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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 20

Today I am grateful for all the colour in my garden. Not just the pretty pinks, reds, blues and violets of the flowers but also the varying shades of green, blue and silver I find in the foliage of plants. I love all the hues, tints and shades produced at different times of day and the way certain flowers and plants change colour at different stages of growth. And talking of colour, the colour provided by butterflies and birds … for these too I am grateful!

Ornithogalum

Photo: Ornithogalum – I grew these delightful flowers from bulbs this year. Planted in April a sunny spot in the Rose bed, they came up strong and provided a fabulous display of full open blooms for four weeks. As I was cleaning up the bed I then cut them and brought them indoors where they have continued to bloom for another two weeks. Easy, pest free, a delight to grow.

Ornithogalum: Ornithogalum is a genus of perennial plants mostly native to southern Europe and southern Africa belonging to the family Hyacinthaceae. Growing from a bulb, it has grass-like basal leaves and a slender stalk, up to 30 cm tall, bearing clusters of star-shaped white flowers striped with green.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 19

Today I am grateful for Creepers! Creepers are such versatile plants that we use to cover unattractive walls and spaces and for vertical interest. I love watching the Star Jasmine in my garden as it fills the wallss and emits its heady perfume. I enjoy the challenge of getting my two small Clematis plants to grow and I love watching the Pandoea jasminoides (Bouwer vine) slowly fill up the trellises around the pool. My newest creepers are Jasminum polyanthum – the rate at which these creepers are growing up their trellises is quite remarkable. For these and all the other creepers in my garden, I am grateful.

Pandorea jasminoides "Charisma"

Photo: Pandorea jasminoides “Charisma” -I love these creepers that are planted against the wall around our swimming pool. They are growing at a steady rate (not very fast) and up until now I’ve mostly enjoyed the variegated foliage as they have not flowered profusely. I am looking forward to seeing them in full flower which I’m hoping will happen soon – so far this season we already have more flowers on them than in previous years.

Pandorea jasminoides “Charisma” – Evergreen twining branches hold glossy bright green leaves with cream edging creating a perfect background for the flowers. Soft pink trumpet-shaped blooms have rosy purple throats for a lovely effect. Grow on a trellis to cover walls or fences.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 18

Today I am grateful for my Gardening Companions! My beloved pets are so sweet when I am in the garden. Dexter needs to be involved in whatever I am doing, digging, sniffing, and following me from one task to the next. Sherrie likes to observe from a sunny spot and sweet little Hercules loves it when the dogs are locked up inside and he gets to spend time with me, alone, in the garden. He rolls around in the grass, sniffs at all the plants and flowers, brushes up against them and “talks” to me in “cat”, seemingly approving (and sometimes not). Gardening would be much less fun without my delightful companions, and for that I am grateful!

Azalea

Photo: Azaleas – I have plenty of Azaleas in my garden, all of them this bright pink / cerise colour. I don’t enjoy the plant much during the summer months as it can look a bit tired, even dull, but when summer ends and Autumn rolls on and the Azalea shrubs sprout new growth they look fantastic. And the real WOW moments start when they start to bloom and continue to do so for what feels like months, from winter through to end Spring the garden is full of splashes of these blooms.They are ideal shrubs for my garden because they prefer a shaded environment and do very well under all my trees.

Azaleas: Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera (deciduous) and Tsutsuji (evergreen). Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks. Shade tolerant, they prefer living near or under trees. (Azaleas differ from rhododendrons in being generally smaller and having one blossom per stem rather than blossom clusters).

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 17

Today I am grateful for … Change! Yes, really, I said it. I actually fear change, don’t really like it much when things I’m accustomed to are turned around or when life deals us a blow and what we know as ‘normal’ is no longer. “Change”, for me, is daunting at best, shocking at worst – but usually with change comes hope and new possibilities.  The older I get the more readily I embrace change and find it easier to adapt to shifting circumstances. Change brings with it growth and transformation – in life and in the garden. Not all change is intimidating –  (although the freezing temperatures experienced by gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere would intimidate this gardener no end …). The good side of change? With the changing of seasons comes new growth and new opportunities for gardening, new beds to prepare, garden beds to change … For this I am grateful.

