Our False Bay garden in September

By Diana Studer 

- gardening for biodiversity 

 in Cape Town, South Africa

Wall planter with Ceropegia has moved to a formal suit home on the East Patio.

East patio with wall planter and Ceropegia

Blue pot as a focal point replaces the lime tree.

Tall blue pot on the East Patio

Cornish Stripe at the washing pergola. Blue (and purple) and white is crisp and fresh. Inspired by my mother's stories of a childhood in Cornwall and my mug with wide blue and white 'Cornish stripes'. (I first thought willow pattern, vaguely eastern, deep red pergola reminds me of Japanese torii = bird abode!)

Newly planted at Cornish Stripe

Leaves are dark, Prunus nigra and tuberous begonia. Or light, Liriope, variegated Felicia and Plectranthus madagascariensis.

Adenandra, Felicia
Babiana, begonia

Instead of gRRRumbling when my wet washing lands in the sand, I'm planting fragrant either indigenous or herbs. Pelargoniums and lavender. Our edible garden - lemon, banana, olive, peach seedlings. Flowers for salad.

Lemon tree is slowly pruning to a good shape
(one last lemon to whack unwary gardeners)
On the kitchen windowsill a row of lemons
Yellow Clivia with slipper orchid

Skip the work in progress at Woodland Walk, to the fiddlewood which is turning orange ahead of the summer. When its leaves fall, I need to do some serious pruning. Yellow Clivia battled in Porterville, got devoured by snails. I was enjoying the first luscious flower when the wind snapped it off. Luckily I found it in time for the vase. Summer Gold and Spring Promise. Delighted that the indigenous Buddleja opened a gentle mauve and wafts thru the house Is there honey still for tea. Wild orchid from Porterville is blooming happy.

Lachenalia, Dombeya
wild orchid
Clivia, fiddlewood, Buddleja

As the Melianthus blooms I see that flower, the rusty Inspire, and the painted gate work together in the Rose Courtyard. Lime tree is sending out new branches and laden with gazillions of tiny fruit and happy bees.

Lime tree
Melianthus

The Ungardener had just one paving slab left over (nicely calculated!), sliced to fit and added as a more comfortable step up to the Karoo Koppie. In the Terraforce is a volunteer yellow daisy (renostergousblom) Arctotis acaulis  - also covered in happy bees and beetles.

Pregnant onion, Cotyledon, Euphorbia
volunteer yellow daisy renostergousblom

An ivory Californian poppy appeared amongst the bronzed orange my mother loved. The Flanders red poppies have one with a delicate white lacy edge to its petals. Wide flat terracotta pot I've planted with cuttings to echo the Karoo Koppie.

Californian poppy, Kalanchoe
Flanders poppy

Inspired by Beth at Plant Postings' Lessons Learned I have broken up the Planted Here list where even I got lost. Seven pages / tabs let me list what I planted when with a few before and after pictures. The joy of a blog being virtual is that I can fuel my OCD impulses and keep tweaking till it sits right. What is that plant? Tick. Where did I put this plant? Tick. The links are listed at the top of Planted Here and also distributed thru this post.

Wildflower Wednesday for Gail at Clay and Limestone. This September the foreign flowers are Prunus nigra, herbs, begonia, lemon and lime, Kalanchoe, fiddlewood and poppies.

End of Month View for Helen the Patient Gardener

We went to a talk by Jenny Cullinan of Ujubee on our wild bees.

Capensis endemic bees with our endemic plants and birds. The only animal able to clone itself (if they lose their queen).
Fire asparagus blooms 2 weeks!! after fire to feed the bees.
Propolis can withstand temperatures of 100C, and behind their propolis wall the bees survive.
Scout bees monitor flower buds and prepare a nursery to use those flowers.
Specialist bees harvest wax and resin (which plants use to protect themselves) for propolis.
A bee can sense thru her feet if she's too late and someone has already harvested the nectar from that flower.
Bees battle cold corners in the square hives we force them into. A natural round shape of wood or clay would suit them better.
Prompted to observe I see carpenter bees on the Septemberbossie, and on the lime flowers bees so tiny I almost can't see them.
Best plant for bees is perennial basil (or herbs like borage) or indigenous.
To avoid the neonic contamination find an organic nursery.
Jenny is hoping to find oil bees - with long front legs, who harvest oil, not nectar, from disas. 

(Any errors are mine) 

Across False Bay to the Hottentots Holland mountains in July

New header is a July walk on the promenade beyond our beach and looking across False Bay.

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