I was. I was going to prune the figs this
afternoon. He was. He was planning to work on his current Ungardening project,
which is stuck at the nasty muddy chaos stage. But the next cold front rolled
in from Antarctica direction, and it’s bucketing down. He is tucked up with
TV and cat.
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| from Dasklip Pass to Witkranskop with Leucadendron |
My sister has been visiting us, and we went up the Dasklip Pass on one of the – on a clear day you can see Table Mountain – days. As Cape Town in turn will see our Groot Winterhoek if we get snow.
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| from the Dasklip Pass to Moutonshoek and Piekenierskloof Pass |
I was intrigued by this plant. Leaves like a
protea, but the flowers are all wrong. A loose pendulous head. Up close it
reveals the Euphorbia family with its five ringed and pointed flowers.
Apocynaceae, otherwise known as the milkweed and frangipani family. Gomphocarpus cancellatus (formerly Asclepias)
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| Gomphocarpus cancellatus |
Ivory boat-shaped coronal lobes. Endemic to
southern Africa, naturalised in Australia and St Helena. Grows on rocky
hillsides, or clay soils. Found as a pioneer along roads. Nectar. Feeds
Wanderer butterflies in Australia. Leaves are used as snuff to treat headaches.
Has been cultivated in Europe since 1714 - from PlantZAfrica.
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| Houdconstant dam |
Out of our usual routine, I walked with my
sister around the Houdconstant dam. In June for my blogaversary, I like to
change the header photo, but the dam to my shock is nearly empty. So we’ll stay
with the same old same old from June 2011.
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| tomato |
We have two flourishing compost volunteers.
Tomatoes. With flowers. And those tiny hairs, that distinctive tomato smell? If you choose an heirloom variety, with hairs, it will repel aphids!
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| Apple Creek rain garden |
Our rain garden at Apple Creek is working hard.
Draining the downpours from the gravel paths and the beds, away from the house.
Then seeping slowly in to recharge the deep roots.
With our mediterranean climate and clay soil
NOW is the time to do everything. Plant that last corner. Transplant what is
wrong. And prune. Yesterday I did the plums. There are figs. And apples. And
roses. And some tree grooming. Waiting. Today already I see buds sprouting on
the figs.
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| This plum is going |
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| Pruning plums |
In August he will be back to a week a month
with the leopards, so this Ungardening project must get done by September. He
has ripped up the Mediterranean Sun Circle. That path must be rerouted, and
then we need to plant. He has chewed into the end of the Karoo Koppie, needs a
little wall and the path up the crest must be rerouted around aloes that have
exploded. Chewed a bit off the flat edge of Apple Creek. Now the brick edges
must be relaid, the Sun Circle resettled, and more gravel to finish off.
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| Ungardening in progress |
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| Ungardening muddy chaos garnished by Cotyledon orbiculata |
Anyone for tea? We have hertzoggies.
Pictures by Jurg and Diana,
words by Diana of Elephant's Eye
- wildlife gardening in Porterville,
near Cape Town in South Africa
near Cape Town in South Africa
(If you mouse over brown text, it turns shriek pink.
Those are my links.)
Those are my links.)
We have many many milkweed plants growing on out property. They are the only plant on which the Monarch butterfly chooses to lay it's eggs. The Monarch is in decline because people view the plant as an invasive weed. Try telling that to the poor Monarch.
ReplyDeleteJane x
We would have African Monarch butterflies, and this milkweed is such a raving beauty, I must find plants. Or, PlantZAfrica says it grows easily from fresh seed!
DeleteIt does grow easily, but like so many do, they pull this plant as it's seen as a weed. The Monarchs LOVE this plant. It's a pretty tough plant and does well in most kinds of soil. It doesn't grow here in Tucson, but we have other plants we use. One that does great here is the Pineleaf Milkweed. I had a couple monarch caterpillars on this plant.
DeleteGomphocarpus will always be Asclepias to me, DNA taxonomy be damned.
