The back door garden without a lawn.

That was a wise decision.

Way back we reached a point where keeping the lawn healthy

and green became too much of a task. At that point we received

notice of water restrictions - that was the last straw.

We dug up every piece of grass. The photo above was taken

after a few month's work has been done and we already started

planting aloes. June 2005.

This photo was taken in July 2009 from the left side if

compared to the first photo on this blog.

It might help if you look at the tree on the left of the two

photos I am standing next to the tree for the photo above.

The aloes - blooming or not - are much prettier than a

half-dead lawn and the bonus is that we save a lot of water

and work. We do not water at all, the rain is enough.

The scene on this photo is at the opposite side of the tree.

One of the portions we planted first. The aloes are from

left to right:- Aloe ferox x Aloe arborescens, Aloe mutabilis x

Aloe arborescens and Aloe cryptopoda

This planting is on the left side of the tree. A portion

of the rock-wall that I built is visible in the left back.

The aloes are Aloe petricola x Aloe globuligemma hybrids

which Rudi raised from seeds. The close-up below shows

more detail. Rudi planted a group of five plants which

shows off very well when blooming together.

Aloe petricola has an upright raceme and the raceme of

Aloe globuligemma is horizontal. The hybrid plants seems

to be somewhat confused which pattern to follow, but

I am quite happy with that, it gives an interesting effect.

The hybrid seems to come in two colors. Dark orange

opening to yellow and red opening to a creamy white,

both with black stamens. The green style is easier

to spot on the photos.

Aloe speciosa the aloe that turns it's head.

The size of the raceme is 43 cm long and 27 cm around.
That is not remarkable for this species but it is very pretty on
a young plant with a stem that is not over a meter high.

Photo above: The aloe in the foreground is Aloe gerstnerii.
Aloe speciosa starts off growing upright like any other aloe,
but it soon turns the rosette sideways facing north.

Aloe speciosa blooming in the Karoo. This aloe is a tree aloe,

these plants would roughly measure between 3 and

5 meter in hight. The record is 6 meter.

There is something nice and not so nice in all seasons.

Our winters are wet, but mild with brightly colored

wild flowers.

Welcome! new visitors to our blog. We are at home

in the south western province of South Africa.

Winter is in the middle of the year. Aloes recover

their full splendor very quickly once the rain starts.

This is Aloe rubroviolaceae (Yemen) a few weeks ago.


The brick is there to give an idea of the size.
Photo above was taken in March 2009
Photo below was taken in June 2009.

What a difference the rain makes!

Why not water the aloes year round? We have water

restrictions but that is not the main reason - aloes

must have their natural dry cycle. Aloes that are

watered and grow in shade tend to become soft.

Insects, snails, fungus and bacteria will quickly find

a spot to break the skin and damage - if not kill

- the plant. The leaves grow long and sloppy and

the flower stalk grows further apart which does

not show off so well. Note in the background.

The flower buds of Aloe sabaea.
Another gem from Yemen. I will show it another time.

This nest of the malachite sunbird Nectarinia famosa

can be right in your face and it will still be invisible.

We have two sunbirds on a regular basis in our garden

in the Western Cape. The malachite sunbird with the

male a glittering green all over and the smaller sunbird

Nectarinia violacea (also refered to as Anthobaphes

violacea) where the male has a glittering red/orange

breast. The females of both are little brown jobs.

They love the nectar of the Aloe sp. and also the

Cotyledon sp. I am not an expert in birds feel free

to correct me if I am wrong.

The nest was exactly the height of my face right above

the path. I do not know if the they hatched any chicks

but the sunbirds must have spent a lot of time

building the nest without us noticing them.

It is a pity that I do not have a camera with a zoom.

The birds will thinknothing of sitting right next to us

when we are in the garden, but we must not have

anything in our hands. I tried walking with the camera.

Fine, they got used to it, but the moment I lift it in

their direction, they dash away.

There are more nests in the garden. The juveniles

resemble the females I guess we might have seen

some without realizing they are "our" birds.

All birds are welcome in the garden and we see

to it that they get some treats and water,

but we are not into birding as such.

--------------- I had to add this September 2009.

I found this little female malachite sunbird nesting

on the other corner of the house.

The height of the nest above the ground is

obvious by the window in the background -

the white is the window pane, not the sky,

with the redish window sill at the bottom.

The nest is slightly larger than a man's fist.

Now that I know about the nest I make a

small detour around the tree, where I would

normally pass directly against that branch.

It obviously did not bother the birds in building

the nest, but I will do my share.

Like most hobbies there is just as much fun in the getting as in the having. We planted small portions of our hobby garden at a time, as we got the aloes. We enjoy it as we have the memories how and when we got them. Some planning and designing went into it, but not anything intelligent e.g. by region, climate or species.

My
next project is to create a garden under the Ceratonia siliqua
tree. Half belongs to Rudi (neatly divided like the rest of the garden). I
have no idea what his half would look like, my half is for my smaller aloes and
Gasteria. Gasteria and the small aloes usually grow in the shade of rocks or
bushes and this shady space will suite them well.

Giving some idea of the size of the tree. The space beneath

it is a circle about ten metres wide.

The outside branches of the tree bend down to the ground

forming a secluded area around the tree, but these branches

had to be removed as the aloes would want some direct sun.

The area around the tree was overgrown by trifasciata

which we cleared and replanted elsewhere. The leaves of the

Sansevieria sp. grew dense and long in the shade supporting

each other. Having removed some plants the rest to toppled

over but all will go.

Some nice logs to use for decoration. Watch this space !

Snail damage in the garden.
You can not win, get used it..

This morning was a lovely cool morning, one of the last cold fronts over the western cape before the long hot summer. I stroled through the garden enjoying it for a few moments then my eyes caught this aloe. The snails were out late on this cool morning having a brunch before they hide for the day !

"People pay to have snail slime on their skin, I am getting this for free" - I told myself while squashing the snails between my fingers.

In case you do not know it seems the word is going around that snail slime is one of those "proven" remedies for a youthfull skin. I took many years off the age of the skin on my hands but it did not improve the beauty of my hands which were scratched and bitten by the sharp teeth of the aloes at the same time. It is not easy to get the snails out between the aloe leaves.

I feel like doing something to that neck !

Something slower than a quick squash between my fingers.

Unbelievable ...this juvenile snail could not have eaten all that much in one sitting, he must be the last one remaining after a party. Rot can set in where the skin is broken in aloes and other succulents. The hole, on the top right side of the photo above this one must be from the previous party, it dried out well so there is no danger of rot any more.

I believe these two snails are an endemic snail species. I do not know anything about the identity of snails, you are welcome to help me out there. We see them often along the western coast (South Africa). They climb on the wooden fence poles and sit in a bundle. It seems easy to kill them, but those on the poles is only the tip of the snail-mountain. I have not seen them sitting in bundles on poles where we live, 100 km inland. They are not as many as on the coast, but they do a lot of damage all the same.

Could this be the delicatessen snail which arrived here from France? I am not tempted to try, but if we would learn to enjoy eating escargot that would solve more than one problem.

Aloe arborescens in habitat.

This aloe has a very wide distribution from the eastern side of the Cape peninsula up through the eastern regions of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

These photos were taken in the Tradouw Pass of the Small Karoo.