140 kilometres from Cape Town it is about a two hour drive from where I live. About the blog: “In the Western Cape’s Swartland. Mediterranean climate, long hot summers, cool wet winters. Natural vegetation on the mountains is fynbos, with the renosterveld on the plains mostly replaced by wheat fields. 1,600 square metres keep Diana Studer gardening, and husband Jurg busy with Ungardening“. I enjoy Diana’s posts because I can relate to her garden tales, her writing is most entertaining and her photographs are beautiful. Visit this blog at: Elephant’s Eye.

That’s all folks!
Happy gardening
xxx

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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Trees

What tree is this?

What tree is this?

What tree is this?I just went and counted all the trees on the property – there are 33! 33 trees on a small to medium sized property … no wonder there is so much shade! It’s a medium sized property (depending on your perspective of course, to me its medium at 800 m²). Considering the house is of fair size, that’s really not a lot of space for 33 trees! But if I’m being completely honest about this, it was all the trees that first attracted me to this house. I love trees. The older, the better. To me, trees are like antiques. Valuable and irreplaceable. Sure you can go to any nursery and buy a tree and plant it. But to have or inherit a tree that has lived and grown for years, has seen generations before you live below it … well that’s priceless and valuable.

And I do love shade too. I love my old Willow tree. I love my Cherry Blossom and the old Pepper Tree in the back. And I love the American Sweetgum … and I hope that by the end of March I’ll be able to rattle off the names of all 33 trees :). For today, that’s all I know for sure. I know that there is a Coprosma (but I don’t know which one it is) and I know one of the newer trees is a Rhus (but I don’t know which type of Rhus it is – there are a few “types”), so there is much to find out and learn about my little forest! What I do know is that they are all different (except for 2 x Hibiscus, which are actually shrubs but they are so old and huge that I allow myself to call them trees) and two others are the “same tree” in the back garden, one in full view and one hidden around a corner.

For todays “daily photo” I photographed this tree. I chose this one because I thought it is quite distinctive and it should be easy for me to identify it from my books … but no luck. I’ve been through all my books and looked around the Internet and I’m still none the wiser. If anybody happens to read this that knows what type of tree this is, please let me know. I need all the “tree-identification” help I can get.

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What tree is this?

What tree is this?[/one_half]

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A closer view

What tree is this?[/one_half_last]

Happy gardening
xxx

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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Trees

Sweetgum Tree

My Sweetgum Tree

My Sweetgum TreeI am on a mission to identify all the trees I have in my garden and on my property. For a novice like me thats not an easy task because … well where do I start? I have taken photos and trawled through books and web sites and just when I think I have one, I see another photo and realise I might be wrong. So I am waiting for my tree-feller guy to come in March to help me with this. This one was easy to identify because of the “fruit” it drops. It’s an American Sweetgum or Liquidambar styraciflua.

The American Sweetgum is a popular ornamental tree which is grown for its intense autumn colors. To me, the tree is beautiful all year round, but I do agree that it is quite spectacular when the leaves change colour in Autumn. It was easy to identify from its combination of five-pointed star-shaped leaves and spiked fruit. I’m forever picking these up off the ground (see the second photograph).

Some Notes about the Sweetgum:
It is a medium-sized to large tree, growing to 20–35 m (exceptionally 41 m) tall, with a trunk up to 2 m diameter. The leaves are palmately lobed, 7–19 cm (rarely to 25 cm) long and broad and with a 6–10 cm petiole, looking somewhat similar to those of some maples. They have five sharply pointed lobes, but are easily distinguished from maples in being glossy and leathery in appearance, and arranged alternately, not in opposite pairs. They are a rich dark green and glossy, and in most cases turn brilliant orange, red, and purple colors in the autumn. Sweetgum grows best in moist, acidic loam or clay soil, and tolerates poor drainage. Chlorosis can develop on alkaline soil, especially where organic matter is low. (from Wikipedia)

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Hibiscus

My hibiscus

My hibiscusI have two hibiscus shrubs (but they are more like trees). Both have obviously been here for many years as they are huge. I love these two shrubs because they are lovely to look at, always healthy and grow so rapidly that we have to keep cutting them back or they would take over completely. I’m a complete rookie at identifying plants and have made a few mistakes so far, but I think I have identified this Hibiscus in my garden correctly. I believe it is a Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, also known as Chinese Hibiscus which I read actually originates from South-East Asia.

The one in these photographs lives in my back garden, right in the far corner inbetween two trees (which I have yet to identify). It requires little attention besides hard pruning once or twice a year, has lovely foliage and produces masses of flowers seemingly all year round. The second one lives in the “back yard”, in a cemented area where it grows out of a hole in the cement between our and our neighbours’ properties. I like it there – it is where our rubbish bins and pool pump live and it transforms this area from being unattractive to a shady, flower filled area. This Hibiscus is also huge and requires hard cutting back at least twice a year or it would grow into the windows of the house. Birds and bees seem to love these two shrubs / trees. I see birds here every day which always makes me happy.

[one_half]My hibiscus[/one_half]

[one_half_last]My hibiscus[/one_half_last]

Happy gardening!
xxx

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Pretty Petunias

Petunias

PetuniasI love colourful annuals. I planted a few at the beginning of summer and most have given me a lot of pleasure. The Dianthus did well (and are still happily blooming) and the Petunias I planted in pots are doing great. In fact, I hardly water them, pay them very little attention and look at them go …

This one (on the left) is purple – they start out a pale blue / purple and then turn dark purple before they wither up and die. I’ve done very little dead-heading and yet they have still spread and grown very bushy, completely taking over the pots they were planted in. Their position is in the one area in the garden that has full sun – on my back patio.

