False Bay garden in March

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

I was sad when our last Polygala myrtifolia died. Wondered what the carpenter bees would do? Delighted to see they share my love of blue butterfly Rotheca myricoides flowers. They buzz pollinate, you can see the blurred wings and the pollen on her back. (Despite the stripes, she is not a Northern hemisphere bumble bee)

Female carpenter bee on Rotheca

Boophone disticha filled out its first globe of pink flowers, faded, and is fanning out rippled leaves. Last will be the tumbleweed seedhead. For Wildflower Wednesday with Gail at Clay and Limestone in Tennessee.

Boophone disticha

11th of March we got 46 mm of rain. I walked down to Froggy Pond between downpours, and the water almost, came lapping to meet me! (We have an overflow pipe to the 'bottom' of our garden) Even the kingfisher on his pillow stone was paddling. Last night I heard a frog calling.

March downpour at Froggy Pond

Despite Cape Town's more traditional gardeners whining about dead from not watering - I prune and he chips for me to mulch - about this much most weeks. From our Adirondacks the little stoep jacaranda Plectranthus saccatus is a haze of purple trumpets. For Through the Garden Gate with Sarah at Down by the Sea in Dorset. Past potted Icebergs in Rose Courtyard. We have managed the precision Swiss short back and sides for the hedge on our verge. Still needed to do the Mohican on the bietou bush Osteospermum moniliferum next to our driveway.

I hear digging ... the fibre optic team are hard at work! And with a machine to tunnel under most of our brick paving thankfully.

Pruning our tapestry hedge on the verge

Looking down Cornish Stripe through our washing pergola to the lemon tree, then looking back up to the garage.

Cornish Stripe and washing pergola

Along the Woodland Walk across the bottom of the garden, again from and then back to the lemon tree. Past Froggy Pond.

Woodland Walk and Froggy Pond

Spring Promise from the Adirondacks down to the pond. Summer Gold from the pond back to the patio.

Spring Promise
Summer Gold

Through the gate to our sunny front garden the Karoo Koppie. Looking to and from the olive tree planted outside the bay window, to shield me from the view of the diggers.

Karoo Koppie

Yellow flowers for Summer Gold. Yellow stars of Hypoxis hemerocallidea . Slightly chewed, but the tallish Euryops I moved from too much shade to enough sun has burst into flower. Simple yellow Gazania rigens enthusiastically covers ground, and paths. Token flower on my tiny Calpurnia aurea, which will later have yellow trusses similar to Wisteria.

Golden leaf spekboom Portulacaria afra.

Orange and red for the Karoo Koppie. Furry orange Leonotis leonurus. Tangerine shuttlecocks of Bulbine. Orange Californian poppy.

Euphorbia tirucalli Firesticks is bulking up at last. Tecomaria capensis is having a wonderful year with masses of flowers. Crimson Pelargonium. A last Inca lily Alstroemeria.

Yellow, orange and red flowers in March

White blue and purple for Cornish Stripe. Iceberg rose. Pure white Pelargonium. First flower on potted chincherinchee Ornithogalum thyrsoides. Fluffy tassel flowers of camphor bush Tarchonanthus camphoratus (I wanted the cotton boll fluff for bird's nests, but we have a male tree)

Pink and white for Spring Promise. Two pink pelargoniums. Shell pink with cerise Indigofera trusses. Strange and fragrant flowers of Sansevieria.

Strong pink Brazilian Oxalis. Softest sky blue Plumbago auriculata. Colour of happiness, kingfisher daisy, Felicia amelloides. Purple Plectranthus saccatus.

White, pink, blue and purple flowers in March

Four years ago we were in the noise and dust of renovation. Three years ago I was planting around Froggy Pond. A year ago we harvested our own bananas, not this year.

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