September in our False Bay garden

by Diana Studer
- gardening for biodiversity
in Cape Town, South Africa

Thomas much appreciates fully glazed doors, where he can gaze in fascination at a pair of sparrows twittering up on the trellis. He doesn't try to walk thru the door (only once, but that was enough for me!) I've been trying not to see those two plants awaiting good homes. Pavetta has finally been planted in the third tiny raised bed at the bottom of the garden.

Thomas
Thomas

For Gail at Clay and Limestone with her pollinators and Wildflower Wednesday - a female carpenter bee on our Septemberbossie.

Female carpenter bee on Septemberbossie
Female carpenter bee on Septemberbossie

Red trumpets on Burchellia bubalina for the nectaring sunbirds. Lipstick pink Pelargonium. A pink Cymbidium from my sister's share of mother's orchids. Coral pink ivy pelargonium has variegated leaves for the rest of the year. Flaming red pelargonium sparkles on the Karoo Koppie. Delicately embellished scented pink pelargonium. Shocking pink Oxalis came in a pot with the garden, and bloom steadily. Downturned bells of Dombeya.

Red and pink flowers
Red and pink flowers

Yellow climbing daisy Senecio adds sunshine to Thomas' view thru the kitchen door. White pelargonium from my mother gifted to our 'new' Porterville garden. Yellow Bulbine borders Froggy Pond. Euphorbia mauritanica bulking up into LARGE bushes on the Karoo Koppie - the flowers in lime gold, then the seeds tendril out, and the flowers fade to bronze and terracotta (this is a plant I like!) This year's only Cymbidium in my garden muted apricot and nameless. Californian poppies self seed. Arum lilies colonising any 'available' space - we were here first! Tangerine Bulbine.

Yellow and white flowers
Yellow and white flowers

Potted Babiana. Septemberbossie. The colour of happiness is kingfisher daisy, blue Felicia. Scabiosa. Delicious honey wafts from Buddleja in a gentle mauve that sings with the silver fountains of Dusty Miller leaves. Lavender star Grewia. Oxford and Cambridge (Clerondendron now Rotheca) Gilia from California (I wonder if that was a rogue seed with the orange poppies?) Succulent pelargonium hazed with tall flowers. Forget me nots from the previous gardener. Spike of Lachenalia. Heartsease is an inherited collar to the potted roses.

Blue and purple flowers
Blue and purple flowers

My heart lifts each time we come home. The public part of our garden, which I planted from scratch, is a river of blue Plectranthus neochilus beneath the tapestry hedge. Olive tree has almost reached the top of the pillars. Inside the palisade fence the Karoo Koppie brings a changing display of orange and red 'flames'.

Verge and Karoo Koppie
Verge and Karoo Koppie

I wanted the gate to be garnet or cherry red, but it has faded to the maroon of our local high school's uniform - ick. Which perfectly matches the Melianthus flowers and the rust finish of our Garden Bleu Inspire - not ick after all. For Through the Garden Gate at Down by the Sea with Sarah.

Melianthus
Melianthus

Our house is freestanding but their garage wall is our boundary wall, and so on down the road. From the livingroom we look either to the Karoo Koppie, passing traffic, and mountain. Or at that tall blank wall where we planted Brachylaena coastal silver leaf - which has reached the stepped corner of the gable, as I planned.

Brachylaena
Brachylaena

We miss the Porterville view from the verandah across Ungardening Pond to the first Elephant's Eye Mountain. Halleria and Grewia are steadily blocking the view to the next kitchen, and the birds appreciate nectar, berries and water.

from the Adirondacks in the 'conservatory'
from the Adirondacks in the 'conservatory'

But when I sit in the corner at the table on the stone circle I look across Froggy Pond to our lemon tree and the neighbour's hedge, or across Summer Gold and Spring Promise to the mountain. Not another house in sight!