White PetuniasTwo of the pots have white petunias and one has the the purple. Here are the white Petunias on the right. They have completely taken over and are growing up the tree that is behind the pot. I wonder what would happen if I watered them more often or, as all my books suggest, fertilised them every two weeks … I think we would have a mass petunia invasion on my patio.

I love annuals – even though they are short lived and need to be replaced after the season, they fill the garden with something fresh every season. Easy to grow and care for, I think I will always reserve some beds and areas in my garden for annuals.

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Front Garden

Hercules

HerculesI’m enjoying one of the beds in my front garden a lot. To a seasoned gardener I’m sure its nothing special, and I know it needs work in terms of the Gardenias not performing at their best (and my newly planted “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” still underperforming), but I’m loving the little dianthus annuals I planted because they’ve added some colour to the blanks spaces while we wait for the new plants to establish themselves. The Plectranthus madagacariens is absolutely thriving and I have to keep cutting it back so it doesn’t take over completely. The wild iris plants are coming along beautifully.

Hercules loves this spot in the garden too … He likes to sit on the bench and watch me when I’m busy in the front garden. He loves to sniff the plants and is so light of foot that he doesn’t damage anything …  the perfect little garden companion!

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Dianthus and bunny

Dianthus & Bunny[/one_half]

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Gardening companion

Hercules[/one_half_last]

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Bye-bye Lavender

Mildew on Lavender

Mildew on LavenderI have to say farewell to one of the lavender plants – the one I showed you on this post about mildew on lavender. As you can see from this photo I took yesterday the mildew has spread all over the plant and has not improved at all despite the spraying and treatment. In fact it looks a whole lot worse. As the Lavender plants are all planted so close together I am worried about it spreading to the others next to it. So I’m cutting my losses with this one and removing it and have to go get a replacement.

I really tried to save it but obviously I’m still to “brown thumbed” to revive sick plants. Sigh … On a positive note, the onme next to it seems to have recovered completely with no sign of mildew on it at all now.

Have a happy gardening week!

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Gardening in February

Gardening in February

Gardening in FebruaryFebruary in the Cape is always very hot! Its hot in the morning, sweltering by mid afternoon and stays that way until its too dark to do anything constructive in the garden. Temperatures have been know to reach up to 40 C, although the average is in the low to mid thirties. Today is one such day – it is 34 C, no wind or breeze to speak of and it is uncomfortably hot, even in my shady areas. So today I have the time … but very little enthusiasm to spend time digging, weeding or anything garden related that requires “work”.

So I’ve decided that for today to I’ll confine my gardening activities to ” list making”.

According to all my books and magazines I have, in the Western Cape of South Africa we are supposed to be doing the following…

– Start sowing seeds of all sorts of annuals and bi-ennials (not going to do that – I prefer to buy seedlings)
– Bulb planting season starts soon – Start buying bulbs such as anemones and ranunculus and store until March (Yay! Shopping …)
– Cut back Hydrangeas and other shrubs after they have flowered
– Continue feeding the lawn with 3:2:1, once a month (oops, forgot to do that – better do it soon)
– Spray regularly against pests and diseases
– Water well during hot dry weather, especially azaleas and camellias

It seems that is all I am “supposed” to be doing in my garden in February. Then I’m not doing to badly, apart from forgetting to fertilise the lawn, I’m doing all the above.

Here’s my additions:

– The Hadedas destroyed my bed of Impatiens. They trampled them to death and all that’s left is a mess. So I need to go and get more and start all over again. And how can I protect them from the Hadedas?

Happy gardening
xxx

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Nandina pygmaea dwarf Bamboo

Dwarf heavenly bamboo, Japanese sacred bamboo

Dwarf heavenly bamboo, Japanese sacred bambooOne of my favourite plants in my garden is Nandina pygmaea – Dwarf Sacred Bamboo. It is an evergreen shrub, used for its foliage and will apparantly endure diverse growing conditions. It grows well in a container and can be used as a background plant, low hedge, in a shrub border and as a groundcover. It grows in full sun or partial shade (green leaves) preferring moist, but well-drained soil.

The foliage is green with red to purple tones turning bright yellow and red in Autumn. We’ve planted this in various areas in my garden and it is amazing to see the difference in foliage colour, depending on how much sun it gets. In the very shaded areas of the garden it is a lovely light green colour with no “other”  colours whatsoever, and in the sunnier parts of the garden the leaves are turning all sorts of shades of orange to bright red. I’m looking forward to seeing what it does in Autumn …

Notes:
This little plant is a dwarf version of the Nandina domestica and is native To China and Japan, where it is often planted near temples. Nandina will endure diverse growing conditions and grows easily throughout the country, but needs regular watering in dry areas. It is hardy to all but severe frost and will grow +-50 to 60cm tall and +-50cm wide. It will grow in full sun or semi-shade, but the leaf colour is more intense in winter if it is planted in full sun. In very arid regions it is best planted in semi-shade. Heavenly bamboo is semi-evergreen and will drop some leaves in winter. It prefers a light, moist well-drained soil, but will grow in most garden soils. Although it is moderately drought hardy, it responds well to regular watering in summer.