A walk around my garden

6 Aug '06 9:14 am

Dear Jack,
You express it so well - the relationship between temperate gardeners and winter. Or is that good tempered gardeners and winter? Ha! I've just about finished clearing the damage, and it has been a blessing, forcing me to rethink, and reshape, and accept that much of the Wattle Woods will now be - a Leucadendron Forest? whatever, it will be sunny, and rather not a woodland! I'm glad that your garden has suffered little. You will be spared the character-building weeks of searching for expensive plants underneath tree trunks. And the musical sounds of the chainsaw!

I love photographers who tackle frost. Well done! I mean tackle in the general sense, not in the sense of rugby football. I wouldn't want to draw your attention to the fact that South Africa lost in the 75th minute to Australia in the latest rugby test! I know that, except for the power outage, you wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Cheers, and thanks for such beautiful winter photos and stories. You legend!

8 Aug '06 12:01 am

Finally: a truly frosty weekend morning and my camera at the ready! So let’s start off with version three of the ‘silver tracery’ shot. The dogs were a little put out at my lingering start to what they expected to be a brisk plumy-breathed walk. All except Doubly, with his thick pelt, who thought nothing of lying down on the cold earth and waiting patiently. (Crazy dog, he went for a swim yesterday at dusk and before ten this morning was swimming again – photographic evidence to follow!) Frost always makes for interesting textures, so they had quite a wait whilst I pottered around. This selection is self-explanatory – enjoy! (Do others also get such extended joy from ‘Silver & Gold’?)

9 Aug '06 3:15 pm

Your winter garden images are beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing these wintery walks through your garden. In fact, I've enjoyed alot walking with you through all seasons, each season as stunning and as magnificent!
Thanks again, Jack. Very Happy

13 Aug '06 4:03 am

I promised a pic of Doubly doing what he does best. He’s quite crazy, swimming at 5 on a winter’s evening when the cold already burns your cheek. And when I put on my walking shoes and the dogs get delirious with excitement, Doubly says YIPPEE… SPLASH! and catches up with us 200m later, where he shakes himself vigorously, preferably on my mother if she is present, and she always responds with ‘damm you, dog, must you do that?’

Today was a milestone in more ways than one: I photographed the first of my spring bulbs, a gorgeous velvety anemone. I dedicate it to all of you in the Northern Hemisphere who kept us cheered over the last months. We are also working like mad at preparing the Rosemary Borders for planting, starting with the top border which is 35m long and 5m wide. We have cleared it of almost all plants except for the Japanese quince, the grouping of 5 Ballerina roses and the excessively close-planted area at the furthest end… So far we have brought in 3 trailer loads of compost, and I think another three are called for – a huge part of our ready compost! This afternoon I went into town and bought three garden forks to replace the three (admittedly ancient ones) broken on the job, as well as two spades; I have known for months that this exciting garden-spend awaited… Then I bought 100kg of super phosphate and 100kg of fertiliser. It is on days like today that the scale of operations gets me down! This morning I pruned the ‘Ballerina’ roses you see in the foreground of pic 4 - the first time in ten years. They usually get a cursory trim, and last year nothing at all as they flowered through the very mild winter. They are planted in a circle perhaps 1.2m in diameter, and have grown together to form a thicket 2.5m high and across. It took nearly 4 hours, but now all dead wood is removed, lichens scraped off old stems, and the fine twiggy bits cut back to vigorous shoots – and they are still intertwined and shapely and stand about 1.8m tall! A job well done!!

Tomorrow we cut the new edge to the bed; beyond the roses it narrows down a little at present. It will be level with the pillars at the steps. The steps are spectacularly over-engineered by my father, but once they have mellowed a little will contribute greatly to the effect of this part of the garden. And after 15 years of consistent irritation with the drunkenly reeling pale blue 2.5m irrigation pipes, I have put my foot down and my father has agreed that they be replaced with something more appropriate – so I bought a prototype green one a mere .8m long as well this afternoon.

Pic 5 shows the furthest end of the bed before we cleared it this morning. It was much too densely planted with small shrubs and herbaceous perennials , but by the time the three large pink-striped flaxes had been removed (inspired by the goings-on of you-know-who) and all the dead material raked out, there was not nearly as much in need of moving as I had expected – a few small plants caught under big ones, mainly! In the pic you see ‘New Dawn’, the cutting-raised climbing rose which I mistakenly planted in the bed. It behaves like a ground cover, and produces exquisite pale silvery pink blooms in among the other flowers and leaves (including the late lamented pink-striped flax). It is a curse when one works in the bed, but the surprise of its blooms tucked in amongst other things makes me want to continue with the experiment.

