False Bay garden in August

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

Come and walk thru our garden with me. The paved courtyard has beloved tiny sedge? greening the gaps - in summer we will add the bags of pebbles waiting patiently. At the corner near the first tank we have redone the path which is now wider and easier. At long last we moved the unwanted sun lounger on to TEARS (where we found Zoë). I can sit under the lemon tree and admire the garden up the double path beneath the Washing Pergola.

Paving slab paths

Time to go Through the Garden Gate  with Sarah Down by the Sea in Dorset. Her meme suits me nicely as we inherited the wall and gate dividing the garden in two. Out front is exposed to the wind and weather, with north facing sun all day. The red Lachenalia have faded and Californian poppies are invading. Turning away from the road, most of the garden is private, and green in need of constant pruning to keep the paths free.

Through the Garden Gate
Out, to the Karoo Koppie, then turning back in

I am flattered to have been asked, again, to open our garden to the garden clubs of Fish Hoek and Constantia! The camera always lies and I show the best side on the blog. The camera also points out that Euryops virgineus is nearly dead and must go. One Septemberbossie has survived and is full of flowers and carpenter bees. The partner pot I have planted lower, yellow Bulbine, dark-veined-leaf pelargonium and an ivy pelargonium.

August in our garden
Cornish Stripe, Woodland Walk, Summer Gold
Polygala myrtifolia

Vlei lily - delicate flowers with luminous white petals and fine purple markings. Yellow Bulbine echoes the lemon tree. Curly Boophone leaves. Shocking pink Pelargonium. And white dotted along the East and South sides of the garden. Lime, lemon and cream striped Albuca. Heart leaves on indigenous Hibiscus. Happiness blue Felicia. Barely blue Romulea tabularis bulb. Lime gold and Fire Sticks euphorbias. Scarlet Pelargonium.

August flowers

But I said maybe next year to the open gardens. We have a heap of soil where we should be able to sit by Froggy Pond. The Cyperus I have gratefully managed to grow to cover the outside plug, with its two different wings of Sansevieria - is now upstaged by all the rain pipes - below to link the two tanks, above to overflow into the pond. Pipes will be painted to blend with the house wall. The first tank needs trellises for indigenous jasmine and clematis, and both need some strategic planting.

Messy garden
The dump, the pipes, the tanks

The little black tank for the patio roof overflows, so we need a taller solution there. Also flexible roll up pipes for the pond overflows. Cape Town's dams will run dry in mid-February. Tenders are out for desalination.

Rain overflow

Crashing thru the cat door came one sodden Zoë. We followed the wet trail back to pond. Hunting birds and they won?

Dipped cat Zoë

I'm bemused by people who say - 'so sad. My garden is brown and dead.' I see a river of yellow Osteospermum moniliferum flowing down the slope that was on fire the day we moved in. The seedlings volunteer in our garden and I weed mindfully and moved two to the verge. This is our first year when the Bietou have been covered in flowers. They will be pruned back into place once the flowers and following berries are gone.

Osteospermum moniliferum

For Wildflower Wednesday a tiny bee pollinates Freesia alba. My truly wildflowers were at Silvermine.

Bee on Freesia alba

Another first here are the scandent scarlet flowers of the climbing aloe. Aloe ciliaris is renamed Aloiampelos ciliaris. (I'll never remember that!)

Aloiampelos ciliaris

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Pictures by Diana Studer

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Thanks for comments that add value. Maybe start a new thread of discussion? BTW your comment won't appear until I've read it. No Google account? Just use Anonymous, but do leave a link to your own blog. I would return the visit, if I could...

I welcome comments on posts from the last 2 months.

Danke für sinnvolle Kommentare. Die werden erst veröffentlicht nachdem ich sie gelesen habe. Es können auch Bemerkungen sein die in eine ganz andere Richtung gehen.