August is pink fynbos time

This everlasting Syncarpha canescens (aka pienksewejaartjie) adds extraordinary colour with these pink papery petals. Last year, this was only one little plant, but this year it has a few more growing along side.
The Afrikaans name (‘little seven-years’) is a reference to the long-lasting nature of the flowers. Would love to propagate this plant.

Almost all the flowers contained this additional glory – a little blue beetle.

It’s easy to see why this pretty Polygala, possibly P. umbellata, is commonly known as butterfly bush. It is currently flowering profusely. We have a lot of it growing all over, mostly in a low ground-cover like form. The little petals close once picked, unfortunately, so this is a plant to admire outdoors in the wild.

We have spotted a few specimens of this tiny beauty, Disperis capensis aka Witch orchid or Moederkappie. I love it’s deep hood, the mysterious centrepiece, and the way the side ‘wings’ (actually tepals) swoop backwards to meet the top tepal.

A side view of the little bonnet – looks like a little spider has been busy here too! The

Plenty of this little daisy flowering all over. Ursinia dentate has dark red on the underside of these bright yellow petals, which open only when the sun is shining.

Fruit trees!

We’ve added a raised bed for fruit trees, which are a bit hard to distinguish here. From left: a fig, then a nice grapefruit tree, then 2 orange trees and 2 pomegranate trees. Hope the bliksem porcupine leaves them alone. Still to be planted are 4 lemon trees which are temporarily living in pots until we can build decent beds for them.

Delighted to see that the pomegranate trees are already showing little signs of new life – welcome to Ridge House, darling babies! Please thrive. They have a reputation for being hardy – a must-have characteristic for life here.

The milkwood trees are surviving well enough, given the rather extreme weather occasionally thrown at them throughout this winter. One or two branches have broken off, but they are producing new leaves and plenty of green berries.

The ground around the milkwoods is developing a nice green covering, mostly self-seeded plants. Giving a good show here is thorny yellow Disseldoring, Berkheya coriacea. We have planted some aloes which are doing well too – with A. maculata producing beautiful orange inflorescences.

July 21: icy, fynbos and compost

The veld is bursting with flowers after our magnificent rains. Here is a typical combination of Pinky bos (Acmadenia alternifolia) in the top right, Indigofera hamulosa (middle right) and Erica arenaria (bottom). Pinky bos is a member of the buchu family and the leaves have a delicious citrus-y scent when gently crushed. Although pinky bos grows widely around here, it’s official status is endangered; while the pretty erica is officially threatened.

Ping still joins us on short walks, but only when she feels like it; she’s holding on to the famed cat independence. She semi-hides in the little besem riet and then fake-ambushes the dogs as they stroll past. It’s a lovely game, and we all feel a little happier after one of these rambles.

icy nights

Night time is bitterly cold, and we’re really grateful for abundant firewood and a big fireplace. Here ms Ping cuddles up to old Fiver to enjoy both the warm fire and retriever.

Snow on the Langeberg

The Langeberg in the distance were coated in snow last week – although it is not too easy to see here. The farmer’s fields are beautifully green for these weeks of winter; the renosterveld in the middle remains dun-coloured. Protea obtusifolia are also flowering abundantly; red, white and occasionally pink blooms glow in the wintery sun. Bees adore the nectar of these proteas – imagine how delicious the honey would be?

Using our own compost

We have been turning our kitchen scraps into compost in these large wheelie bins. R is filtering out the rougher stuff – mostly avo pips that have not yet completely broken down. We plan to use the wired circle behind the wheelbarrow to further decompose the rougher compost, and also to add our wood ash and rooikrans chippings. (Note to self: the rooikrans babies in the background need to be removed asap!)

Using the compost in the upgraded veggie bed. Ping loves gardening with us – also fascinated by the grubs we found in the compost. But I keep her out of the veg green house – sorry Ping, this beautiful bed is not for your convenience!

Milkwood seeds

Harvesting white milkwood (Sideroxylon inerme) seeds – it’s a sticky business! The latex from the pulp around the seed is quite a mission to remove. But then again, not much that’s really worthwhile is all easy, right? The seed within the pulpy mess in smooth, brown and a bit nut-like, almost like a unpopped popcorn kernel.

