GREEN GREEN II

The Christy Minstrels sang:

Green, green, it’s green they say

On the far side of the hill

Green, green, I’m goin’ away

To where the grass is greener still

I have spent several weeks of this year looking at the far side of the hill, catching up with family in Norway, where the green hills, trees and grass are such a striking contrast to the more sombre colours we are used to. Here is a Norwegian house we passed on one of our trips in that country:

Then there was this amazing crop of courgettes picked in a UK garden:

Once home in South Africa, I appreciate the green bark of fever trees (Vachellia xanthophloea) with their characteristic, almost luminous, lime green to greenish-yellow bark. While these trees are familiar to me from my youth spent in the Lowveld region, they have become popular trees to plant in public gardens and parking lots all over the country. Rudyard Kipling has one of his characters in The Elephant’s Child, tell the Elephant’s Child where he must go in order to find out what the Crocodile eats for dinner as: Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’

It is good to return after a two-week sojourn in the Western Cape to see the aloes in our garden growing well, their spiky leaves swelling with maturity:

Even though the String of Pearls succulent (Curio rowleyanus) – a gift from a friend – is relatively drought tolerant, it is a relief to note that it is thriving despite my neglect:

An even greater surprise – and relief – is to find that over 65mm rain fell during our absence. There were still droplets on the nasturtium leaves:

BACK TO YELLOW

I posted a series of cheerful yellow pictures not that long ago. Today I am in a cheerful place where the cloudless sky shows a variety of shades of blue, the sun highlights the greens and yellows in my daughter’s garden and I can hear my grandchildren playing happily in the background. There is so much to be cheerful about. I thought then of wandering down the cheerful yellow road again. This time I am going to start with a yellow metal stool which my late father made many years ago. We have four of these sturdy stools in our garden – each painted a different colour. They are a lasting memory of my father and this one has proved to be a useful perch for the Common Fiscal we call Meneer while it eats a tiny block of cheese.

Last time I showed a gazania that had been chomped by something nysterious. Now you can see the new flowers in their full glory.

You might be surprised to see this plastic horse in this collection. This horse has been used by my three children and four grandchildren. It has been languishing in the outside storeroom for some time now – unloved and almost forgotten. Now it has found new joy and renewed love with the grandson of a close friend.

The next picture is a fine example of the need to read labels carefully and to absorb what one reads! One of my brothers was determined to bring me some Guinness when he visited recently as I have not found any for sale around here for a long time. He had quite a search too and was pleased to find this pack of Guinness brewed in Nigeria of all unexpected places. We each poured a glass … and were taken aback by the unexpected flavour.  We checked the label more carefully … it is stout! I will refrain from providing you with the tasting notes – especially as we were expecting something quite different!

I will end off with two flowers. The first are nasturtiums that are putting on a really brave show considering the benign neglect they have suffered over a number of weeks.

The last is the indigenous canary creeper which is beginning to show itself around our home garden.

ENCOURAGING SPRING

Days are gradually lengthening; the temperatures swing from summery warm to wintry cold; the sky is beautifully blue … the birds know that spring is in the offing and so do the animals in the wild. I was very pleased to note that there had been some rain during our absence abroad and was delighted by these flowers ready to greet me:

These are indigenous daisies that were on their last legs during the summer. I had sadly imagined that I would have to pull up the bush and replace it with something else. Instead, it is flowering better than ever!

This ginger bush in the back garden is also flowering prolifically.

The nasturtiums at the front steps have taken on a new lease of life too.

Tiny blossoms of the indigenous pink forest hibiscus have opened in the shady part of the garden.

More beautiful daisies are showing better signs of life that they have for years!

Taking all this natural encouragement on board – together with the enthusiasm garnered from seeing so many lovely gardens in both Norway and the UK – I made the most of a trip to Port Elizabeth yesterday and am determined to do my bit to encourage spring to make a move on:

FILLED WITH CHEER

On this beautifully bright, sunny day let me share some of the things which bring me cheer:

A lingering bright nasturtium.

Sunshine highlighting a leaf.

The excitement of seeing a lion drinking early in the morning.

Scarlet blooms of an Erythrina lysistemon.

Seeing an African Spoonbill.

A view of the Winterberg.

GREEN LEAVES

Today has been darkly overcast and dull with a very light shower clearing the air a short while ago. Having already looked at various hues of green on St. Patrick’s Day (interestingly the dead snake elicited the most responses!), as I walked around my garden this afternoon I was reminded of the various shapes of leaves we get in nature. First up is the Spekboom (Portulacaria afra) which grows outside the side door leading to our swimming pool. The colour of the stalkless, succulent leaves tend to vary from bright green to pale grey. I planted this small tree as a broken off twig several years ago and it has already reached a height of nearly 4m. I prune it periodically and plant the cuttings elsewhere in the garden.

This Aloe ferox growing near our front door is well over thirty years old – well suited to this dry part of the Eastern Cape. Its beautiful flowers will appear sometime in May and continue through to the end of August. These broad leaves are showings signs of age yet still look attractive to me.

This Ziziphus mucronata, commonly known as buffalo thorn or blinkblaar-wag-‘n-bietjie, seeded itself outside our lounge window. I enjoy the glossy green leaves, although remain wary of the thorns – one hooked and the other straight – that are difficult to extract oneself from. Despite the thorns, trees growing in the wild are browsed by both game and stock animals.

Gardens are all the sadder, I think, without nasturtiums growing somewhere. Not only do they produce blooms in a variety of colours, but their blossoms, leaves and immature green seed pods are edible.

According to the Agricultural Research Council “Sword fern is a category 1b declared invader in Limpopo, Mupumalanga, Kwazulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape, and a category 3 invader in Gauteng, Free State, North-West, and Northern Cape. It must be controlled or eradicated where possible, and may not be sold or distributed through commercial outlets.” Try as I might, I simply cannot get rid of these plants which grow faster than I can attack them!

Another exotic is the Cape gooseberry (Physalis edulis) which originates in South America. All the plants (the number of them wax or wane according to the weather) growing in my garden have seeded themselves – probably courtesy of the birds which adore the golden berries as much as I do. I generally leave them to grow wherever they please, unless they are really in the way.