False Bay garden in April

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

Fleeting pleasures from gold sprinkled scarlet Nerine sarniensis. Come Through the Garden Gate with Sarah in Dorset, for my annual garden review. I have before pictures from 2015. Changes for the first year in 2016. Then this year.

Nerine sarniensis

Between the kitchen and the garage is the East Patio. First we added comfortable steps. Needed to prevent people using steep drops - with square pots. Also window boxes filled with spekboom Portulacaria afra cuttings. Blocking a strategic gap above the boundary wall - with a trellis and optimistic creepers. Double path under the washing pergola. East Patio has four green walls, especially the Rotheca shrub at the kitchen door.

East Patio

Turn down to Cornish Stripe. In autumn my blue (and purple), with white theme is at its best.

Cornish Stripe to lemon tree

White Cyperus albo-striatus leaves, and white Pelargonium and Hypoestes. Purples are Hypoestes, Pelargonium, Barleria April violets and lavender. True blue from Rotheca and Felicia. Dark leaves of Diospyros whyteana and tuberous Begonia.

Blue and white April flowers

Out front in the sun Karoo Koppie wants oranges and reds. Plants have grown in so well, I need to open up space. Red Pelargonium would be happy to fill the whole space.

Karoo Koppie

Down Summer Gold with yellows, and Spring Promise pink and white with grey leaves. We had to shoehorn in a belated rain tank. Yellow Gazania border looks tired in the photo, but blooms in life.

Summer Gold and Spring Promise

Across the shady bottom of the garden, a Woodland Walk and Froggy Pond. Again a second rain tank. That winding path needs revitalising, while the raised planters explode on all sides.

Froggy Pond and Woodland Walk

Gardening this year has been the tapestry hedge on the verge. The offended cut edge towards our neighbour has greened over nicely with a few flowers. Now we have driven the hedge back to where it should be, if two Osteospermum moniliferum are kept gently pruned, I will get yellow daisies. Metalasia fades from cream to jaded grey. Halleria lucida in the centre has its first few flowers.

Our verge before and after fibre optics digging

Have spent the last few days with iNaturalist international Bio-Blitz. Cape Town is targeting four thousand wild species (4,145 achieved!) across fungi, plants, and animals - including sound clips of frogs and antelope, any evidence of life - bones, feathers, webs, burrows, tracks. Up the mountains with birds, down to the sea with scuba divers. Mousebirds and bulbul are perched on a dead branch at the top of our carob tree. Zöe is an alert office cat. While some people are running up mountains dodging showers, sensible people like Thomas are tucked up in the warm!

Garden birds and cats

Oranges of Tecomaria and Leonotis, muted to Hibiscus and Euphorbia tirucalli Firesticks. Clear yellow in Hypoxis, two Euryops and a Gazania. Cape gooseberry has small flowers in lemon and burgundy. Fresh pink on a tiny wild hibiscus from Knysna. And two pelargoniums. Halleria lucida is festooned with flowers and a carpet of fallen blooms - many bees and sunbirds. Mandela's Gold Strelitzia regina I have propped up as it has lost its bearings.

April flowers in our garden

For Wildflower Wednesday with Gail at Clay and Limestone in Tennessee (except exotic Hibiscus and Peruvian gooseberry)

I'm late for the April memes - we have been battling to get online for over a week!

I invite you to join us at Elephant's Eye on False Bay. Please subscribe as you prefer

via Feedly,

or Bloglovin,

Email with Feedburner,

or Facebook 

Pictures by Diana and Jürg Studer

of Elephant's Eye on False Bay

Teal blue text is my links.

To read comments if you are in email or a Reader,

first click thru to the blog)

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.