Boophane budding time

Every where you turn in the garden, the Boophone disticha are starting to flower. Their flowers are very spectacular but I almost prefer their leaves. Beautiful.
I am very happy that the waterlilies (Nymphaea nouchali Burm. f. var. caerulea (Sav.) Verdc.) are flowering again this year. I think it is because Michael trimmed the trees around the pond quite a bit at the beginning of summer and they like to grow in full sun. There is a lot of very interesting information about waterlilies on the plantzafrica site.
I found a huge big old tortoise in the garden today. Quite cool. He was hanging in the bottom area by the boophane and cacti. Probably wants to get through the fence to the tortoises in Tannie Ansie’s garden. We are just letting him mow the lawn first.
I’ve added the photos of the open Boophane here too. They are almost finished already. I see the scadoxus are starting though..

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Summer time…

It has been one of those summers where every one is talking about how beautiful the weather has been, no wind, warm water and these warm beautiful days with slightly cooler evenings. People that have lived here for long say this is how it used to be in December. Anyway it is lovely, the holiday is over and the holiday makers had really good blessed weather.
This is the summer where some day when we get to the drive way, we only realise how extremely hot the day actually is. We have a full canopy of trees and full shade. Like being in a forest. We have been having most meals, lunch and dinner outside. And we have heard plenty people complain that they hate their homes because it is so hot and they wish winter would come. The garden has really become a place of peace and shelter this summer.

Michael has been soil harvesting for a couple of months under the wild fig trees. Well to start at the beginning he made the soil there over a period of a few years. Filling up the area with branches cut from trees, any soil dug out else where, house sweepings and even compost material from the kitchen. Now it has broken down into this dark light healthy soil that is being dug out and put into my veggie patch. Michael want the level under the wild fig trees to be the same level as the stream, retained by a rock wall. Eventually it will become a seating area.

Michael went to fetch tires this week and has been making a retaining wall on the outside of the veggie patch and filling it with this beautiful soil. I’ve also asked him to put some in the pTch itself, as it needed just some new soil and also a bit of horse manure here and there before I go get seedlings this week.
I’ve had a bit of pleurisy the past couple of weeks and have been frustrated because I like doing all of the above myself, but have not physically been able to. So thank you Michael it looks beautiful.
I’ve been harvesting beans, sweet potatoes, plum tomatoes, cauliflower and cabbage from the garden. The butternuts and patty pans are making flowers and looking quite healthy. Just before we went away in December I planted two trays of asparagus seedlings and they are thriving. They are making little spears already, but it seems you have to leave them for about three years before you harvest them to ensure healthy strong plants.

The hero hen

After the rooster and the other hen were caught, the old hen took it upon herself to save the flock from extinction. She immediately got herself broody and sat on the eggs she stashed. It took us three days to find her because she was sneaky and hid away. I followed her after she came out to eat on the third day and found her sitting on eight eggs. We could then transfer her and the eggs to the nesting box, which lives in the lounge during hatching and until the babies are big enough to sleep outside. Through the years we’ve found that the box shouldn’t just have grass in the bottom, but some soil as well as the eggs need moisture to hatch. And exactly 21 day later, seven perfect babies hatched on the 23rd of December.
The Silkie hens are so cool, they are totally heaven taught and know exactly what to do with the babies. The mother only gets up from the nest on the 23rd day as the babies don’t need to eat in the first 24 hours. And then she just takes them for a very short little walk and teaches them different sounds she makes for food, danger etc.
She has such a good stretch and a huge shit as she hasn’t gone for three days.
The first thing the babies learn is to not stand behind her when she skrops but to come from the front. They go to bed early in the first few days and then surely and slowly go further away from the house and stay out longer.
Cheers to the the hero hen ( and of course the rooster as we weren’t sure he was fertilizing the eggs yet.)

