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

Sunday our Pride of India (which comes from China) burst into flower, it seems overnight! The lightly espaliered olive trees are growing steadily on this, the shady side. Sadly the four on the sunny side are dwindling.

First corner of the house

Crunch down the gravel driveway to the corner of the house. Thanks to shade from our neighbour’s trees and the giant/Spanish reeds this bit is green and lush. Needs constant nibbling to keep the path to the front door open.

Down the path to the front door

Elephant's Eye Light Railway hasn’t seen a train in ages. Apple Creek has to be kept filled with water for the plants and frogs who are waiting to get their pond back. Making this another exuberant green corner, bulrushes, papyrus and all the happy plants with their roots reaching to the water.

Elephant's Eye Light Railway
with Apple Creek behind

The Karoo Koppie has a few bald patches, but mostly it has achieved a satisfying mix of colours and textures. Pig’s ears and spears, wine-red blue silver and true green, large sculptural and tiny, bordered with burgundy, or lemon and avocado stripes.

Karoo Koppie

Walk alongside the work-in-progress pond, and the trees which were once seedlings in yoghurt bakkies now stand with dignity above call-yourself-a-tree sneers.

Path beside the pond

Paradise (which I just read was enclosed to keep the animals for hunting IN, MINE!) our rose garden has buds coming. Hanging in there until the autumn flush, but this is still a lovely place to sit once the midday sun has passed. Too hot for breakfast.

Paradise, rose garden

We often see a cloudless sky, with one or two marshmallows bowling along just behind our mountain. Which is disappearing steadily behind the trees we planted to shield us from neighbour’s windows and washing lines.

Olifantskop from our verandah

On the garden walk day I try not to zoom in on detail. But I can’t resist.

Plectranthus madagascariensis

By March we can start planting, redoing the beds that don’t work, and there will be roses again.

Pictures and words by Diana of Elephant's Eye
- wildlife gardening in Porterville South Africa   

   

(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink. 

Those are my links)