Tag: garden

Love in my garden

[one_half]Love in my garden[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Homemade fence[/one_half_last]

I stood on my deck this morning looking out into the garden and marvelled at all that has been achieved this past year and had 100 ideas of what I still want to do. I always thought that there was an end to what you do in a garden, once you have ‘landscaped it’. This, I have now learnt, is not so. There is continuous change, always new growth and even more new things to try. I have come to understand the way I work in my garden. It comes from love and it comes from trying something new. It starts with an idea. I have the freedom to do as I please – thanks to my non-gardening hubby who is always there to help – when I ask! I build and dig and play and through all this a wonderful place emerges.

[one_half]Wild flowers in my back garden[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Buffy wanting a picture taken[/one_half_last]

My gardening friends always on the ready. Sometimes too enthusiastic but always by my side when I am playing in the garden.

[one_half]New rose buds -with pesky critters to boot[/one_half]

[one_half_last]My fig tree is in bud[/one_half_last]

Everything is starting to bloom – all brand new. Here are my two favourite plants – my roses and my fig tree. You can feel the love! Here are some more new growths.

[one_half]Guara in bloom[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Lavender still a winner[/one_half_last]

[one_half]A brand new corn flower[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Jasmine’s are everywhere[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Planter full of love and bulbs[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Quince tree with new leaves[/one_half_last]

I love spring xx

Happy gardening

Tags buds, flowers, garden, love, new blooms

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Gardening from my window

My apologies that I have been so “quiet” on the blog and also in visiting the blogs of all my gardening friends. The last ten days have been no fun. I’ve been holed up inside with a bad flu, spent a couple of days flat on my back in bed and finally feeling better, yesterday I decided it was time to get my hands dirty again. The weather was great, the sun was shining and there was no wind so I set about getting a few new plants positioned, pulled up a lot of weeds, composted all my plants that are in pots, did some pest control (snails, slugs and aphids!) and did a general clean up of the garden.

The roses were pruned (according to all my books the last week in July is cut off time for rose pruning in the Cape), my battle with the mole continued, plants that have not over-wintered well were cut back, other plants that need it were pinched back and when the sun started to disappear, I made a list of everything that I would do today, Sunday. I was full of enthusiasm for getting down to the actual fun part of gardening, that is the laying out of new beds, composting and preparing the soil and then planting of new plants – and I woke up this morning feeling as grotty as I did a few days ago. So unfortunately it’s back to looking out of my windows and wishing I could be outside …

Apart from feeling grotty and very sorry for myself, there is some pretty in the garden. All the Azaleas are in bloom (I’m almost sure last year they flowered much later than this?) and lots of the new bulbs are showing signs of life.

Here is what I am seeing …

[one_half]Azaleas and new Liliums[/one_half]

[one_half_last]I love the foliage on these plants[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Alliums not so great[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Lots of Tulips coming up[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Hellebore bud … is it a pink?[/one_half]

[one_half_last]The first snow-drops open![/one_half_last]

[one_half]More lovely foliage[/one_half]

[one_half_last]And the ugly – Lots to be done![/one_half_last]

[one_half]There’s work to be done …[/one_half]

[one_half_last]More unfinished business![/one_half_last]

Now I’m going to bundle up warm and spend some time visiting all the gardening blogs to read the posts I’ve missed this past week.

Then I’ll make another of my endless “To Do” lists – top of the list is ‘hope for good weather next weekend’.

Happy gardening
xxx

Tags blooms, garden

Christine's garden Gardening Miscellaneous

Neighbourhood Walk in Cape Town

Post author By Christine
Post date March 14, 2011
14 Comments on Neighbourhood Walk in Cape Town

In response to Les from A Tidewater Gardener “Winter Walk Off Challenge”, here is my “neighbourhood walk” photo essay. The objective is to leave the house and share what can be seen within walking (or biking) distance of your home. Being in the Southern Hemisphere we are at the end of our summer so showing a very different picture to our Northern Hemisphere gardening friends.

Before you join me on my walkabout, let me explain something very briefly – For those who don’t know much about South Africa, crime is an issue here. Even in the suburbs where I live, we all (mostly) live with six-foot walls surrounding our properties topped with electric fences to keep the criminal elements out of our homes. Whilst our neighbourhood is considered very safe and incidents here are few and far between, it is a precaution we all take to protect our private sanctuaries. So my walkabout is not particularly interesting as very few homes allow us a glimpse into their lovely gardens. And the gardens here are wonderful – when we do catch an odd glimpse of them through opening gates and the few whose walls we are able to peek over they are quite magnificent.

