Trusting you enjoyed the festive season

and wishing you a healthy joyful new year.



Take a look what I found in the garden for xmas.


It is a member of the Dandelion family. 
The seeds are large, about the size of a tennis ball.

A little glitter added to the festive season, but the
natural glitter is even prettier.. 



I picked them the beginning of December and they are
still exactly the same.
That must be because I keep them out of a draft 
and nobody touches them.

The garden changes in time and season. My friend gave me

this tip. Take photos of the garden in the same way as taking

photos of kids growing up. It is not obvious from day to day,

but looking back on the photos there are differences and a

lot of memories.

This planting was started at least a year before the photo was

taken. It is easy to overlook the aloes on the photo but a closer

look will find them. Not visible are the small succulents in

between the stones.

It is summer and the color is shades of dry and lazy.

One of the two large Euphorbias in front rot about 3 years later.

I made the mistake to water it one very hot summer.

A few years later and the large impressive aloes catches the eye.

This photo was taken soon after the rain started showing clearly

how much the scene can change from the warm colors to the greens.

The aloes in bloom. All aloes do not bloom at the same time, but

most from the summer rainfall area, bloom in winter. That is about

90% of the species in South Africa. The scene is calm and pretty,

the mesembs and daisies are not in bloom yet.

Now the mesembs and daisies are in bloom too. The last blooms

on the racemes of the red hybrid (Aloe ferox X Aloe arborescens)

are opening.

It is a carnival of color and some visitors are having a ball.

These glittering little bugs are harmless to the flowers. They live

on nectar and pollen, assisting in the pollination of the plants.

The back door garden without a lawn.

That was a wise decision.

Way back we reached a point where keeping the lawn healthy

and green became too much of a task. At that point we received

notice of water restrictions - that was the last straw.

We dug up every piece of grass. The photo above was taken

after a few month's work has been done and we already started

planting aloes. June 2005.

This photo was taken in July 2009 from the left side if

compared to the first photo on this blog.

It might help if you look at the tree on the left of the two

photos I am standing next to the tree for the photo above.

The aloes - blooming or not - are much prettier than a

half-dead lawn and the bonus is that we save a lot of water

and work. We do not water at all, the rain is enough.

The scene on this photo is at the opposite side of the tree.

One of the portions we planted first. The aloes are from

left to right:- Aloe ferox x Aloe arborescens, Aloe mutabilis x

Aloe arborescens and Aloe cryptopoda

This planting is on the left side of the tree. A portion

of the rock-wall that I built is visible in the left back.

The aloes are Aloe petricola x Aloe globuligemma hybrids

which Rudi raised from seeds. The close-up below shows

more detail. Rudi planted a group of five plants which

shows off very well when blooming together.

Aloe petricola has an upright raceme and the raceme of

Aloe globuligemma is horizontal. The hybrid plants seems

to be somewhat confused which pattern to follow, but

I am quite happy with that, it gives an interesting effect.

The hybrid seems to come in two colors. Dark orange

opening to yellow and red opening to a creamy white,

both with black stamens. The green style is easier

to spot on the photos.

Aloe speciosa the aloe that turns it's head.

The size of the raceme is 43 cm long and 27 cm around.
That is not remarkable for this species but it is very pretty on
a young plant with a stem that is not over a meter high.

Photo above: The aloe in the foreground is Aloe gerstnerii.
Aloe speciosa starts off growing upright like any other aloe,
but it soon turns the rosette sideways facing north.

Aloe speciosa blooming in the Karoo. This aloe is a tree aloe,

these plants would roughly measure between 3 and

5 meter in hight. The record is 6 meter.

There is something nice and not so nice in all seasons.

Our winters are wet, but mild with brightly colored

wild flowers.

Welcome! new visitors to our blog. We are at home

in the south western province of South Africa.

Winter is in the middle of the year. Aloes recover

their full splendor very quickly once the rain starts.

This is Aloe rubroviolaceae (Yemen) a few weeks ago.


The brick is there to give an idea of the size.
Photo above was taken in March 2009
Photo below was taken in June 2009.

What a difference the rain makes!

Why not water the aloes year round? We have water

restrictions but that is not the main reason - aloes

must have their natural dry cycle. Aloes that are

watered and grow in shade tend to become soft.

Insects, snails, fungus and bacteria will quickly find

a spot to break the skin and damage - if not kill

- the plant. The leaves grow long and sloppy and

the flower stalk grows further apart which does

not show off so well. Note in the background.

The flower buds of Aloe sabaea.
Another gem from Yemen. I will show it another time.

This nest of the malachite sunbird Nectarinia famosa

can be right in your face and it will still be invisible.

We have two sunbirds on a regular basis in our garden

in the Western Cape. The malachite sunbird with the

male a glittering green all over and the smaller sunbird

Nectarinia violacea (also refered to as Anthobaphes

violacea) where the male has a glittering red/orange

breast. The females of both are little brown jobs.

They love the nectar of the Aloe sp. and also the

Cotyledon sp. I am not an expert in birds feel free

to correct me if I am wrong.

The nest was exactly the height of my face right above

the path. I do not know if the they hatched any chicks

but the sunbirds must have spent a lot of time

building the nest without us noticing them.

It is a pity that I do not have a camera with a zoom.

The birds will thinknothing of sitting right next to us

when we are in the garden, but we must not have

anything in our hands. I tried walking with the camera.

Fine, they got used to it, but the moment I lift it in

their direction, they dash away.

There are more nests in the garden. The juveniles

resemble the females I guess we might have seen

some without realizing they are "our" birds.

All birds are welcome in the garden and we see

to it that they get some treats and water,

but we are not into birding as such.

--------------- I had to add this September 2009.

I found this little female malachite sunbird nesting

on the other corner of the house.

The height of the nest above the ground is

obvious by the window in the background -

the white is the window pane, not the sky,

with the redish window sill at the bottom.

The nest is slightly larger than a man's fist.

Now that I know about the nest I make a

small detour around the tree, where I would

normally pass directly against that branch.

It obviously did not bother the birds in building

the nest, but I will do my share.

Like most hobbies there is just as much fun in the getting as in the having. We planted small portions of our hobby garden at a time, as we got the aloes. We enjoy it as we have the memories how and when we got them. Some planning and designing went into it, but not anything intelligent e.g. by region, climate or species.

My
next project is to create a garden under the Ceratonia siliqua
tree. Half belongs to Rudi (neatly divided like the rest of the garden). I
have no idea what his half would look like, my half is for my smaller aloes and
Gasteria. Gasteria and the small aloes usually grow in the shade of rocks or
bushes and this shady space will suite them well.

Giving some idea of the size of the tree. The space beneath

it is a circle about ten metres wide.

The outside branches of the tree bend down to the ground

forming a secluded area around the tree, but these branches

had to be removed as the aloes would want some direct sun.

The area around the tree was overgrown by trifasciata

which we cleared and replanted elsewhere. The leaves of the

Sansevieria sp. grew dense and long in the shade supporting

each other. Having removed some plants the rest to toppled

over but all will go.

Some nice logs to use for decoration. Watch this space !