Gardenia

Photo: Gardenia – I’m showing Gardenias as my “Flower of the Day” today, because … well these are going to CHANGE!! This is The One and Only decent photograph I’ve ever been able to take of a Gardenia as they have been a huge dissapointment to me. The eight Gardenis shrubs that were planted in my garden three years ago almost put me off gardening altogether. They are fussy, hard work and (in my experience) for minimal return. They were the only plants I took care of pre-2011 (the year I started  gardening”) and they have seriously had everything go wrong with them. Of the eight shrubs I had, five remain – and they are not great. The others fell victim to who-knows-what. I would say they are in the wrong location – except they were planted by a Professional Landscape Designer. You would think they would get it right? No disrespect – some of my favourite people are landscape designers – but I’m guessing this guy didn’t do his homework. So the Gardenias are on borrowed time in my garden… If they don’t flower or do something magical this year then … I’ve had not a single bloom in the last 18 months, and before that, the blooms lasted what seemed like an hour, then fell off. The leaves turn yellow, they get eaten by all sorts of critters and generally they just look poorly. I’ve honestly tried everything with them – except pulling them out – thats next!

Gardenias Jasminoides – (Mine are Gardenia Jasminoides) – Gardenia jasminoides, (common gardenia, cape jasmine or cape jessamine) is a fragrant flowering evergreen tropical plant, a favorite in gardens worldwide. With its shiny green leaves and fragrant white summer flowers, it is widely used in gardens in warm temperate and subtropical climates. It has been in cultivation in China for at least a thousand years, and was introduced to English gardens in the mid 18th century. Many varieties have been bred for horticulture, with low growing, and large- and long flowering forms.

Haha, just found this on Wikipedia: Gardenia jasminoides is generally considered to be somewhat difficult to take care of.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 16

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to grow my own herbs and vegetables. I love being able to pop out into the back garden to grab a handful of coriander or sweet basil, to harvest a few fresh lettuce leaves or to pluck a lovely red chilli off a plant to spice up whatever is cooking on the stove. Freshly picked parsley is tastier than store bought, Thai basil is delicious and mint is great for garnishing cocktails or desserts in summer. It gives me immense satisfaction to watch my herbs and veggies grow – right now I’m getting ready to harvest my first batch of cherry tomatoes – and they are looking hmm hmm goood – for this I am grateful!

Cherry Tomato flowers

Photo – Flowers on the Cherry Tomato plant. I get just as excited about flowers on my veggie plants as I do about ornamental flowers. I think they are beautiful and they are a sign of the harvest to come. The flowers on the Cherry Tomato and the Chilli plants in particular are my favourite “veggie flowers”.

Cherry Tomatoes: A cherry tomato is a small variety of tomato that has been cultivated since at least the early 1800s and thought to have originated in Peru and Northern Chile.  Cherry tomatoes range in size from a thumbtip up to the size of a golf ball, and can range from being spherical to slightly oblong in shape. The more oblong ones often share characteristics with plum tomatoes, and are known as grape tomatoes. The cherry tomato is regarded as a botanical variety of the cultivated berry, Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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30 Day Challenge Christine's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 15

Today I am grateful that gardening has taught me to appreciate other gardens. I used to sail through life without ever glancing at the beautiful gardens in my neighbourhood, without any appreciation for the time and effort put into our beautiful South African Botanical Gardens and without ever stopping to smell the roses or admire the look of a friends garden.

Now I am quite obsessed with looking at other gardens and plants. A simple drive to the shops will have me reminding myself to keep my eyes on the road rather that gawking into other people’s gardens. I love admiring the different types of gardens, the various ways people lay out their gardens and the many different gardening styles. For this new appreciation of gardens, I am grateful.

Sparaxis

Photo – Sparaxis: Another South African native, I planted Sparaxis from bulb in my garden this year. Unfortunately they did not do very well. I don’t think they got nearly enough sun in my garden although I planted them in the sunniest spot I could fine. Win some, lose some, I won’t plant them again as I cannot give them the right environment for them to thrive.