So here we leave our front gate and this is the view of the home opposite our house and looking down the street …

A closer view of the trees that were teeming with birds …

Ivy and Dietes Grandiflora on the verge …

I love the Bougainvillea growing in the tree at the bottom of our road …

Turning the corner we see this peeping up above the next six foot wall …

And then someone who is less concerned with crime shows a bit more …

And on the next verge a glorious old tree …

I can’t show you their beautiful gardens but I can show you the wonderful view of “our” mountain we all share …

We walk up the next street to see this …

And then a closer view of the Bougainvillea and Cape Honeysuckle which was full of bird life – we stood and watched the Sugar birds for about ten minutes … they were having a ball in there!

We carry on further up this street to show you the Hibiscus on the next verge …

A sure sign that summer is over – a spent Agapanthus going to seed, a common site on verges and road sides around the Cape at this time of year …

Down one more street because I wanted to show you this one … I think its a lovely street with the Hibiscus that seem to flower all the time

And then around the corner we go back home …

Thank you for joining me on my Neighbourhood Walk! Why not join in – visit A Tidewater Gardener for details about the “Winter Walk Off Challenge”, visit other neighbourhoods around the world and then show us your neighbourhood! But hurry up, it closes on the 19th March, the last day of winter (or summer), depending on which side of the equator you are on 🙂
xxx

Tags garden, neighbourhood, trees, winter walk

Bugs & Pests Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

What critter is this?

This evening I’ve found another creature – it looks like a baby – and newbie-gardener that I am, I have no idea whether to leave it or remove it. Please help! Is it a grasshopper? It doesn’t look like a praying mantis to me, too fat. And I’ve noticed over the last few days that something is “eating” tiny holes in these flowers (sweet williams). I’d appreciate any help in identifying this little guy (total size is +/- 1.2 cm).

Happy gardening
xxx

PS: Yes I know, I need a Macro lens … working on it!

Tags baby, critter, garden, grasshopper, sweet william

Design Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens

Post author By Christine
Post date February 18, 2011
5 Comments on Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens

Water Lily at Stellenbosch Botanical Garden

A dear friend of mine, Wanda of the award-winning South African Eco-directory and blog, Urban Sprout, sent me these photographs she took on a recent visit to the Stellenbosch Botanical Garden. She has very kindly said I may use the photos here on the blog to show our non-South Africa friends this very small but gorgeous garden tucked away in the second oldest town in the Cape. As I was born in Stellenbosch, this picturesque town has a special place in my heart, added to which it is utterly charming, lies surrounded by mountains and is arguably one of the most beautiful towns in South Africa. (In case anyone is interested there is lots more info here: Stellenbosch Attractions).

But the point of this post is not to wax lyrical about the town of my birth, but to share these lovely photographs and some information about the Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens. The Stellenbosch Botanical Garden is the oldest university botanic garden in South Africa. The Garden is beautifully maintained and includes three glass houses (tropical-, succulent- and karoo houses), Lotus lily / Koi fish pond, Japanese Garden, Herb Garden and arboretum. The garden is widely regarded as an open-air laboratory and serves as a centre for training, science, conservation and recreation. For this purpose, rare plants have been imported from all over the world. The garden is small and compact, but time and again visitors are surprised by the atmosphere and the variety of plants and plant products found here.

The Photographs (you can click to enlarge them):

[one_half]Entrance to Stellenbosch Botanical Garden[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Beautiful walkways in the Gardens[/one_half_last]

[one_half]The Water fountain[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Little boys watching the tadpoles[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Water ‘succulents’[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Echinacea and beds[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Shady tables & chairs[/one_half]

[one_half_last]”Coffee shop”[/one_half_last]

Wanda says … “One is immediately transported into a fairyland world of roses, ferns, herbs, medicinal plants, reeds, bamboo, bulbs, trees, shrubs, bromelias, asters, fountains, sculptures, aquatic plants, olives and koi fish. The small garden (only 1.8 hectares) is the oldest university garden in the country and prides itself on being an educational garden, with both indigenous and exotic plants in amongst the specimens at which you can marvel. And it’s a sight for sore eyes.”

So if any of our new friends from Blotanical ever travel to South Africa, you will undoubtedly find yourselves in the Western Cape. A visit to the Cape Winelands is almost mandatory and it would be my privilege to show you the Stellenbosch Botanical Garden. Just let me know!

Tags botanical gardens, garden, south africa, stellenbosch

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Gardening in February

February 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

Tags bulbs, february, garden, impatiens, lists

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Christine’s Garden – as it was

Post author By Christine
Post date January 6, 2011

Where do I start … well, when I bought my house 3 years ago, the existing garden was nice enough – except that it was basically full of overgrown trees that blocked out all the sun and all that would grow (and grow they did!!) was Ivy and ferns and some nasty ground cover. You couldn’t see anything for Ivy, it was everywhere … in fact it was trying to get into the house through the windows. No joke!

Then, one amateur “gardener” (not me) and a puppy later … and the garden was destroyed.