Early December 2011

We came back last week from a trip up to Potch. Saw some nice people, loved ones and interesting places on far away small roads. And as usual it was like walking into the garden of eden as we came through the gate. So lush and full of comfort. There has been a couple of beautiful summery holiday days, nice to go to the beach in the early morning and then in the heat of the sun to come lie in the new hammock that we got from Gill under the trees in the shade.
It must have been hot and dry while we were gone, but almost everything made it. Just before we left I sowed some baby marrow and patty pan seeds, and they have come up. I also planted 12 asparagus seedlings and 10 have made it so far. The bean seedling took a bit of strain but with some foilage feeding and lots of water I think they will pull through. We made s nice liquid compost before we left with everything from seaweed, comfrey leaves, chicken manure and some stuff that I don’t really want to know about.

The older of the two hens still left over has decided to save the flock and is sitting on eight eggs, that should hatch around the 23rd. I have no idea if the eggs are fertilised or not, but hope that a few of them will hatch. The young hen is still only a teenager and very unsure of herself, she sticks close to Fletchi and comes to sleep on the couch at night befor we put her to bed.
It did Fletchi the world of good to go away and play with his dog cousins, He has lots more self confidence and is not so very depressed like he was before we left.
I think we are all ready for a new dog now, as Michael said – Fletch is such a kiff dog an has got so much to teach another dog.

Up stream

Michael has been harvesting the most beautiful compost from under the hammock down at the stream. He started about a year ago with branches first and then leaves swept from the paving and all the house sweepings and the peels and stuff from the kitchen. Amazing fast it all broke down to this lovely dark fertile compost. What is actually happening is that the stream’s time has come to be turned and twisted and re-directed. During the rain we had over the weekend Michael was working outside, in the stream up to his thighs, cleaning it out and packing rocks. We now have a running stream that makes a the sound of running water over rocks. Too beautiful.
Now the compost has to go to get the levels sorted out for visual effect of seeing the water from the top and also creating a new flat area. I’m going to use the compost to earth up my potatoes which also responded to the nice rain we had. While digging away Michael found a olive house snakes’ eggs. The chickens are known as daddies little helpers as they come running as soon as any digging gets done to come and catch goggas.
(the new rooster and one of the hens were caught over the weekend but that is too much for right now to even talk about)
This week was interesting in the garden as we had a visit from John Elliot who is a horticulturist and is busy landscaping the new Billabong offices. He came to buy some Aloe barberae and also Noorsebome. You could see this dude was blown away with this garden. He had big eyes and just wanted to look around and poke in all the nooks and crannies. He was even more wide eyed when he heard that Michael had done this whole garden by himself with no help. He is quite a a nice gardening connection to have.
We are halfway through our first very difficult week and we are all taking strain, and both Michael and I are a bit concerned about Fletch as he is very quiet.

Shorti 20/08/2005 – 25/11/2010

Our litlle Shorti was run over by a car yesterday. We were on our way back from PE when Tannie Ansie called with the news. We think that he died instantly and did’nt suffer. It was almost to the day six years ago that Michael arrived with this small little puppy that he found next to the road at Magnas. Fletch gave him one look and loved him instantly and trained him and taught him everything he knew. Michael spat in his mouth and he and Shorti had such a special bond. He was daddy’s little dog, and slept with Michael every night. It took me about an extra hour to love him as much as I could. I was’nt sure if I wanted two dogs, but now I can’t remember times before him.
Ou Shorti. He had a very special little personality, took life very seriously and had little habits of his own, things that Fletch didn’t teach him. He walked with a person in the garden and looked at plants, he went to work with Michael in the bakkie sitting seriously upright. Every morning he would go outside and upset the whole neighborhood’s dogs, and when he came back he was always so stoked on life, laughing and shaking his little body. Shorti took his job as security very seriously, looking after us and protecting the chickens.
Shorti had very strange habits:

He stalked his water, and would only drink water when very thirsty.

He just couldn’t sit on hard surfaces and would pace around and around until some either brought him a pillow or got up for him to sit on their chair.

He nibbled Fletchi all the time, and would sometimes get a bit aggressive and tear Fletches fur out in chunks.

He “poepolled” a person, always wanter you to scratch hies bum.

He could cheer a person up a bit, if anybody got upset or mad at him he would growl at them and make you laugh.