Sparaxis (Harlequin Flower) is a genus in the family Iridaceae with about 13 species endemic to Cape Province, South Africa. All are perennials that grow during the wet winter season, flower in spring and survive underground as dormant corms over summer. Their conspicuous flowers have six tepals, which in most species are equal in size and shape.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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The 30 Day Challenge – Day 14

Today I am grateful for all the critters that frequent my garden. Yes, yes, I know they are not all great to have around, but if it weren’t for the snails, slugs, beetles and aphids (and dare I mention the mole), I think life in the garden would be a whole lot less interesting. And with the bad come the good … earthworms, pranging mantids, geckos, bees and the butterflies, to mention a few. Oh, the lovely butterflies, how I am enjoying them at the moment. We allowed the cabbage we were growing to be consumed by what seemed like a gazillion caterpillars and the reward is hundreds of white butterflies all over the garden! Too gorgeous for words.

So for all the critters that visit my garden, I am truly grateful!

Cleome

Photo – Cleome: I have these growing (against the odds) in my shaded back garden where they currently stand over a metre tall. I planted them believing them to be annuals, early this year, and they have flowered continuosly since I planted them in February, right through summer, autumn and winter and now in spring. According to the literature I’ve read they prefer sun … for me they are thriving in shade. Amazing plant! Wish I had more.

Cleome: Cleome flowers, with many opening at once, grow in airy racemes, or clusters of flowers, six to eight inches in diameter. Cleome flowers come in white, pink, or lavender. They perch atop stems that grow up to six feet high. Cleome grows well in average soil located in full or nearly full sun. It is very drought-tolerant, though it will look and grow better if it is watered well. Space spider flower plants one to three feet apart.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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The 30 Day Challenge – Day 13

Today I am grateful that gardening burns calories! I love that I am burning calories (at the rate of 280 per hour) doing something I really enjoy. My days of jumping around the gym to build up a sweat are long over and as I spend at least 6 to 8 hours a week gardening, I am getting a lot more exercise now than I was a year ago. That I am getting exercise outside in the fresh air and that I no longer need to feel guilty for not going to gym, for that I am grateful!

Bougainvillea

Photo: Bougainvillea: I love Bougainvillea but as they thrive on neglect, they don’t do particularly well in my garden. They are planted in my “Gardenia bed”, and are scrambling up a wall. Only the very tips are now flowering where they are exposed to lots of sun. I’d love it if they flowered more.

Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina (Chubut Province). Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus.  They are thorny, woody vines growing anywhere from 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4-13 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colors associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.

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30 Day Challenge Annuals Barbie's garden Gardening

The 30 Day Challenge – Day 8

I am grateful today for my camera!

I do not know how I would be able to share all that I can without being able to capture the moment. The camera is my third eye and sees things closer and better that I can. It holds the moment suspended in time and the image is available for all to see for ever….

What a brilliant gardening tool to have!

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The 30 Day Challenge – Day 12

Today I am grateful for the fact that my garden has taught me to be environmentally aware. I never used to worry much about the planet or what I was potentially doing to it until I started gardening. The garden has taught me to care about what I put out into the world and what I take from it. I’ve stopped using any chemical pesticides preferring to let nature take its course and if I really need to use anything to get rid of pests I use organic methods. I compost, I use water sparingly, I only use organic fertilisers and natural pest control and I’m coming around to recycling things …

Lavender Dentata

Photo: Lavender dentata – I have Lavender growing around one side of our swimming pool. I love the smell of Lavender and the way it grows with its lovely upright lavender flowers … whats not to like?

Lavandula dentata is a species of lavender, the main species known by the English common name French lavender. It is native to the Mediterranean region. It is commonly grown as an ornamental plant and its essential oil is used in perfumes. This aromatic shrub grows up to nearly a meter in height. The gray-green, linear or lance-shaped leaves have toothed edges and a lightly woolly texture.

About the 30 Day Challenge

Cat of The Whimsical Gardener, has invited Garden Bloggers the world over to join her in the 30 day challenge of posting a photograph and sentiment that you are thankful for – every day for 30 days. Find something you are thankful for every day, for 30 days, can’t be too difficult, can it? See all Barbie’s and my posts filed under “30 Day Challenge“.