False Bay garden in May

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

Out front the garden is coming on. The olive tree is an embraceable size. Our side of the boundary wall the succulents are a dense and complex tapestry dotted with scarlet and salmon pelargoniums.

Olive tree on Karoo Koppie

But Through the Garden Gate the garden is a mess. We are in the mucky throes of installing our rain water tank. One heap of soil he redistributed, that corner is back to normal. I attacked the second heap which is hogging the space between the table and Froggy Pond. A third is laid across the garden beds and pots. Another trowel full for you?? The tank waits with two bags of pebbles for checkerboard seams in Rose Courtyard. Down at the shady end near the lemon tree, chaos has a concrete platform almost ready for the tank. We plan to use that water in the washing machine - as our next step of droughtproofing our life and home.

Installing a rain water tank  

A WET mess! The clouds brought us 5 millimetres of rain.

5 millimetres of rain on Melianthus leaf

My new Canon camera is fun to use as we mostly agree on what exactly we are looking at.

Froggy Pond with dwarf papyrus

Halleria lucida carries its flowers hidden against the trunk, nectar for the sunbirds followed by berries for ... we'll see who comes. Osteospermum moniliferum out front is beginning to flower and the bees are there for Wildflower Wednesday.

Halleria and bietou daisy with bee

With autumn coolth and at least a little rain I am planting the gaps. Against our neighbour's garage wall and outside our livingroom Van Riebeeck's almond hedge is a protea, Brabejum stellatifolium (the leaves in whorls like stars) attracts insects then birds. In the drift of garden prunings beneath the birdfeeder Linum africanum (which will have yellow flowers similar to Oxalis) I have added succulent string of pearls Curio radicans to the wall planter outside the kitchen. One more tree waits.

Brabejum, Linum and Curio

In Porterville I used to say the garden year began with the March lilies after the summer baking. No sign of those leaves and flowers which I transplanted here? On False Bay in autumn Barleria, Hypoestes and Plectranthus quietly inform me the garden has awoken. But the clearer signal is Boophone (from the Greek phone meaning death as the bulb is poisonous) fan of leaves just outside the bay window, and the spotted leaves of Lachenalia rubida emerging from the top of the terrace wall. Dais cotonifolia is a thirsty tree leafing out happily. Potted lime has lots of fruit developing. Outside the front door (in life not as caged as the camera says) the Searsia crenata is coming up surrounded by a ball gown skirt of Plectranthus neochilus.

Lachenalia, Boophone, Dais, lime
Veltheimia
Searsia, maidenhair fern, Cape gooseberry, hoopoe

New this month are the blue spires of Plectranthus neochilus  along the pavement. Fading flowers on Rotheca, Hypoestes and Plectranthus. Iceberg and pelargoniums bloom on.

Rotheca, Pelargonium, Hypoestes
Plectranthus neochilus, Pelargonium, Iceberg rose
Leonotis,  Pelargonium, Plectranthus saccatus

Caught before the ear emerged and the paw waved hello, a headless Thomas was fast asleep.

A headless Thomas

Last Saturday 20th May was the most spectacular sunset we have had here, perhaps my most memorable ever!

Sunset on the 20th May

Our False Bay garden in May 2015

when I first planted the Karoo Koppie

May 2016 in our False Bay garden

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Pictures by Diana Studer

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