DeleteOh no, if the rain is with you already it means it's heading our way. We have had a lovely sunny afternoon and I was hoping the weather report for tomorrow would be wrong. I love rain during the week when I am at work, but I want sunny weekends to enjoy the the garden. The level of the Houdconstant dam is rather worrying for June - hopefully it has filled up some more since the recent rains. I am still jealous of your pig's ears, but I think my snails have been snacking on the buds.
ReplyDeleteMY snails prefer the Ifafa lilies. They would have been welcome to a few of the pig's ears ...
DeleteOh how I wish I could visit and enjoy those yummy looking hertzoggies. When I saw the flower and leaves of your intriguing plant I immediately thought milkweed as it looks so much like our antive common milkweed...How fun ti was to discover it was indeed a milkweed. As fall arrives here I will have much replanting and moving to do. I hope I didn't buy too many bulbs this year. Trying to cut back and work on projects instead in fall. Can't wait to see the rerouted path.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was reminded of our common milkweed (Asclepias (??) syriaca), which are now flowering in my neighborhood. I remember your post about creating the Mediterranean Sun Circle and it seemed like a marvelous space; why is it being ripped out? (I'm assuming that somehow it didn't work out as planned.) -Jean
ReplyDeleteHe says it was too close to the wall. Also the succulents on the Karoo Koppie have grown with such enthusiasm that they hid it. After we bickered back and forth - the new compromise should be good when it is done. Will also give a focus for the view from the guest room window.
DeleteIt seems the gardening chores are never done. And the trick is finding the right weather to do them in! I hope the weather clears enough for you to get all you need to get done. And I hope you're having a wonderful time with your sister!
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful views! That Gomphocarpus cancellatus is quite pretty! That is so fascinating about how older varieties of tomatoes are hairier and repel more insects. I've never heard that before - I'm going to have to go outside tomorrow morning and see if my heirloom tomato plant is hairier than my hybrid!
ReplyDeleteAre you cutting your plum tree down? Your milkweed is beautiful - very exotic looking.
ReplyDeleteWe inherited the plum trees, which are old and tired. Just that one is going as the wood is rotten. Six remain, hope we will get fruit again next year.
DeleteSo many jobs to do and not enough time to do them all, sounds familiar! The level of your dam is worrying, ours were very low in the spring here and drought orders in place, since them it hasn't stopped raining. Yesterday we had 5 inches in one day, yet more people flooded out of their homes, what is happening to our weather!
ReplyDeletethey call it global weirding. Frightening. Colorado fires. Floods in Russia. Rained out summer in England.
DeleteLooks like the ungardener has his work cut out for him these next few months, I don't blame him for curling up infront of the TV :) I love the rain garden, I read the Apple's Creek post as well, I think it is something everyone should think about doing. Saves alot of precious water.
ReplyDeleteYour stack of plum tree cuttings is admirably neat. I've been pruning every bush we have this month, but I let the pieces fly everywhere and then curse when I fall back over them. I'm completely envious of your fig trees. I'm on a serious lookout for some cuttings.
ReplyDeleteSomeone ... still has to run the prunings thru the chipper to make mulch.
DeleteI like the sound of those herzoggies. I had completely forgotten but we used to eat coconut jam slices, I haven't seen them for sale anywhere in years, I imagine the flavour is similar.
ReplyDeleteInteresting detail about heirloom tomatoes, I didn't know that.
My mother used to make Louise cake. Same sort of thing.
DeleteYes, many jobs. We too are taking a lazy day today after much work in the prior days.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read "ungardening" I thought it meant returning some garden to wilderness - I had to search your blog to find out that that's what you call hardscaping! My ungardener and his son were digging foundations for a new garage yesterday, fueled by ferocious anger at the wood rats who chewed through 1200 dollars worth of damage to the truck that has had no garage thus far! And I was ungardening too, scrubbing at pool tiles and gooping on the ones that had fallen off, and bemoaning the work that remains to be done, keeping me from gardening! I liked the picture of your pretty South African plant Cotyledon orbicular - Town Mouse gave me some and I enjoy its exuberant blooms. Unfortunately I also have your pretty South African plant Zantedeschia aetheopica - Calla lily - and spent an afternoon digging out a section along with as many of its little nutlets as I could. It escapes and naturalizes around here, and has been in this garden since before I have.
