13 January, 2012

January garden walk 2012


Last January I walked you round our garden, aiming at the wide view for Nell Jean. How large is our garden? The Ungardener’s photo essay, from the roof. We cheat twice, borrowed scenery of trees and the distant mountain, and the longest line in your garden is the diagonal.

Driveway from olives to roses

Pink Pride of India with its bark
Australian brush cherry with its bee
     
Down the gravel driveway past the Australian brush cherry, busy with bees. Pride of India Lagerstroemia, across the pond, crepe myrtle. The sunny olives include some strugglers. Then the curved wall to Pushed out of Paradise and the OTT Perfume Passion rose.

Around the kitchen
Elephant's Eye Light Railway

Apples, figs and plums

Come thru the back gate. Figs, plum, and apples. The inherited fruit trees, which need serious pruning and rescuing from death by Kikuyu (grass runners!) Apple Creek should be cleared once a year. At Elephant’s Eye Light Railway the garden is teaching us. Bronze fennel and hawkweed have seeded themselves happily. Spekboom Portulacaria afra grows with such enthusiasm I spread bits around. Despite the deceased pennyroyal, the impression is still, lush and green.

Karoo Koppie with aloes and succulents

The afternoon sun side of the Karoo Koppie, needs to imitate a stone outcrop. Again the garden teaches me about microclimate – the embattled west-facing side, and the meshed together east-facing side. My source for tough succulent cuttings. This pot stands against the hot north-facing wall of Paradise and Roses.

Around the ash trees
with Strelitzia nicolai and Clivia

The bed outside our bedroom window- where my optimistic fynbos, died, slowly, one plant at a time. The ash planters – even the Clivia battles – not a shade bed, it catches the hot afternoon breeze. The strip behind the ash planters has a few young trees. The dry difficult stretch between the pond and the ash trees, which suffers from the very worst blast of summer sun. My beloved Dusty Millers are due to be harvested for lots of cuttings, and the woody grandfathers removed.

Water-lily, bronze fennel
Dianthus and nasturtiums

My January foreign flowers. Pink garden hybrid waterlily. Mustardy yellow umbrellas on the bronze fennel, promising more seedlings. A Dianthus and the last of the frazzled nasturtiums AKA Cistercians.

Looking across Ungardening Pond from the jetty
Young trees growing up, bridge over Plum Creek, looking at Rest and be Thankful

From the ash trees, past Rest and Be Thankful, on Ungardening Pond, across Plum Creek. The rooted cuttings and tree seedlings which came with us from the first garden, now conceal the concrete wall. Trees, in fact.

Looking east to the mountain, north to Clanwilliam
south to Cape Town, west to the sunset

Papa Meilland, Tropical Sunset bud, Sheila's Perfume, Chaim Soutine
Tropical Sunset
Lavender Jade, Elizabeth of Glamis, Perfume Passion bud

Bits of Paradise and Roses need rethinking, especially the pink Spring Promise bed. This winter I will hard prune the rose bushes, after lightly grooming last winter. Looking down each of the four paths in turn. We have Papa Meilland, Chaim Soutine, Perfume Passion and Tropical Sunset in flower now.

Half full to the pond, half empty to It's NOT A Garden
To the distant mountains, shady verandah

I walk the garden in two minds. Reminding myself that we started with a flat square. Inherited the 2 thirty year old mountain ash trees, fruit trees, a few flowering shrubs. The glass half empty sees the pruning and replanting. The glass half full, sits on the shady verandah, with a cup of tea, and a good book, always birds chatting. Rest and Be Thankful! 









Pictures and words by Diana of  Elephant's Eye 
- wildlife gardening in Porterville, near Cape Town in South Africa
(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink. Those are my links.) 

38 comments:

  1. Diana - You and the Ungardener have a very interesting garden, filled with so very many corners that beckon you further.

    I love the Elephant's Eye Light Railway and the tranquil pond. Just to wonderful.

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  2. The pond area has to be my favourite!
    Jane x

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  3. I enjoyed the tour of your gardens! You have a beautiful place :)

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  4. What an enchanting garden you have!!

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  5. Love the fact that your garden has so many areas and aspects to it. Lots of interest and micro-climates to enable a variety of plantings. Never boring!

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  6. Diana, thank you for a lovely mid-summer walk around your garden. Your figs made me long for summer here, they are my favourite fruit. You have wonderful views to the mountains and you have made very good use of them. With my best wishes for 2012, Christina

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  7. Nice tour! Our garden makes use of the diagonal and 'borrows' from the landscape :)

    Just popped over after seeing your comment. You need to go into your settings to change the way your comment form appears - unless you've changed it back to pop up mode already?

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  8. Diana, your garden is magnificent! One can see all the hard work you have put into it. I love the blooms of the Australian Bush Cherry...so striking. I have a sundial in my herb garden, however I have always envisioned one at the end of a path or in the center of the path. Yours looks great!

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  9. Diana it is so wonderful to see all the fruit and blooms...we just had a foot of snow. I love seeing your pond and the sun dial garden....

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  10. Dear reader, can anyone USE those Reply buttons, to add an indented 'reply to existing comment'?? Works on VP's blog!

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  11. Hmm - I've just tried your Reply buttons and do they work for me? Errrr no.

    I wonder what we have set up differently for our blogs?

    Like you I'm using Chrome; I've done some v minor tweaks to my template, which is a different one to yours...

