11 October, 2010

October, walk in our garden

At the bottom of a long narrow entrance, on the road we have a pair of olive trees. Brick piers. Not Stately Home Lions, cottage lions. We inherited the shocking pink watsonias with their graceful swan necks. But they have never looked this good before. This – is their year. We did plant the golden yellow Arctotis with the trailing silver leaves.

Entrance at the road


We also inherited three Pride of India (from China). A beautiful arch is there, with a crappy view of our neighbour’s aviary. We have planted a Plumbago, which I aim to prune echoing this arch.

Arch and aviary

At the corner of the house and the garage, the garden proper starts. Blooming and lush and green, but the summer heat is waiting in the wings.

to the garden


from the front door

 On our figs, which I forgot to prune in time, the first fruits are swelling steadily but still rock hard.

Basil and fig trees

Elephant’s Eye Light Railway we planted with hundreds of pennyroyal plugs. Hmm. Too much work to try desperately to keep watered. So it has been interesting to see what nature does here. That fine grey bush has seeded itself, and there is another tiny one coming.

Elephant's Eye Light Railway. No trains for a while ....

On the Karoo Koppie there are still vygies in mauve and yellows. The Euphorbia has swung from luminous lime green to an unappetising burnt butter colour. But the brick red Kalanchoe is dancing into the limelight.

Karoo koppie

Our Mediterranean Sun Circle gave us One Orange. There are lots of lemons coming and TINY oranges for the next season’s crop. Most of the cuttings cooked, but the Salvia greggei has grown as tall as the citrus trees.

Lemon at Mediterranean Sun Circle

The pond. Is still losing water briskly. So he is draining it again. Completely. Will be resealed. Properly this time. And in ?? months we will have a pond again. With WATER! In the meantime we are going to get a birdbath next week. The birds need it, now.

Waterlilies in waiting, again

In the ash planters the Veltheimia  has lots of flowers. One solitary orange Clivia but we hope they are now out of their sulk. Flowers on the winter bulbs are shrivelling, and the leaves are slowly following.

Ash planters with Veltheimia

The garden is flourishing despite me. Well, what is missing, is cutting the paths clear.

overgrown path
  
more of overgrown path

This is a good image of our garden. In the foreground trees and a green understory from Mother Nature. Beyond the Dusty Miller hedge, a glimpse of Paradise.

from Plum Creek
  
Paradise. The rose garden. Today it is overcast, so I try the trick of taking pictures in low light.

Paradise our rose garden


Pictures and words by Diana of Elephant's Eye 

14 comments:

  1. Your rose garden is aptly named Paradise. I wish for a garden as lush and as big as yours.

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  2. Dear Diana of EE, How wonderful your garden looks. The paths look beautifully 'overgrown' to me - just the right amount of blowsiness but still with an element of restraint. Your Rose Garden is indeed a triumph and your photograph shows it to be a very romantic area with such pretty colour combinations. I have so much enjoyed walking with you today!

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  3. hello Diana, thanks for showing us around, the gracious swan-neck of the watsonias caught my eye...

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  4. Thank you for the tour of your wonderful garden. Your rose garden really is a glimpse of paradise, and I so admire the railway. This is something I dreamed of doing when my boys were young, though I think I would have enjoyed it as much as they.

    We have two birdbaths, and today many birds have been splashing in them. We had several bluebirds and a pair of carinal sharing the bath at the same time. I am sure birds will enjoy your birdbath too!

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  5. Diana, your garden is so very impressive. Thank you for the tour.

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  6. Everything looks so beautiful to me. I love it -- especially the watsonias. I didn't plant any this year and now you make me regret it.

    I'm looking forward to spring and summer with your lovely garden!

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  7. Good grief Diana! What a tour, stunning planting. Wait till later in the week and you'll see our gardens at the new house - it'll give you a giggle :)

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  8. Thanks for the tour. It's nice to see plants in context.

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  9. Great photos.

    I'd like to invite you to join a garden blog game. The rules are:
    1.Inform who invited you
    2.List 10 things you like to do
    3.Invite another 10 bloggers to do the same.
    I hope you enjoy it.
    Garden Senses

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  10. I apologize. I don't think I included my blog name and URL with my invite to joing the garden blog game. They are:
    Garden Sense at gardensenses.blogspot.com

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  11. Beautiful garden, and different plant. It must be a paradise for insect.

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  12. Thank you for the walk around your garden. I like overgrown paths (unless it is raining) and yours look "laid-back" rather than overgrown :-).
    It would have been exciting to see a train wizzing around the track!

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  13. Diana, I'm finally getting caught up with more than a week's worth of your blog posts. I love all the pinks in your garden at this time of year. I suppose there must be a story about why a plant from China is called "Pride of India;" do you know what the story is? -Jean

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  14. Jean - 'Pride of India, actually comes from China'. No I don't know the story, but I have Kristo Pienaar's book the South African what flower is that? to thank. Lagerstroemia indica, is from China. And L. speciosa says India and China. Don't know which we have.

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Photographs and Copyright

Photographs are from Diana Studer or Jurg Studer.
My Canon PowerShot A490

If I use your images or information, it will be clearly acknowledged with either a link to the website, or details of the book. If you use my images or words, I expect you to acknowledge them in turn.


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