Tag: trees

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

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Corner Bed make-over plan

Post author By Christine
Post date March 4, 2011
16 Comments on Corner Bed make-over plan

Hi Barbie – When you were here on Tuesday I told you my ideas about the make-over for that corner bed next to the entrance. (The one I used to like and now really dislike). When the rest of my garden was a complete mess, this one had something nice about it (though when I look at it now I’m not really sure what it was I liked). I can’t find any photos of it before the tree was this big, it probably looked better then. Anyway, as we both agreed, the tree actually had to go. It made that whole area very dark, was not attractive and the area was infested with slugs and snails. Last year when the tree was smaller, at least the lilies and tulbaghia flowered and it looked quite nice(ish), but this year the deep shade and mess it was causing made everything so dark in there that nothing was happy anymore. The lilies never flowered, the Tulbaghia were falling over and not flowering, none of the annuals I planted in there grew … no amount of TLC was making any difference and to top it all, the tree made an incredible mess. Everywhere.

So … regretably, this tree finally had to go and on Thursday the deed was done – and I didn’t cry this time :).

Here are the pics of before and after. We’ve kept the Star Jasmine growing on the trellises, I added the bird bath which was intended for the back garden (not sure if it will stay here though), left the Tulbaghia (not sure about those either) and moved all the shade plants to the back where they filled in some gaps. Here are the “before” and “after” pics (click to enlarge).

[one_half]Before: Thursday with the tree[/one_half]

[one_half_last]After: Today without the tree[/one_half_last]

I would love to make this a gorgeous, flowering garden and as it gets lots of sun now I think I may have many options. I’ll need to do lots of reasearch and planning before I can go shopping for plants though … I want to get this right as it will be my very first “garden design” project I do all by myself. The only thing I don’t want to change is the Star Jasmine creepers – I love those and now that they get plenty of light I think they will fill the walls beautifully.

For this weekend my plan is to add compost to the soil, clean up the area, get rid of dead leaves etc. and start planning … Any suggestions and advice will be MOST welcome!

Have a happy weekend and don’t work too hard.
xxx

Tags lilies, make-over, star jasmine, trees

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Trees

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?

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A closer view

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Happy gardening
xxx

Tags coprosma, hibiscus, pepper tree, trees, willow tree

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Trees

Sweetgum Tree

I 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)

Tags american seetgum, liquid amber, Liquidambar styraciflua, sweetgum, trees

Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Trees

Hibiscus

I 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.

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Happy gardening!
xxx

Tags hibiscus, shrubs, trees