Just before Moosey went on the warpath, I noticed that the lovely small pink-striped flax in the Long Border was growing a vigorous bronzy spray (or whatever it is that flaxes grow!) It must be removed SOON! Ten or so years ago my aunt next door spent days removing a huge bronze flax. I planted the pieces in a row along a road as a windbreak and deerfence above a nursery area. I love it – my parents hate it. I have the perfect excuse now: it will take days to remove… The wintery looking object in the centre is a huge tree fern, its leaves blackened and drooping from the frost. Soon it will start to sprout again. The South African tree ferns are very much more robust looking than their Australian counterparts! The stem must be 40cm in diameter, and the tips of the flax are at least 2m high. (I’ve just realised one’s sense of proportion is not given much help in the photo!) Come September I will report on the primal unfurling of the massive leaves…

Friday evening

A successful day in the garden, even if, by7.30pm, I have yet to achieve anything of the other work I need to do… Pic 8 shows the first plants planted, a mainly evergreen spine to the bed. All are plants from our own nursery, mainly propagated by old Frans. A windfall present from friends called Wright goes half towards a few new plants at the new steps – we’ll have to call it the Wright Angle now – and half towards a bonus for Frans. Tomorrow I will go find those plants. 9 is a picture of the most wonderful dog I have ever owned, and 10 of the most impossible. (“Hello”, he says, leaping at one unexpectedly from behind after disappearing for eight hours, “I’m home!” Ah well, I suppose I’m of an age where one copes with teenage children…)

Now that the Rosemary Terrace is being upgraded I need to do something about the focal point. Tomorrow I trim the Abelia ‘Francis Mason’ into 4 cubes flanking the gorgeous Italian pot. But what do I plant in it? Most of the year the background is dark green foliage, so something yellow and rather architectural seems the answer… A yellow flax, perhaps? Even an agave? (But they are frost tender!) Suggestions and advice, please!

Late afternoon, after photographing the days work, we walk across to the arboretum. Prunus blireana is in full flower. On the edge of the stream the deep wine-red magnolia is trying manfully to out-manoeuvre the frost and deep in the stem of the tree-ferns new life is creaking into furled fronds, soon to spring forth like a butterfly from its chrysalis. Despite continual sub-zero dawns, the mid-day heat and the pushing sap shows that the season has turned.

13 Aug '06 4:27 am

Spent my present - plus of course some more! I was looking for 7 different rosemaries, other than R."O'connell's Blue" which is what the hedge and the eight balls-to-be in this bed are. I only found R. 'Prostratum' and saw a lovely upright-growing and floriferous pink in their garden, but no stock at present. I want to space the various examples halfway between the balls, so that there is a rosemary above the wall every 2.5m; then of course there is the rosemary hedge on the lower side of the terrace. So the search continues...

I found five different hebes, two grevilleas, two low-growing camellias and several other plants, and avoided buying an assortment of fillers - that can wait until we are ready to start filling!

13 Aug '06 5:11 pm

Hi Jack,

Your new garden is wonderful! That brick retaining wall looks like it had to be engineered. It spans quite a drop.

I love your dogs. All characters, to be sure.

Christopher

14 Aug '06 7:42 am

I’m depressed. No. I’m sad. Neither – I have a smug grin, because despite all the things I aught to have done this long weekend, I did what I wanted to do: I gardened. And to hell with the planning and marking that remained undone. Tomorrow will look after itself, and what is more: I’ll survive it, intact and (marginally) in control.

Here, friends, are the results of the weekends labours. My love relationship with flaxes must be obvious – hopefully this first pic will in time to come be a stunning association of plants. I had to include Frans in one of the pictures – he worked overtime all weekend, and a more willing and thorough helper you will never find. Though I must admit that, doing unusual and at times unpredictable things, I realised how limited his command of English really is. There were a few hair-raising misunderstandings of instructions. Luckily we both cope with it with humour. In the pic are the only two plants which were bought for colour – Camellia ‘Inspiration’ and a lovely dark Australian Teabush to match it, specially for my mother. It is one of the plants I remember best from my early youth, and her distress at the way they die on one. My green-fingered uncle said that, like proteas, they don’t like their roots disturbed – which is why I got Frans to plant it and put slates around it to prevent digging. (‘Knowing some of our staff’, I says nastily, ‘ the only close weeding they do will be around the Teabush!’) Talking of buying – we have placed over 300 plants from our own nursery and fewer than 30 were bought in to date!

