16 June 2017

Got busy uploading all my posts so far. I was hoping to go ‘live’ from hereon – but life got in the way, today in the form of my neighbour who was out in the garden, as it was a lovely sunny, albeit a bit windy day and suggested she join me, knitting, keeping me company while I work in my garden. An irresistible offer! There isn’t all that much that needs doing in my garden – but there are always weeds, especially on my lawn-patch! I extended the little flowerbed – and promptly sowed more seeds. I cleared a path for the Nasturtiums, which seem to want to migrate towards her garden – the one’s on the far side are attempting to cross the path, and the one’s on this side are working on crossing the lawn. They are also already producing seeds, so there should be more coming in spring. The Alyssum have also produced and sown their own seeds already so there will be at least one more generation of flowers in my garden! It is so pleasant to work in the vicinity of Alyssum, they smell of honey! Weeding the lawn I re-discovered three of the dozen Gazanias I had planted to cover the gaping holes produced by past weeding. They are hardy survivors – exactly what I need to combat the weeds in that patch! They do need their flowers cut after bloom – so the bi-weekly weed-eater activity of the garden ‘service’ helps, rather than hurts them. But they’ve pretty much disappeared underneath that horrid Kikuyu grass, which the whole place is infested with. It’s a very hardy type of grass, considered indigenous; but instead of the ‘golf course like lawn’ it is marketed for – I have mostly just horrid long creeping stems everywhere. The also burrow deep underground thus bypassing any borders only to pop up in the middle of flower- or vegetable beds. Whilst the leaves are at least grass and a pretty green, the stems are an ugly yellow to brown as they dry out. Underneath the carpet of green are myriad hard sticks of dead stems crisscrossing everywhere! It looks ugly as if my lawn is infested with snakes! So I pull them out where I don’t end up with large brown gaps.

These are just so beautiful, I can never walk past without taking a photo!

All three bushes in bloom!

Here you can see the Nasturtium making  their escape

Colour-diverse Marigold

Aren't Gazania just beautifully colourful?

Kikuyu! All those ugly dried stems - urgh!

Anyway, I cleared space around the re-discovered Gazania and sprinkled some dark compost around the open patch. I think I’ll sow more Gazania in those rings. Anything to combat the resurgence of weeds.

Port Elizabeth has a unique skyline at sunset - there is a layer of pink just above the ocean in the East! The sun sets in the west, of course, but it throws this pink layer on the eastern skyline - I stop to admire it every time I catch it, it doesn't last too long just before it gets dark.

I have not yet managed to capture the colouring as seen through the eyes - on photo's it shows up orange, the eye sees pink.

I planned to write this blog in the evening but then the phone rang and I had a lovely long chat with a colleague … had to ring off as it was almost nine o’clock and I need to break this oversleeping habit.