Milkwood trees are a protected species in South Africa, with several trees enjoying heritage status. For example, the Treaty Tree is a 500-year-old white milkwood tree in Woodstock, Cape Town.

‘Peace was made under the tree on 10 January 1806 after the Battle of Blaauwberg, thereby starting the second British occupation of the Cape and leading to the permanent establishment of the Cape Colony as a British possession. Until 1834 slaves were sold and convicts hanged under it.

Prior to the arrival of the Dutch, the tree was known to have been a feature of the local landscape.’

(thanks Wikipedia).

These are the precious seed. Knowing that these trees can live for many hundreds of years is a really satisfying thought. I collected these seeds from a small tree down at river camp. The trees seem to thrive in this area, so I am hoping they’ll germinate, and then thrive into actual proper trees.

Kalk Bay nostalgia

Finally, I had to include a picture of Kalk Bay – my old ‘hood. Used to have swimming classes in that pool back in the day. And in the centre of the picture is the legendary Brass Bell, the setting for many good times. I am so grateful that I got to be a teenager here back in the 70’s long before it was cool.

Milkwoods & rainy May

We were lucky enough to get Glen and his team of strong young men involved in a massive task – digging holes into this limestone rock slab to install 4 large white milkwoods (Sideroxylon inerme) in our front ‘garden’. The trees are 11 years old already – wishing for many more happy years of growth.

They’re definitely not the fastest growing trees, but their other qualities are mighty fine: fire-resistant, endemic and their berries are loved by birds. The species is commonly found in dune forests, almost always in coastal woodlands and also in littoral forests (forests along the sea shore).

We started digging the holes with a jack hammer but the rock easily won – the jack hammer was just not strong enough to make much of a dent. We resorted to angle grinding and levers and the muscles of these 3 men. We used gabions filled with rock to create a good foundation for the root ball.

We hope these beautiful endemic trees grow well on this site. Viva, milkwoods, viva!

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May blessed us all with such wonderful rain – just after the trees were in (good timing!). We had about 120mls – more than double May 2020’s rain. The veld has responded magnificently (will show in my next post).

The coast line at the Duiwenhoks mouth was littered with storm debris – and some stunning driftwood pieces. What a journey these huge tree trunks must have had – tumbling down rivers and into the wild sea!

It’s cold enough for some unlikely snuggling – Luka and Ping seem perfectly at ease here.

Late afternoon winter sunshine – so golden! Heading home after a few days away is always such a delight – and a reminder of the beauty of this semi-wild place.

Fynbos flourish

This past month of frequent soft rain has refreshed the veld quite dramatically. With longer days of sunlight, and warmer temperatures (generally), there’s loads going on. We’ve had 82 mls of rain so far in August.

I had to pick this little beauty and hold it out of the fierce wind to get a chance of a still image. In the vase on my kitchen window sill, it opens and shuts with the sunlight outside.

Fiercely yellow and low growing plant coming up in the water tank overflow area

Fiver struggles to get up. Seems his back legs are not working so well anymore. Eish man! What a lovely dog he is. Always keeping an eye on me, wherever I am, he must be there too.

I love the leaves of this beautiful ‘pop-roos’. Luka checks on me too.

Fynbos dog walk August 2020

A walk with the dogs along the old road. Fiver is showing the rock face, It’s miraculous that anything can grow – whenever we start digging a hole, to plant a tree or set a post, we hit this limestone shelf.

Almost a year now in Ridge House. Think winter is my favourite time. Icy cold nights that very often warm up into lovely days. A real absence of wind is a noticeable feature that makes us all happy.

Luka also loves the fynbos at this time of year.

We have a few specimens of this beautiful erica growing on the old road. The sheen of the florets are glorious

I think this is Babiana ambigua. They are flowering all along the firebreak.

Veld is green after some rain.

Grateful for piles of dry rooikrantz to burn, making a cosy home. What a lovely fireplace, thanks to the Spaniards for their lovely Rocal product.