Pic 3 shows the mix of things planted, things placed and markers showing where out-of-ground plants must be planted tomorrow. Now if anybody thinks I’ve not been busy…

By five we were irrigating, and I regained respect for dad’s irrigation system, even if I do not believe it needs to be elevated to such a height. It is a South African patent – now gone bankrupt – called a ‘floppy.’ Water is pushed through a turbuliser and out through a 20cm length of soft plastic piping. The movement makes the piping snake, just as a hose with high pressure would if not held down. That is it: WHEN the system works – which is mostly, and this has been in for 15+ years – it gives a completely even spread of water as it zigzags right down, then comes up again. It is quite amazing how efficient it is. The problem is when it doesn’t work it is unfixable, because other than removing blockages, what CAN one do to fix it??? Apparently the tolerances in the piping are vital for even distribution, and the frustration of coping with problems is what killed it in the market place… Pic 5 is one of a series of pictures I took this afternoon. Fascinating, because what one sees with the naked eye is a round spray that spreads outwards, then moves back in, with a cycle of about 5 seconds.

I ended the day with a little rose pruning. The Anniversary Garden is depressing, not least because I need to spend dedicated time there and instead Frans, with his very basic understanding of pruning, is going to have to do most of it. But the Nandina in the Japanese Walk is still magnificent, and so I share that with you as my gardening weekend comes to an end.

14 Aug '06 1:36 pm

It is exciting to see the vision unfold before our eyes ,with someone else doing the work ...Many of the plants are the same as I have planted here ...In particular the tea -tree ,aka ti-tree ,aka manuka .It is a NZ native .I have a dark red-flowering one .They do not have a long life span ,and grow naturally in poor ,volcanic soils .They are wonderful medicinal plants .We can buy manuka honey -quite a bit more expensive than other honey ,but is magic on burns and skin troubles ,as well as on hot buttered toast ! Wink

Ti-tree oil is also extracted from the plant ,and again is good for excema etc.It is sometimes sold as an ingredient in soap ,too .
The colours of your scheme are lovely, Jack --I like the colours of nandinas with flaxes .I wonder if the tall thing coming from the flax is its flower head .Do leave it if it is ,as the birds love the nectar from the flax heads ,and it won`t affect the plant .
Dixie.

14 Aug '06 6:06 pm

Dixie! Firstly thank you for your stunning water colour "Roadside Grasses" on Liza's 'In Love Diaries' thread! Is it the first time you have posted a painting? Or have I just missed out? PLEASE let us see more of your work! Also talk technique to us - you use botanical accuracy (as opposed to the usual water colour impressionistic effects) and combine it with a super-realistic approach. Do you work from life or photos? Do you deliberately compose? Drawing detail? Time involved? Layering? Etc?

It has been fun sharing the Rosemary Border - real DIARY work here, and a record for my own archives. The flax is not about to flower - in fact I've never seen the smaller and hybrid flaxes flower, although the large green and bronze ones flower wonderfully for me.

Thanks for the Ti-tree info!! I never realised that they are from NZ not OZ (I guess you're used to such confusion. It is similar to the 'I didn't know you've got tarred roads in Africa'-brigade. Sorry.) Neither did I realise that they are the source of the famous oil which is very much the flavour of the month (or year!) in alternative/natural healing circles in SA. I shall look out at health shops for the honey! I ADORE a good quality honey, my favourite being our locally produced avocado-flower honey: dark and aromatic, not too sweet. At its best poured liberally over a thick double cream Greek-style yoghurt!!

14 Aug '06 7:27 pm

I`m not sure if Tea trees are native to Australia as well --(catsmum ?) I did not see any while I was there .
Thank you for your comments about my water-colours. I work from nature ,and do dry-brush as well as quick wet in wet ,and transparent layers ,depending on the subject .This forum constantly delights me with the exquisite photos and descriptive prose of contributors sharing nature in its glory and simplicity .
Dixie.

A walk around my garden

winter

A Frosty walk (or: A chilly response to M's rugby comment..)

Garden updates through all seasons!

Working on the Rosemary Borders

Been shopping

Lost in the frost

Back to the real world

The vision unfolds

Hallo Dixie!

Tea Tree