Gardening, as many of you know, is my best partime activity. But being able to garden in these very harsh conditions takes a lot of hard work and I am learning so much as I start to learn things about my environment! Water is critical and it's about balancing the water which we have from our borehole (we would be foolish to believe that it was never ending when the river is bone dry) and nuturing the plants.
So my big question : Is it thus right to create a lavish garden which looks spectacular or to try and maintain the veld and create a garden within that space?
We've decided to do a bit of both for now: watering to keep the veld alive for the natural inhabitants around but have spaces where we can become creative artists too. All watering happens once a week early in the morning or late evening when it's cooler. We continue to pray for rain.
So the first thing we do every day (sometimes three times a day) is put on suncreen and a hat! Suncreen is almost like our daily moisterizer as well as our body lotion! I can see we will become experts at the best brands as gardening here is harsh on our skin. 😎
We also never garden without industrial gloves and implements which are particularly hardy! We have learnt that by buying inexpensive equipment just doesnt last so we spend the money glady! Michael is never far from a pick or a chain saw!
One of the first gardening chores we did, was to decide where to plant the two Yellow wood trees which we had brought from Durban! Crazy I know but we loved the Yellow wood in our back garden at 28 Riverview Road so we thought that we should try and see if they would grow here! We choose a spot in front of our septic tank for the one (where we have already planted a Wit Karee which seemed to be doing exceptionally well). We will have to see how it does as it's very exposed and we've come to realise that all plants grow in clumps where they protect one another and grown stronger. Perhaps we should be learning more from nature about how to work well with one another. 😉
The other one we planted in a much more protected and sheltered spot just off our verandah. In fact, the Rock coalwood* we planted for Michael's 50th (the tallest one in the background) and its just taken off !
* Added link under Interesting Articles
You may also notice our pool pipes have become useful although not attractive😢! All our grey water comes through these pipes into our garden! We only use earthsap products or triple orange which work well with the environment. I havent come across any other enviromentally friendly products so open to any other suggestions.
I decided to get into a more creative mode and re-dug and re-sorted the little garden at our front door. Believe it or not but this tiny little project took at least three hours to complete and it was very very hot! But the dogs love to come and drink from the bowl and since the photo was taken, I have planted some geranium in the planters above the tap and am praying they will grow!
💓💓💓 Relaxing after a morning's work
We love creating spaces so one of them is in the river bed where we have set up a 'braai area'. We absolutely love it but it needs some tender loving care so we set out two evenings in a row to do some bush/road clearing. It is so special to see how a little bit of energy and hard work makes such a difference!
A glimpse of our Sunday morning breakfast after we had cleared the space! We'd be so happy to show you all when you visit
Michael chops wood with his chain saw from all the dead acacia trees. We reuse the bought wood packets and recently our 10kg dog food packets have also come in handy!
Another space we created is our 'sundowners' spot up on top of the mountain. We decided to take our very treasured braai up ( some of you may recognise it!) and leave it there. Praying the baboons don't think it's their new toy!
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| Nothing like a watermelon gin! |
We are now starting to plan our veggie garden but in the meantime we are getting delicious watermelon, melon and green pepper from Hein who lives and farms on the property. (Last night the buck got into his little patch and ate all his new green pepper and watermelon! The trials and tribulations of being a farmer)
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Bread from The Accidental Baker - our best kept secret thus far! Definately worth a stop if youre ever around on a Saturday morning
Wild jasmine all in the veld 💓
Learn every day from the people around you - we are certainly learning so much
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