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  12. Interesting to see a broader view of your garden especially the pictures from the roof.
    It is very difficult to photograph the garden as a single space - especially when views from above allow neighbouring properties to intrude. While I like to see the sky and adjoining trees I would rather not see the bright blue trampoline next to mine. Still I should be grateful that neighbours are not a fan of Agent Orange :-)

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  13. EasyGardener - we've been 4 years in the house. The little girls on one side - have outgrown their junglegym - , Hullo Auntie, hullo Uncle! - and those trees are now working hard. On the other side a row of 2 little boys, and cat, staring across the wall, have moved away - and we have trees!

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  14. Loved seeing your wide views! You have a beautiful garden. I can feel the peace it gives. I am especially jealous of your pathways.

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  15. What a wonderful tour ... I did not see the "don't look that way" part! What an incredible garden/landscape/habitat/oasis you have created. Love the shady veranda.

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  16. I vote for Rest and Be Thankful, the best thing to do in the summer heat! I appreciate the long views of your garden, still lovely in midsummer. My own garden languishes in July and August, when it is too hot and humid to work in the garden.

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  17. Diana, you and the Ungardener and the garden have accomplished an amazing amount in four years--everything looks full and lush, especially for mid-summer with that sun beating down. I like what you say about letting the garden teach you. That's a lesson I'm beginning to learn. It really is almost like school--the same delight when you "get" it.

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  18. I love your garden! It has everything one needs, I think. Some nice resting spots, some figs (I miss ours in Hungary) and lots of trees and shrubs.
    Lovely!

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  19. My aunt and uncle lived in Joburg for 6 yrs and now a teacher friend is in SA at an Internat'l school. My pond isn't as grand as yours. If you blink you might miss it. :o) Here's a link to the post: http://www.ts-casamariposa.blogspot.com/2011/10/muck-bucket-frog-pond.html

    Your garden looks like a wonderful place to rest, laugh, and enjoy a great SA wine!

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  20. I'd say you've turned your "flat square" into something remarkable and comfortable. The pond gardens must be especially welcome this time of summer...

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  21. Thank you for such a lovely walk through your garden. It is so very different than the Lot we have here. Happy GBBD!

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  22. Diana, I see the "reply" link after your comments but when I click on that nothing happens.

    I love your garden .. every part, the pond is a favourite as is Paradise & Roses. You've created something very special there!

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  23. Christine - sob - 'Reply' is a sore point. I've done what they said, but apparently I've tweaked something in the template. Not prepared to fiddle with chunks of HTML, so I've reported my problem. Waiting, politely and patiently, for Blogger/blogspot to sort it. This Reply option has only been out for a few days.

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  24. Diane, What a great tour! Beautiful photos, may your blooms continue to bring you great joy in the coming year!

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  25. Your garden is very beautiful indeed... and it looks warm! Could use a bit of that about now... Larry

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  26. What wonderful contrasts in your garden. I also have contrasting habitat areas in my garden. I love your pond!

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  27. I love seeing all your colorful summer blooms (especially those roses!). Winter has finally arrived here; my blooms are indoors only. -Jean

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  28. I love your garden. Wild yet so organised.

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  29. How absolutely delighted I was to walk through your garden. The restful pond area and the stoep overlooking the garden. I can totally relate to this. It is my kind of garden...wild with nature helping and the labour of your loving care to make it a place to live forever. The fruit trees give me inspiration and knowing you came with seedlings to this home, gives me hope. Thank you! Loved it!

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  30. GRRRumble back to popup window for comments. I object to my apostrophe breaking up into code. It is Elephant's Eye, not Elephant%$@#@s Eye! Will wait for the threaded comments Reply to get sorted on the Blogger/blogspot side.

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  31. You have so many things!

    I have a very small garden so I have seating in two places so we can sit and look in opposite directions. The views are completely different, depending where you sit, so this arrangement doubles the size of the garden.

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  32. Wonderful post Diana - and I've bookmarked your garden railway for the hubster to look at. He longs for one but I am so far fighting a rearguard action in the sure knowledge that trains would eventually trump plants (though I have to say looking at yours my resolve is weakening :D)

    Wish it was summer here... lucky you...

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  33. I can see from your tour that, indeed, you have a mix of microclimates. That always amazes me here, too. Some spots are literally baked by the sun at the height of summer, while others are more mild throughout the year. You have a wonderful collection of Roses! And the Water Lilies and fruits are so lush. Happy GBBD!

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  34. Beautiful. I'm very jealous of your fruit trees -- especially the figs.

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  35. What a lovely garden! I do envy you the figs! Val

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  36. Diana, you might have to take me several times round your garden before I get the hang of it as there are so many aspects built in to what was a flat square. One minute tropicals and then the familiar roses - have not heard Elizabeth of Glamis spoken of for many years. The pond gives relief and the light railway a fascinating addition. Bird chatter and a book sounds the perfect way to end the garden tour.

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  37. the pond especially is awesome, I am very impressed by your ungardener.

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  38. How I enjoyed this morning walk through your garden, feeling the heat radiating upward from the stone paths, touching the different textures in my mind. All while the snow lies outside my window, covering the trees and sleeping beds of my garden. Yours reminds me of my own adventure in gardening at our former home. I built a crazy big garden - clippings and plants from all my friends - as we had lots of cleared space and mature trees. But now, we are tucked away in a forest clearing and my garden much more modest.

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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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