A Swartland garden

17 Sep '06 8:01 am

hello moosey!
You certainly wouldn't regret visiting South Africa! I'd love the chance to show you some of the Cape Floral kingdom... our fynbos is just amazing. You'd love Kirstenbosch botanical garden ... go to http://www.sanbi.org/frames/kirstfram.htm for a preview.

And you'd be more than welcome to come and stay!

18 Sep '06 8:18 pm

Hello Lynne, and welcome!
Great foresight to have started your garden with trees! Given time, with patience, determination and tender loving care (as you did with your beautiful clivias!), you'd be rewarded handsomely with a lovely garden paradise of your own making! Wink

Thanks for sharing those captures. I like the fantastic view from the little hill! Smile

21 Sep '06 9:09 am

Lynne,
In the planning stages is the Grand Global Gardening Tour, which I was going to do this year. It is now re-scheduled for next year, and I hope to follow my relatives around the world, visit friends, and peep nto other gardens. Luckily one of my closest may be posted somewhere in Africa, to the south I think, and this gives me the perfect excuse to add your country to the list! So cross fingers for a visit!

I am dragging partner along for the ride. Actually, he is the designated driver e.g. while in Europe. He will get bored silly! When we visit open gardens here at home he always wanders off to talk to the dogs or the cats.
Thanks for the invite, let's definitely keep in touch!

21 Sep '06 5:36 pm

A global gardening tour sounds absolutely wonderful. You could turn your journal from that into a really great travel book.
My husband runs an art and craft holiday company (when he's not doing his day job or trying to dig in our clay soil) so he's up on all the best places to visit (not just gardens) so let us know when you're in the serious planning stage and we'll send you details of lots of places you could put on your itinerary.

2 Oct '06 8:45 pm

I've spent the past week at a conference in Johannesburg and returned home to discover that the plumbago hedge (that goes round half our property) is beginning to flower. Lovely purple flowers that last throughout the summer, without us ever watering it. My kind of plant!

And the mysterious tree in the front garden, that neither of us remembered ordering (but the nursery cashier insisted had our name on it) is filled with leaves. Marius, the nursery owner, also said it wasn't our tree because it needs too much water. It seems to have woken up, after spending the last few months doing a convincing dry twig impersonation.

3 Oct '06 6:17 pm

You are so right, dear Lynne, to love your sky-blue Plumbago!! I've grown up with this plant around me!!Everywhere it grows, adds something so special! And ,when we moved here to Belgium 11-12 years ago, two big pots with this very dear plant followed me here. They are both happy and healthy, living on the patio during the good season , and in the glass house -heated, every winter...

25 Oct '06 4:58 am

Hi Lynne after a long silence!

Your 'mysterious cypress' - are you saying that it is decidious? In that case it can only - from the looks of it - be one of two plants: a swamp cypress (Taxidium)or a dawn redwood (Metasequoia); both extreme water lovers... And I've just read that Moosey is planning an African tour! To quote her: 'mmm - better make a list'!!!

25 Oct '06 9:43 pm

Hi Jack
I've been head down at my computer finishing writing a textbook for FET colleges ... and they changed the syllabus at the last minute which meant that i had two weeks to write six chapters. Sleep? What's that?
Last Saturday we did manage to escape to a compost workshop where we got really inspired by vermiculture.
I'm at a conference from tomorrow until Sunday, and another one next week.... but after that I'll take you all step by step through our great new vermiculture adventure!

28 Dec '06 2:35 am

Work's been really hectic, which is a wonderful thing to say when you are self employed! But now there's a lull, and I'm on my knees praying for a prosperous 2007 and also have time to think about the garden.
We have an extra incentive as we are using our lapa for a venue for an art course on January 20 .... just getting into the hottest time of year, so there's lots of work to do if we want at least part of the garden to look cool and welcoming.

28 Dec '06 6:44 pm

Hi, Lynne-

Looking at your pictures made me really jealous! Here, Clivias are strictly house plants, and I've never had one bloom for me! And we don't have anything like weaver birds - the one in your picture looks very pretty. Do they nest near houses or away out in the bush? Of course, we DO have hummingbirds, so I guess I shouldn't be too envious! The world would be boring if we all had the same birds and flowers, wouldn't it?

All the best!

-gordonf

A Swartland garden

south african gardens

global gardening

spring is sprung

Plumbago!!

Mysterious cypress

I'm back... for a moment

loving the work lull

Jealous in BC