I then had the very dumb idea of allowing someone who claimed to be a horticulturist talk me into redoing our garden. Well … lesson learned – ALWAYS ask for references! And then ask to see their work. And then make 100% sure you like their style and the plants they are proposing to plant. Because … he planted all the wrong things in a garden that got no sun because he never had any trees pruned or topped and he planted shade loving plants in full sun and sun loving plants in shade – one year later and much money down the drain … still no garden. I was really fed up at that stage as I’d spent a lot on the plants.

I then spent about 2 months researching landscape companies and finally found a wonderful girl who not only came highly recommended but I had seen her boards up in some of the most gorgeous gardens in the Southern Suburbs. I got hold of her … and … yes, many many more dollars and 4 months later, I finally have a garden! It is still in its infancy but the plants are HAPPY! (this is Kathrine’s website: http://www.lavenderandthyme.com/)

The first thing Katherine did was insist on getting a tree feller in. She refused to plant a thing unless we got some light into the garden. I’ll admit, I cried the day they “felled” my trees. I love trees and hate disturbing even a single leaf on a tree but the result is that we now see the sun and we have our view of the mountain back! And the plants are growing and thriving. I am loving this new experience of watching the plants grow. And I am itching to buy more plants and grow different things. Katherine insisted on leaving some spaces for me to “get creative” in my garden and to put my own stamp on it so to speak. So now I’ve been reading up about plants, (lots of research) and as I had exhausted the one gardening book I’ve had lying around for years I’ve bought myself a few new ones.

The book I enjoy the most is “Gardening with Keith Kirsten”, the second edition. First of all there is lots of practical advice (which of course one expects from this type of book) and then there is a Plant Directory with details of plants suited to South African gardens. Easy to understand (for a novice like me) it features simple icons showing at a glance what requirements the plants have (sun / shade / water etc. etc). I would have appreciated more plant photographs – there are lots and lots of photos, but my eye is drawn to the photographs and not every plant in the directory has an accommpanying photo. But it is a great book and the one I refer to the most.

So armed with all my newly learnt knowledge about plants I’ve been running back and forth to the nursery getting annuals to fill in some spaces with instant colour and the odd shrub to plant in other spaces.

I’ll be asking Katherine to send me some of the “before” photos she took which I’ll post together with recent photos. Should be fun to “watch the garden grow” in photographs over time.

Photographs – (click to view the enlargements):
Top – Dexter as a puppy in a mass of overgrown plants, three years ago (i.e. November 2007).
Bottom – Dexter again, same day, December 2007. You can see just how overgrown everything was.

Tags books, garden

Gardening Miscellaneous

Setting up a gardening blog

Post author By Christine
Post date January 6, 2011

Setting up a new blog is indeed quite a challenge for me. First you have to decide what you want to do with your blog, then there is the choice of blogging software, then you need a theme (design) and then you need to set it all up and add some blog posts to get it going.

For this blog I chose to use wordpress (only because I know it faily well, but it is still a challenge for a techno-phobe like myself to set it all up, not to forget that I am quite a dinosaur in age compared to those that do this well and quickly!). The installation and set up is all fairly simple, it’s the more intricate details that get to me.

But I have it set up now and hope this will give us many hours of blogging satisfation in the future …

PS: This serves as a test post – we will delete it eventually once we have a few more posts going.

Tags blog, garden

Barbie's garden Christine's garden Gardening

The Gardening Blog begins

Post author By Christine
Post date January 6, 2011

A life-time of friendship is indeed very, very special. Anyone who has one will agree – there is nothing quite like having a very best friend that really knows you through and through, has been witness to all your life’s successes and failures, been with you through the ups and downs and remains … your best friend! I consider myself very fortunate to have such a friend in Barbie.

We’ve been friends since as long as I can remember, but we’ve only recently become “gardeners”. The idea for this blog came to me after a conversation we had on New Years Day (2011). Barbie and I have always had the ability to spend hour upon hour with each other, talking non-stop. We never seem to run out of things to talk about. But back to my inspiration … Barbie told me that after one of our recent marathon “talk sessions”, her hubby Hannes asked her “what do you talk about for so long …” and she realised that we now spend a lot of time discussing our gardens. So the idea for this blog developed from that conversation.

We both live in the Western Cape – I live in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town and Barbie lives in the village of Philadelphia near the Cape West Coast (just before Malmesbury). It’s about a 45 – 50 minute drive from here and as we are both busy with our businesses and families I don’t get to see her garden as often as I would like. We thought this blog would be a great way to share our gardening experiences with each other by uploading photographs and posting our latest “gardening news”. It will be fun to see how our gardens develop and progress over time!

PS: I chose the “sunflowers” photograph for this first post as a symbolic photo – two sunflowers – that’s me and Barbs (I’m the one of the left, she’s on the right, that’s because she’s taller than me!)

Tags blog, garden, sunflowers