If You've Got It, Flaunt It.

Sunset Beach - Cape Town

Everlastings

I saw this idea somewhere and for the life of me I can't remember where - Pinterest/blog/magazine? But it stuck and I had just the thing for it. The pot is someone else's left behind and on it's own I just couldn't take to it. But add some beautiful succulents and I'm in lurve. It's the perfect compliment to my sun bleached, weather worn Cape Town deck. So whoever you are - thank you!

Happy holidays everyone 

may the sun follow you 

and the south easter be at your back 

x

Cape Of Opposites

Yesterday & Today

Sunshine & Rain

Winter & Winter

Outside & Inside

What to see & What to do...

My garden comes alive when the sun comes out with this ground cover I stuck in everywhere I found an annoying sandy bald patch and now it's taking over and I love it, it's so happy. The beautiful ball of hand spun wool is also mine - found on a recent trip along the garden route at "Old Nick". A highly recommended stop en-route! (Marti even gave me an impromptu knitting lesson - now if only I can remember...)

Present-A-Cabbage

Every now and then (and it's more now than then) a freshly baked, delightfully fluffy home-baked milktart crosses the road my way, courtesy of the lovely lady who lives across the road from me. How to return the favour? I'm not anyone's idea off a master chef so I turned to my newly grown treasure chest.

Here's how it's done:

Pick one beautiful cabbage head

Cut off the extra leaves

Fold the others over to 'package' the contents

pull it all together with the longest leaf you can find of a Dietes Grandiflora

and hey-presto one freshly packed pressie!

A Time For Everything

Happiness and a new potplant

Every morning I sit on my deck and soak up my garden. Saterday was no different, except that it was a perfect sunny winters morning and I had nowhere to go, so I did a bit of stocktaking.


Whilst my lettuces are going to seed
and the chives are floppy
The coriander is making a last stand
but the English Basil is past it's best
My Thyme and Origanum are maintaining nicely,
the rocket is still rocketing,
and my little tomatoes are growing up a storm.

The bulbs I planted are pushing through,
My Butterfly bushes are slowly saying good buy
but the Ribbon bush is coming out in full swing
and next to my lovely constant lavender
it makes for a beautiful sight.

The fynbos beds are a mixed success
I'm losing my King Protea (again)
But the red Leukadendums are blazing away.
and the Confetti bushes are looking lush and green
I can't wait for the show

The Restios are bouncing back after a radical trim (a little misunderstanding)
The White wild dagga is about to burst at a heady 5 feet
The Rosemary bushes are filling the nasty gaps quite nicely
and I'm waiting for the Agapanthus too join the blue party
The Perennial Basil is making up for it's English cousin
and my little Bay tree is now taller than me.

The Pelargoniums need cutting back
whilst the daisies need to be replaced with new cuttings
All the Sweetpeas have come up
and last but not least the grass is finally actually looking like a lawn
and is actually greener on my side!

My dog is doing his morning rounds
and my cats are curled up in the sunny spots.

All is as is should be and not a bad mornings work if you ask me.

The devil's in my garden!

And I find it irressistable - just look at that wicked colour!

Leucadendron Saglignon (Red Devil)

One of the survivors who made it through the last year of neglect is blazing with delicious colour at the moment. It's autumn in the Cape and the fynbos is looking good! This has to be my favourite time plantwise. The drab browns of a south easter summer are replaced by rich, dusty, green greys and silvers with blazing bits of colour inbetween. Yum.

I'm perfect for a day

Dietes Bicolour

Now what could be better than that. If only I could live up to my garden.

Between a rock & a hard place

A friend of mine who hails from the Karoo, has like me, an obsession with rocks. Her garden reflects this curiosity and passion beautifully.

Not surprisingly this goes hand in hand with a passion for the fauna and flora of this vast area.

The 'Sabi Star' or 'Impala Lily'

When you look at these you can understand why.

New Arrivals

Despite the success of 'The Dead Plant Society' I find myself compelled to spend more time with the living. It's a viscious cycle really.

About a year ago I planted this Wild Dagga. I had to really search to find the white variety as opposed to more readily available orange. Come to think of it I lost one of them to 'The Society'. Now it's started flowering and they are the most velvety soft looking pompoms ever!

My Irises have made it through four seasons and are back in bloom.

And last but not least I've planted some more restios.

Let the games begin!

Veld School

Nature School for those of you not from here, something I grew up with as a kid and I think it's rubbed off on me. Maybe this trail we went on will do the same for our little folk.

With tales of snakes and cattle thieves Trevor and his second in command had them eating out of their hands. According to them these are some of the more interesting and unusual facts about some of our flora.

"Wild Cucumber": Xhosa tradition has it that a snake can replenish it's poison from this fruit only once it has turned red. This article on Page 4 is interesting.

"River Naboom": The name actually means like a tree or after a tree and as you can see it's actually a succulant with a milk sap that's extremely potent.
In Xhosa it's called a twin bush and is planted next a hut with twins in the family.

The San used it to stun fish in river pools.

Cattle thieves rubbed it on the hides of cattle. The hair would fall out and grow back a different colour, making the cattle impossible to identify. Click here for even more.

"Knob Tree": The bark of which is used for loads of things ranging from tooth ache to stomach ailments. But my favourite fact is that the Xhosa name for it is "European Titties"

If you ever find yourdelf in the Trennerys area on the Wild Coast I would highly recommend Trevors Trails. I enjoyed it so much I went back with the kids and they certainly had fun.