While there is not much in the way of flowers in our wintry garden – and the temperature seems to drop by the day – there are a variety of interesting leaves. The first of these are the remnants of the Sword Ferns (Nephrolepsis exaltata), which I try to keep under control so that they do not overrun the garden. Here they are caught in the dappled afternoon light:
Next are the beautifully shaped leaves of the Delicious Monster (known in some quarters as the Swiss cheese plant), which outgrew its pot years ago and now has the freedom to expand in the shadiest part of the garden:
There are not many leaves left on the Frangipani (Plumeria) tree, as most of them have fallen off and lie wrinkled and brown on what should be a lawn beneath it:
Having looked at the exotic plants, let us turn to some of the many indigenous trees and shrubs. The first of these is the Ginger Bush (Tetradenia riparia), which is in bloom now while putting out a new lot of leaves, which is why they are still so small:
Almost leafless is the Blinkblaar-wag-‘n-bietjie (Ziziphus mucronata) growing near the front door:
The beautiful shape of the leaves of a Cussonia (Cabbage) tree is silhouetted when I sit in its shade:
Lastly, these are the rather thin-looking, slightly shrivelled leaves of the Spekboom (Portulacaria afra) that will flesh out once the rains come:
I really like the silhouetted picture. With its muted background it makes a lovely design
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Thank you very much, Derrick. It is one of my favourite trees and was grown from seed.
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Even better
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While flowers give us great pops of color it is the foliage that ground the garden and give us the rich forms and support the garden.
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What an excellent description of the role foliage plays in our gardens.
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There are always things to enjoy in nature. Sometimes we have to look a little more closely. The silhouette shot is lovely!
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I am pleased you like it: the Cussonia tree is getting a bit tall for me to photograph its leaves from the side or above 🙂
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There is a piece by William Byrd called ‘The Leaves be Green’. It is one of may favourite pieces and your lovely pictures brought it to mind.
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Thank you very much for suggesting William Bird: I have enjoyed listening to the music early this morning.
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What a fabulous job you did illuminating the varioús types of leaves.
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Your appreciation warms my heart, Laurie 🙂
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Lieflik, hoe groot is jou wag-‘n-bietjie?
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Hierdie een het self besluit om hier te groei 🙂 Hulle word nie baie groot in die Oos-Kaap nie en hierdie een is omtrent 2m hoog na vyf jaar.
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Hulle groei stadig, hier by ons in die Noord-Kaap is hulle ook nie hoog nie. By die rivier is hulle meneer van bome, hulle kry water en vog.
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Do you also leave the dead leaves on the ground, Anne, especially where they don’t threaten a lawn? I find that the small leaves dropped during early winter from our Cape Honeysuckles makes an excellent ground cover keeping the soil moist and the earthworms nice and fat for when the Robin-Chats and Thrushes come visiting. By the time the first summer rains arrive the leaves are almost all decomposed in any event without me needing to try and get to them with a rake or broom. The joys of gardening with nature.
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Leaving the leaves on the ground makes a lot of sense to me: only the ones that land in the pool are cleared away. I shudder at the sound of leaf blowers being used in neighbouring gardens – what a waste! Forests benefit from the mulch formed by fallen leaves and so do our gardens 🙂
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Every post featuring the abundant life in your garden prove how true that is!
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I am inspired to do a post on similar lines 🙂 The pictures are lovely.
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What an excellent idea – I look forward to that one!
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Very soon, Anne 🙂
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Lovely to feature leaves and I am always happy to hear about people leaving the leaves as a natural mulch. I feel the same way about leaf blowers as you do. I particularly enjoyed your photos of the cabbage tree and of what I usually call the buffalo thorn even though the Afrikaans name is most descriptive.
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Thank you. I couldn’t think of buffalo thorn at the time – a useful reminder 🙂
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