Wildflower Wednesday, South Africa in January

I started last Christmas, to record what is blooming in my garden each month. Not an exhaustive record. More a strolling around the garden, what catches my eye. As a garden resolution for this year, I’ll join Gail at Clay and Limestone for her Wildflower Wednesday, and this year I will only record indigenous/South African flowers. (Leaving the roses and other exotics to shine on my mid-month garden walk).   

This January has been perhaps not as hot as usual, but it is as dry as usual. The level in the town dam is sinking to muddy summer water.  The garden shows itself in summer’s drab greens and browns. I need to take Town Mouse’s advice and cut back perennials and shrubs hard this autumn, so we will get fresh green.

Cyperus and bulrush

Fruit of the Mediterranean

Checking where, which site, my blog visitors came from, I fell over gimcw??? Gardening in mediterranean climates worldwide. They have added me to the gimcw list of blogs. One of my earliest comments was from a Spaniard – ho ho ho a Mediterranean garden way down South at the bottom of Africa! So yes, thank you, for a lower-case-mediterranean!

For years, ever since it was just an idea, I have wanted to visit the Eden Project in Cornwall. Was fascinating to see mediterranean plants from around the world gathered together, where I could see the actual growing plants. Not just a dry list of names, nor even frozen pictures. There I learnt that my lemon verbena comes from South America. Mexican born Fer in Japan (currently hosting a blog carnival) has promised to find us some good South and Central American garden blogs. Company for our lemon verbena, granadilla (South American, that's why I can't spell it) and guava.

A sparrow and weaver sharing our figs

Sunbirds, malachite and collared

We have planted Melianthus in our new False Bay garden. Waiting for the sunbirds to find it.

Return to October November last year. There were young sunbirds. We have two obvious sorts. The large green ones are the malachite sunbirds. Striking for two reasons. First they are twice as big, 24 cm, as their smaller 12-14 cm cousins. Then they go for the shimmering malachite green all over.

Malachite sunbird

January garden walk 2011

The last blog walk was in November. Everything is, either brown dying dead, or taking over and needs hacking back, and we are all wilted and thirsty waiting for autumn. But the joy of a blog is that I can use the camera to see the garden thru other eyes. If you would walk with me thru our garden today, this is what you would see. The really messy bits you can fill in for yourself.

Pride of India and olive trees