I wonder what California natives are invasive in your neck of the woods - or should I say, corner of the koppie?
I read about your calla lily battle. Mostly my arums are welcome, and volunteers are moved to Apple Creek where I have 2 tiny nurtured clumps. But I have a volunteer in the Strelitzia amongst the roses. You have my sympathies. However much I dig up, still the plant returns there! I haven't tried, but apparently the tubers can be boiled and eaten.
DeleteNever heard of hertzoggies before. They look delicious. I think I will try out that recipe on a rainy day.
ReplyDeletejust saying, ours were bought. Haven't tried the recipe but it looks good to go!
DeleteI had to look up hertzoggies - a name that trips off the tongue!
ReplyDeleteI was consoling myself, thinking you are having a wet summer like us - till I remembered you have already had summer and are moving into winter.
Winter is only bearable if balanced with the sun of summer :-)
I am a little uneasy remembering General Hertzog. Not very PC, but somehow very human, that it was his favourite teatime treat ;~)
DeleteFor an Ungardener, he sure gets a lot of work done in the garden. ;-P
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to hertzoggies. My wife and I love anything with coconut so this is definitely a must try. I wish I could just pop over though and take you up on your offer for tea.
Un as in NOT Plants. Without his input our garden would lose its spirit and only be my random collection of mostly indigenous plants.
DeleteHi Diana, the first photo is beautiful but it also evoke a difficult wilderness! That milkweed looks like our Calotropis gigantea, which is also a milkweed and also hosts some monarch species.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to get into my garden but we have had so much rain that everything is soggy and slushy. We had foundations dug to build a study on but the foundations have been a moat ever since. I keep on emptying it and water keeps on syphering (hope I spelt that right) in.
ReplyDeleteRain stopping play has been an all to familiar tale here this summer Diane but perhaps not so much with you. At least the Undergardener will be refreshed for all those jobs that he has got on his list. The Gomphocarpus cancellatus looks fascinating though I would not like to say it in a hurry. I am wondering whether it is perfumed. Not sure what hertzoggies are but they sound intriguing so I'm off to investigate :)
ReplyDeleteforgot to sniff the milkweed, but I need more pictures, and seeds, or a plant ...
DeleteI do so love your posts. I like seeing the landscape around your home and your gardens. Good luck getting everything done and spend time enjoying your fabulous area.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea the hairs on the tomatoes repelled aphids. I really do learn something new on garden blogs every time I read. The hertzoggies look wonderful! yum
ReplyDeleteI think it would be hard to ungarden gardens with such evocative names. Tearing up a Mediterranean Sun Circle has to be more difficult than tearing up "that one bed by the patio." Do you know why the dam is so low this year? You seem to be getting such good moisture. I know the Pecos River here has gone underground in some places because of overuse for farming and ranching (and irrigating lawns). I don't know why that would drive it underground rather than just drying it up, but that's what I've been told.
ReplyDeletestill meaning to ask about the dam. Our wild animals know, if they go down to the dry river, then dig a little, they will still find some water.
DeleteI am a bit concerned about all the re-routing - please tell us that the railway will remain intact.
ReplyDeleteIt will remain, but it is not exactly intact. Also needs work ...
DeleteYour winters seem to be milder than mine. Mediterranean climate actually includes quite a spread of temperatures especially winter ones. We often go down to minus 10° Celsius. What are your lows and highs? That water is very low. Christina
ReplyDeleteI put our weather on my sidebar. Quite low down?
DeleteOur lowest is about (plus) 2C/35F . We don't get frost. But up on the mountain there will be snow. Not on the foothills we see from the house. We benefit from low altitude and the distant coast. Then summer dances towards 40C/104F.
They have renamed asclepias? I wish the powers that be would leave botanical names alone!
ReplyDeleteGarden projects are never ending. I hope you get everything accomplished as you wish. It seems we never do, and there is aways something waiting to be done when the weather permits.
Just that one? We have others still called Asclepias.
DeleteYes, I'll be right over for some tea. This is an absolutely beautiful time in your garden! The photo with the plumb trees is striking!
ReplyDelete