View from the stone circle
View from the stone circle

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Pictures by Diana Studer
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Comments

  1. I love the photos of your garden, Diana. Beautiful. xo Laura

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  2. Happy Wildflower Wednesday! The spring color and vibrancy continues for you--hurrah! You've created a stunning garden, Diana. The brick paths are gorgeous surrounded with your wonderful plant collection.

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  3. Cats must be the nosiest creatures on earth, mind you, plenty to satisfy Thomas and his curiosity in your False Bay garden.

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  4. Thomas looks so content. Looks like you have a massive selection of flowers, all pretty. That gate has to be one of a kind...Love It !

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    1. I enjoy the feeling of an outer, and a secret inner garden.

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  5. I think I'd find myself more at home in your garden, Diana, where many of the plants are familiar, than I would in any garden in Oregon - or Arizona - just one state away. Your views are wonderful and I'm glad to see that Thomas also has a view. My cat Pipig also loves staring out the window - she'd like it even better if I'd let her roam outside but I'm too afraid she'd run afoul of a coyote or a car to allow her out on her own.

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    1. Thomas knows precisely the sound of the gate, opening in the morning and last call as evening falls.

      I recently found a horrifyingly detailed map of the mediterranean areas, including a new one to me in Central Asia - with a WIDE range of heat or frost or varied rainfall.
      http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/DrySummerClimates
      but I can see from the names in the Western Cape that the categories make good sense.

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  6. A beautiful spring with all the bright flowers in the garden. Nice view for both you and Thomas.

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  7. You sure have lots of colorful blooms! Thank you for your comment about my butterfly and bee photo on my last post.

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  8. The garden looks so so lovely, Diana. I also like the idea of the public and the private.
    Amalia
    xo

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    1. We can also adjust our privacy, a Thomas gap, a door open wide for the gardener, or both doors - fling wide the gates.

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  9. I enjoyed the tour around your garden, everything looks very organised, colourful and green. My goal is also to have greenery all around the garden, with no neighbourhood houses in sight. It looks as if you are sheltered from wind there too? I love the California Poppies and all of the others too...I couldn't choose a favourite!

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    1. yes - chosen because the garden isn't an embattled windswept space.

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  10. My cat enjoys sitting on the windowsill where he gets a nice view of the bird feeder. I know he wishes he was out there to chase them! Your garden is looking so pretty, and so many beautiful flowers!

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  11. Your garden has grown so lush! It seems only yesterday you were newly moved to the new house and your garden existed primarily in your dreams. Now see how everything has matured! The view across the stone circle is wonderful.

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    1. Thank you :~)
      I do appreciate the established and borrowed scenery of shrubs and trees. The inherited poppies I see thru the window. Almost, two years.

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  12. After you mentioned that you had only been in your current home just coming up to two years, I looked back at when you moved in. I have always thought your garden was lovely but it is amazing what you have created in such a short space of time. It looks so different and beautiful. Sarah x

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    1. In that endless time as we waited to sell the Porterville house, we planned this garden and house. Good wide paths and shrubs and trees in as soon as we made a space. Then it all comes together kindly.

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  13. Thomas definitely has a wonderful view :) Somehow I had not realized that your garden and mine were started at the same time; how have you accomplished sooo much?! Your mention of succulent pelargonium is intriguing; I don't think I've run onto that! BTW, I've just planted Freesia alba - my first, and as I recall, inspired by seeing them on your blog some time ago!

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    1. Only the front and some beds were started from bare earth. I cheated.

      A few of the unusual succulent pelargoniums
      http://www.gardendesign.com/plants/pelargoniums.html

      My freesias are still lurking in rows of pots.

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    2. Have just saved the California supplier listed in that link ;-) So far I've been unable to carry the "normal" pelargoniums through summer here; if I can find a way, I'd love to try some of these...

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  14. Is that beautiful blue flower from the Asteraceae family the Felicia? It looks very much like a blue fall-blooming aster that is flowering in my garden right now. -Jean

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    1. Felicia is a perfect sunkissed blue.
      Your asters have more flowers, more colour.
      We only get that (fleeting) impact from succulent vygie bushes.

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