He loved biting the inside of ones leg with his little front teeth and make you scream with pain.

Sadness sits in ones whole body, it gives you a headache, makes your shoulders tight and you are not sure what to do next.
Michael dug a grave for Shorti, just across the stream on the other side of the kloof. He lies in a beautiful place in the sun where he won’t get too cold and I can still go talk to him.
We loved you Shorti baby poni.

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Random happenings the last while

1. The little rooster started crowing about a week ago. The first time everybody including dogs, humans, other chickens and birds ran outside to see what the weird sound was. He got the biggest fright of all. His voice hasn’t quite broken yet so he still sounds funny. Luckily he only tries it out once or twice a day. He is also trying to hump the hens, sort of getting it right, but afterwards the older hens peck and chase him away.

2. The Paradise flycatchers have not only built a beautiful nest in the Milkwood tree, laid three eggs but the eggs hatched yesterday. Tiny little fragile beings without feathers.

3. Two of the orchids are flowering. Michael used to pamper the orchids in pots untill they almost died, and then decided to tie them to the trees itself, and this year they are flourishing and flowering. Look beautiful. The white orchid in the Milkwood tree is not indegenous, but the small green one is indegenous to Mapumalanga. Unfortunately we don’t know the names.

4. We went to Cape Town for the weekend, and came back to our peaceful garden

5. For the first time this year we have a full canopy of tree tops touching. It is so shady the whole garden over. A total, total forest.

6. I’ve got huge heads of cauliflowers that need to be harvested this week.

Trees we planted: Schotia brachypetala (weeping boerboon)

This tree needs to be mentioned today as it is flowering for the first time this year. We planted it about seven years ago, nursery bought and it is about ten feet high at the moment.

The following from www.plantzafrica.com:
Schotia brachypetala is a handsome, medium to large tree with a wide-spreading, densely branched, rounded crown. It has a single trunk that sometimes branches low down. Trees can reach a height of 22 m, but most commonly grow 11 to 16 m with a spread of 10 to 15 m. The bark is rough and brown or grey brown. The leaves are compound, with 4 to 6 pairs of leaflets, each with an entire, wavy margin. The foliage is reddish to coppery when young, turning bright green and maturing to a glossy dark green. In warm frost-free areas this tree is evergreen, but in colder regions it is deciduous, losing its leaves for a short period in winter to spring.

The flowers are rich deep red, and are produced in masses, in dense branched heads on the old wood during spring (Aug.-Nov.). The flowering time is somewhat irregular in that a tree in bloom may be a few metres away from one that has no sign of flowers. This irregularity is of value to the nectar feeding birds, and ensures a longer feeding season.

The flowers really are magnificent, a dark dark red colour. They took their time in opening, probably about a month long. The flowers must have an abundance of nectar as we watch especially the sunbirds take long drinks. The finches are also pulling in for their share as are the paradise flycatches, although they just hang around and catch all the bugs that are attracted to the tree.

I’m quite happy that we planted this tree.

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Showing the show winners 2011

The Eastern Cape Clivia show has come and gone with great success. Michael entered nine plants and seven were awarded prizes! What I found really cool was that he go the first prize for broad leaf not in flower (the biggest plant on show) and miniature not in flower (the smallest plant on show). It was also good to connect with all the clivia people agin. We also went through to the George show and I must say their plants were magnificent.
Michael’s mom was kind enought o buy him a beautiful Clivia mirables, and now Michael has all the different kinds of Clivis. He has named the mirable “pink pants”

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Veg update

Veggie patch deserves a mention today as well. It needs rain again. Looking very nice though. Can’t wait for the right time to come to put up a fence right round the whole new area. The current area is almost too small now. I need to be putting in new seedlings but I don’t have space. Cant put in seedlings before a fence because the chickens are at quite a destructive age now. I’ve been harvesting peas. Not that many peas make it to the pot, they are too nice to just eat right there as you are picking them. Also the first beetroots, Jerusalem artichokes, huge buckets of spinach and tonight I have to go pick the three globe artichokes that are ready. We have been feasting on all the salads and spring onions as well.