September and our False Bay garden

  

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

 in Cape Town, South Africa

 

We have had good / heavy rain and the garden is full of happy flowers. Mandela's Gold Strelitzia. Cotyledon orbiculata hangs it flowers down but the face is pretty. Aloe maculata. Beetle covered in pollen on Californian poppy.

 

Orange garden flowers for September

The nasturtiums are climbing in the garden gate, but so covered in flowers from soft yellow to rich russet, that I am unwilling to cut them back.

 

Nasturtiums

Pillow stone in a pond well filled with rain. Purple and white Babiana. I cleared Coleus neochilus from the feet of the lemon tree. Pretty purple flowers for my blue and white - I planted the cuttings along the washing pergola. Looking back at September for Through the Garden Gate Down by the Sea in Dorset with Sarah

 

September flowers in purple

Then soft colours. Knowltonia with syrphid fly pollinating. Soft blue forget me not a reminder of my middlest sister. Dusky pink Veltheimia. Always pelargoniums - this is capitatum.

 

September flowers in soft colours

Softer still in white. Diospyros whyteana furled back bells hang down. Fluffy buchu Agathosma collina. Coleonema album. White daisy Osteospermum fruticosum grows near the lemon. Dietes responding to rain.

 

White flowers in September

Zoe is very fond of her purple castle, but she emerged for the sun as I clicked. Thomas says his bed is two feet too short.

 

Zoe and Thomas

We have been getting the garden ready. Pruning mission. Tapestry hedge. First I cut back arms and legs and made space for sapling Maurocenia frangula. Then he cut back hard, so we can, just, walk past again.

 

Tapestry hedge

That Heritage day wind and rain pushed Searsia crenata sideways opening up a sudden view of more houses. I would like to see the mountain ridge above the houses. Pruning pile hides a table and 3 chairs! But, as ever, there is always a slice for 'next time'.

 

Pruning Searsia crenata

I was intending to cut back for the lemon tree. And how happily it has responded. Next time I must tackle next door's hedge, which sadly tipped onto the lemon when they cut back their side.

 

Lemon tree

Brachylaena discolor grows at a furious rate. Bashing next door's garage wall. That pile is not so impressive, since the straight branches pack neatly.

 

Pruning Brachylaena discolor

August hikes will be next. In between making it easy to walk our garden paths again.

 

'A series of powerful tidal surges battered coastal areas in South Africa’s Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces over the weekend of 16 September' 

Or if you prefer to listen - Dr. Peter Johnston - Climate Scientist at UCT

 

Climate change first ‘went viral’ exactly 70 years ago - before I was born!

Scientists understood physics of climate change in the 1800s – thanks to a woman named Eunice Foote

 

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